得克萨斯州康罗伊-当他准备在他的一个佛罗里达州高尔夫球场，一位同伴介绍道唐纳德·特朗普作为“美国第45任总统。”
“第45街和第47街，”特朗普实事求是地回答，然后继续开车。
这句俏皮话——在摇摇欲坠的手机视频中捕捉到的链接上的一瞬间——提醒人们，这位前总统经常在想另一场总统竞选。但这份声明掩盖了他面临的越来越多的挑战，因为一系列复杂的法律调查让特朗普、他的家人和许多同伙陷入困境。
这些调查正在多个司法管辖区展开，考虑了从潜在的欺诈和选举干预到他在1月6日叛乱中扮演的角色等方方面面，是特朗普在几十年经常打官司的公共生活中面临的最严重的法律威胁。美联社-NORC公共事务研究中心的一项新民意调查发现，特朗普对共和党的铁腕控制可能开始松动，这一趋势正在加剧。
他在共和党人中的支持率有所下降，71%的人表示他们对特朗普有好感，而在2020年9月的美联社-NORC/美国事实调查中，这一比例为78%。但新的民调显示，只有微弱多数的共和党人——56%——希望他参加2024年的总统竞选。民调发现，44%的共和党人不希望特朗普参选。
尽管存在法律和政治阻力，但特朗普周围的人形容他不受束缚，因为一种不可战胜的感觉让他有勇气从毁灭性的转折中恢复过来，包括两次弹劾，这将结束其他政治家的职业生涯。他正在全力以赴，并继续进行东山再起的总统竞选。
“他情绪很好，”俄亥俄州牧师、特朗普盟友达雷尔·斯科特(Darrell Scott)说，他本周会见了这位前总统。
特朗普本周在佛罗里达州与高级助手们挤在一起，制定中期战略，这可能成为未来努力的跳板。周六，他在德克萨斯州举行了另一场竞选式的集会，该州3月1日的选举正式拉开了中期初选的序幕。
特朗普的代表没有回应对调查或投票发表评论的请求。在采访和露面中，主要是在右翼媒体上，他经常吹嘘自己的代言记录，因为他旨在奖励那些承诺忠于他的政党愿景并鹦鹉学舌地重复他的选举谎言的候选人。
但他冻结着眼于2024年领域的共和党人的努力并不均衡。一些人，包括前副总统迈克·彭斯和前国务卿迈克·蓬佩奥，到目前为止拒绝提出异议，发表演讲并前往关键州，暗示他们强烈考虑竞选。佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯(Ron DeSantis)也被视为提名的另一位竞争者，最近引起了人们的关注，他说，他作为州长最大的遗憾之一是，特朗普在新冠肺炎·疫情事件的早期敦促美国人留在家里，以阻止病毒的传播，但他没有退缩。
随着特朗普试图向前推进，针对他的法律案件也在向前推进。
周一，佐治亚州的法官批准了富尔顿县检察官组建特别大陪审团的请求，该检察官一直在调查特朗普和其他人是否违反了法律，试图向佐治亚州官员施压，要求他们推翻乔·拜登总统在2020年选举中的胜利。富尔顿县地方检察官费尼·威利斯(Fani Willis)表示，她的办公室收到的信息“表明选举“有合理的可能性”受到“可能的犯罪干扰”。
在纽约，州检察长莱蒂蒂亚·詹姆斯(Letitia James)在上周提交的一份法庭文件中声称，她的办公室发现了特朗普公司利用对其高尔夫俱乐部、摩天大楼和其他财产的“欺诈性或误导性”估值来获得贷款和税收优惠的证据。尽管她的律师表示，他们尚未决定是否就这些指控提起诉讼，但他们透露，该公司在提交给国税局的文件中夸大了在纽约和加州捐赠的土地价值，并错误报告了特朗普曼哈顿顶层公寓的规模以及其他误导性估值。
曼哈顿地区检察官办公室也一直在与詹姆斯办公室合作进行一项平行的刑事调查，该调查导致特朗普的公司特朗普组织(Trump Organization)及其长期财务主管艾伦·韦斯伯格(Allen Weisselberg)在去年夏天遭到指控。
与此同时，在华盛顿，1月6日调查暴力叛乱的委员会采访了数百名证人，发出了数十份传票，并获得了数万页的记录，包括与特朗普关系密切的人发来的短信、电子邮件和电话记录，以及特朗普竭力不让公众看到的数千页白宫记录。委员会主席、众议员本尼·汤普森说，其中包括一份行政命令草案，提议使用国防部资产没收投票机。
美国司法部一名高级官员本周表示，检察官正在调查发送给国家档案馆的伪造证书，这些证书带有虚假的选民名单，这些选民错误地宣布特朗普在他输掉的七个州获胜，这是颠覆选民意愿的绝望运动的一部分。司法部长梅里克·加兰表示，司法部仍然致力于“依法追究所有1月6日的肇事者的责任，无论他们是在当天在场，还是对袭击我们的民主负有刑事责任。”
作为总统，特朗普在很大程度上免受法律后果的影响。但不再是了。
迈阿密前联邦检察官大卫·温斯坦(David Weinstein)表示，到目前为止，特朗普的法律问题在很大程度上被归结为“金钱问题”，各种诉讼都在寻求赔偿。但他形容特朗普现在面临的情况，尤其是在佐治亚州和华盛顿，是“更重要的，因为随之而来的是潜在的刑事处罚。”
“如果他们能证明意图、知识、参与正在进行的阴谋，”他说，“那就是潜在的犯罪暴露，这是他从未面对过的。”
