A deluge of trials for Donald "Mugshot" Trump next year

Now for the first time we know the dates for the four trials so far fixed for the multiple criminal charges laid against Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States. All of them will take him out of the campaign trail while he sits in the dock. The first one will be on March 4. That's the big one relating to accusations he incited and inspired the mass revolt and attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. A few weeks later he will be on trial for business fraud linked to the hush money paid to a porn star with whom Trump allegedly had an affair. Then on May 20, it will be the case involving Trump's retention of classified files at his residence in Florida, and finally on September 6 the trial linked to the alleged interference in the Georgia election. If these dates go ahead, Trump will be hugely in the news every day but not while making campaign speeches or appearing at rallies before adoring supporters. I have no doubt his absence from the campaign trail will make little or no difference to his popularity. But four trials, all in the key months when rival Republican candidates will be fighting hardest to win the nomination, could at least make Republican voters sit up and take notice. Do they really want Donald "Mugshot" Trump as president? While the performance of his rivals remains so poor, Trump will power ahead to the nomination. But even the Wall Street Journal, once a firm supporter of Trump, is now calling for an alternative candidate, and I don't think they have Ron DeSantis in mind, despite earlier enthusiasm. That enthusiasm has seriously waned. Even if all four trials don't go ahead as currently planned, at least one and may be two WILL begin before the election. So Trump in the dock will become a familiar image. The scowl-look he has rehearsed will be there for all to see every day. It won't be a pretty sight.