In his first two campaign stops since facing federal charges, Donald J. Trump will begin publicly prosecuting the prosecutors who are prosecuting him on Saturday.
The two speeches of Mr. Trump at the Republican state conventions in Georgia and North Carolina were planned before he was indicted on Thursday. The appearances on Saturday afternoon and evening will allow the former president to rally support in front of a crowd of activists and elected officials as the nation’s most popular Republican and the favorite for the 2024 presidential nomination.
The accusation of Mr. Trump, the details of which were revealed by the Justice Department on Friday, has dominated the political landscape, forcing many of his rivals into the sometimes uncomfortable position of defending the politician they trail in the polls. In the unsealed indictment, federal prosecutors revealed for the first time how Mr Trump had come into possession of some of the country’s most sensitive secrets by showing them to visitors.
“This indictment will be another political Rorschach test, because what you see depends on where you stand,” said David Urban, a former adviser to Mr. Trump in his 2016 campaign.
According to the indictment, the documents kept by Mr. Trump included plans to retaliate against a foreign attack and details of US nuclear programs. One image showed boxes stacked next to a toilet in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom.
“Secret,” he boasted in a taped conversation, according to the indictment. “This is classified information. Look, look at this.”
Several people close to Mr. Trump and his team privately acknowledged that the facts of the case were damaging. But they weren’t sure it would have any more impact on Republican voters than a series of other scandals that did little to change public opinion.
The team of Mr. Trump is preparing to move on, claiming he is being victimized.
The former president, who was said to have been indicted early Thursday night, became angry when the charges were revealed and shared with him on Friday, according to a person who spoke to him. He returned from the golf course in time to see Jack Smith, the special counsel leading the charges, speak on television, the person said. The indictment was filled with information from people who work with him, and Mr. Trump had already been skeptical of some aides who might have disclosed certain details to the special counsel, the person said.
Kari Lake, the failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate who headlined a Georgia Republican Party dinner Friday, said no one in the GOP base trusts the charges.
“We see it’s just a bunch of fake lies,” said Ms. Lake, who clings to the falsehood that his own election was stolen in 2022, along with Mr. Trump in 2020. “He’s the favorite and they have to. He’s constantly throwing things in his way to stop him.”
Ms. Lake said Republican distrust of the nation’s institutions runs deep. “We’ve learned that the FBI is corrupt, the CDC, the FDA, the CIA,” he said. “We’ve just learned a lot over the last few years.”
Mr. Trump has attacked Mr. Smith, the special counsel, as a “disorder, a ‘psycho’ and a ‘lunatic.’
An even more aggressive crackdown from Trump is expected in Georgia and North Carolina. Trump’s team expects live television coverage, which has been a rarity in his 2024 race, and sees the two appearances as a valuable opportunity for free coverage.
While many prominent Republicans lined up behind Mr Trump the moment he revealed he was being indicted on Thursday, party strategists have concerns about how the charges will shape any potential general election showdown with the president Biden. The last two midterm elections and Mr. Trump’s defeat in 2020 show that his combative approach to politics — and the mounting indictments against him, including his indictment in April by a Manhattan grand jury — has turned off independent and swing voters.
Michael Caputo, a former senior Trump adviser who is now an executive at American Media, a new conservative Hispanic media outlet, said the charges “virtually ensure” that Mr. Trump will win the Republican nomination in 2024.
But they could have the opposite effect in a general election contest with Mr. Biden, he said, though he dismissed the charges as part of a Democratic conspiracy.
“It’s going to be the new ‘Russia collusion hoax,'” Caputo said, using a phrase Republicans have used to deride the investigation into whether the 2016 Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials and whether it obstructed justice. “It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. It’s to have him under investigation.”
In Bedminster, NJ, Mr. Trump reacted to her accusation with a sense of angry defiance, according to two people who interacted with him. He still had time for Friday’s golf outing, along with a Republican member of Congress from Miami, where he is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday. The cable coverage included helicopter photographs of Mr. Trump making his way down the street.
“It’s not really a different day for President Trump,” said one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers. Trump, Alina Habba, on Fox News in the hours following his impeachment. “This is something that has happened before.”
Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.