但与特朗普合作过的人表示，他和他周围的人可能会继续拒绝调查，因为这只不过是出于政治动机的“政治迫害”，旨在损害他未来的政治前景。在经历了这么多年从一场危机跳到另一场危机，从俄罗斯调查到对他华盛顿酒店租约的询问，再到对一名前色情明星的贿赂后，在特朗普世界接受调查是常态。
对他圈子里的许多人来说，“被传唤是一种荣誉，”前白宫新闻秘书斯蒂芬妮·格里沙姆说，她于1月6日辞职，此后写了一本反特朗普的书。
她说:“说‘这只是又一场政治迫害’很容易，因为我们对一切都是这么说的。“人们正在加倍努力。这就是我们在特朗普世界所做的，我们加倍努力。你声称这是政治迫害，你声称这是政治戏剧。这就是如何让你的支持者继续捐款，并继续相信他们是站在好的一边的。”
Trump facing legal, political headwinds as he eyes comeback
CONROE, Texas -- As he prepared to tee off at one of hisFloridagolf courses, a fellow player introducedDonald Trumpas the “45th president of the United States.”
“45th and 47th,” Trump responded matter-of-factly, before hitting his drive.
The quip — a moment of levity on the links captured on shaky cellphone video — was a reminder that the former president often has another presidential run on his mind. But the declaration belied the growing challenges he's confronting as a series of complex legal investigations ensnare Trump, his family and many associates.
The probes, which are unfolding in multiple jurisdictions and consider everything from potential fraud and election interference to the role he played in the Jan. 6 insurrection, represent the most serious legal threat Trump has faced in decades of an often litigious public life. They're intensifying as a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found Trump's iron grip on the GOP may be starting to loosen.
His popularity among Republicans is declining somewhat, with 71% saying they have a favorable opinion of Trump compared with 78% in a September 2020 AP-NORC/USAFacts poll. But the new poll shows only a narrow majority of Republicans — 56% — want him to run for president in 2024. The poll found that 44% of Republicans do not want Trump to run.
Despite the legal and political headwinds, those around Trump describe him as unbothered, emboldened by a sense of invincibility that has allowed him to recover from devastating turns, including two impeachments, that would have ended the careers of other politicians. He's powering ahead, and continuing to tease a comeback run for president.
“He’s in great spirits,” said Darrell Scott, an Ohio pastor and Trump ally who met with the former president this week.
Trump huddled with top aides in Florida this week as he plots a midterm strategy that could serve as a springboard for future efforts. He held another campaign-style rally in Texas on Saturday ahead of the state's March 1 elections that formally kick off the midterm primary season.
Representatives for Trump did not respond to requests for comment on the investigations or polling. In interviews and appearances, mostly on right-wing media outlets, he often boasts of his endorsement record as he aims to reward candidates who pledge loyalty to his vision of the party and parrot his election lies.
But his effort to freeze the field of Republicans eyeing the 2024 field has been uneven. Some, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have so far refused to demur, making speeches and traveling to key states that suggest they are strongly considering campaigns. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is also seen as another contender for the nomination and drew attention recently when he said that one of his biggest regrets as governor was not pushing back when Trump urged Americans to stay home in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic to stop the virus’s spread.
As Trump tries to move forward, so do the legal cases against him.
On Monday, judges in Georgia approved a request for a special grand jury by the Fulton County prosecutor who has been investigating whether Trump and others broke the law by trying to pressure Georgia officials to throw out President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has said her office received information “indicating a reasonable probability” that the election had been "subject to possible criminal disruptions.”
In New York, state Attorney General Letitia James claimed in a court filing last week that her office uncovered evidence that Trump’s company used “fraudulent or misleading” valuations of its golf clubs, skyscrapers and other property to secure loans and tax benefits. While her lawyers said they hadn't decided whether to bring a lawsuit in connection with the allegations, they revealed the company overstated the value of land donations made in New York and California on paperwork submitted to the IRS and misreported the size of Trump’s Manhattan penthouse, among other misleading valuations.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has also been working with James’ office on a parallel criminal investigation, which resulted in charges last summer against Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, and its longtime finance chief, Allen Weisselberg.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the Jan. 6 committee investigating the violent insurrection has interviewed hundreds of witnesses, issued dozens of subpoenas and obtained tens of thousands of pages of records, including texts, emails and phone records from people close to Trump, as well as thousands of pages of White House records that Trump fought to shield from public view. Among them: a draft executive order that proposed using Defense Department assets to seize voting machines, the committee's chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, has said.
A top Justice Department official said this week that prosecutors are investigating fake certificates sent to the National Archives with made-up slates of electors who wrongly declared Trump the winner in seven states he lost as part of a desperate campaign to subvert the voters' will. Attorney General Merrick Garland has said the Justice Department remains committed to "holding all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law, whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy.”
As president, Trump was largely shielded from legal consequence. But no longer.
David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Miami, said that, until now, Trump’s legal problems have largely been relegated to “money things,” with various lawsuits seeking payouts. But he described what Trump is facing now, particularly in Georgia and Washington, as “more significant, because with those comes the potential exposure to criminal punishment.”
“If they can prove intention, knowledge, involvement in an ongoing conspiracy,” he said, ”that’s potential criminal exposure, something he’s never faced before.”
But those who have worked with Trump said he and those around him are likely to continue to brush off the probes as nothing more than politically motivated “witch hunts” aimed at damaging his future political prospects. After spending so many years jumping from one crisis to the next, from the Russia investigation to inquiries about everything from his Washington hotel lease to payoffs to a former porn star, being under investigation in TrumpWorld is the norm.
For many in his circle, “It’s a badge of honor to be subpoenaed,” said Stephanie Grisham, the former White House press secretary who quit on Jan. 6 and has since penned an anti-Trump book.
“It’s easy to say ‘It’s just another witch hunt’ because that’s what we said about everything,” she said. “People are doubling down. That’s what we do in TrumpWorld, we double down. And you just claim it’s a witch hunt, you claim it's political theater. And that’s how you get your supporters to continue to donate money and to continue to believe they’re on the good side.”
