CNN town hall with former President Donald Trump

Asked why he took classified documents with him after leaving the White House, former President Donald Trump said he “had every right to under the Presidential Records Act.”

“I was there and I took what I took and it gets declassified,” Trump said during Wednesday night’s CNN town hall.

Collins corrected Trump saying the Presidential Records Act does not say a former president can take documents home but says they are the property of the federal government when a president is out of office.

After Trump and Collins went back and forth on previous presidents taking classified documents, Collins pushed back saying previous presidents didn’t wait to return classified documents and asked numerous times why Trump waited to return classified documents when he knew the federal government was seeking them and subpoenaed him to return them.

Trump did not answer the question but instead insulted Collins.

“It’s very simple — you’re a nasty person, I’ll tell you,” Trump said.

More context: Special counsel Jack Smith is overseeing the Justice Department’s criminal investigations into the retention of national defense information at Trump’s resort and into parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

The Justice Department investigation continues into whether documents from the Trump White House were illegally mishandled when they were taken to Mar-a-Lago in Florida after he left office. A federal grand jury has interviewed potential witnesses regarding how Trump handled the documents.

The National Archives, charged with collecting and sorting presidential material, has previously said that at least 15 boxes of White House records were recovered from Mar-a-Lago, including some classified records.

Any unauthorized retention or destruction of White House documents could violate a criminal law that prohibits the removal or destruction of official government records, legal experts told CNN.

Former President Donald Trump wouldn’t say whether or not he wants Russia or Ukraine to win the war when pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Wednesday in the town hall.

When asked by Collins for a second time whether or not the former president wants Ukraine to win, Trump still would not answer directly, instead saying that he wants “everybody to stop dying.”

“Russians and Ukrainians, I want them to stop dying,” he said. “And I’ll have that done in 24 hours.”

Collins pressed her question for a third time, to which Trump replied, “I’ll say this: I want Europe to put up more money.”

He called on Europe to “equalize.”

“They have plenty of money,” he said.

Former President Donald Trump gestures during a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall.

Former President Donald Trump would not say if he believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a war criminal in the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Trump said that is something that “should be discussed later.”

The former president also said he thinks that “Putin made a mistake.”

When asked to elaborate, Trump said, “His mistake was going in. He would have never gone in if I was president,” referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Former President Donald Trump participates in a CNN Republican Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College.

Kaitlyn Boissoneau, a Republican voter who will be voting for the first time in 2024, asked former President Donald Trump if he supports US military aid to Ukraine and how he would deal with the threat posed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump said the war would not have happened if he were president.

Trump added that he would meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and with Putin.

“They both have weaknesses and they both have strengths and within 24 hours that war will be settled. It’ll be over, it’ll be absolutely over,” Trump said.

US aid to Ukraine: This week, the US announced a $1.2 billion aid package to Ukraine intended to “bolster its air defenses” and “sustain its artillery ammunition needs,” with Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces looming. 

With the new package announcement, the US has committed $37.6 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration, including $36.9 billion since the beginning of the war in February 2022.

Audience members watch as President Donald Trump participates in a CNN Republican Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, May 10, 2023.

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday would not say whether he would sign a federal abortion ban if reelected when pressed several times by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, but argued those in the anti-abortion movement are “in a very good negotiating position right now” because of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

Trump said he would “make a determination what he thinks is great for the country and what’s fair for the country” when asked if he would sign a federal abortion ban. 

As many states move to restrict abortion rights after the Supreme Court ruled there is no constitutional right to an abortion, Trump would not specify whether he would support a federal ban or at how many weeks during a pregnancy he would support a ban.

“I’m looking at a solution that’s going to work. Very complex issue for the country. You have people on both sides of an issue, but we are now in a very strong position. Pro-life people are in a strong position to make a deal that’s going to be good and going to be satisfactory for them. If you weren’t able to get rid of, you wouldn’t be having a discussion, if you weren’t able to get rid of Roe V. Wade,” Trump said.

More context: In the wake of last year’s Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, many Republican-led states have enacted sweeping abortion restrictions. But unpopularity, demonstrated in some instances by electoral evidence, over severe restrictions has prompted Republicans to reconsider the political wisdom of enacting near-total bans on the procedure, and House Republicans have recently stepped away from pushing a federal abortion ban. 

Former President Donald Trump defended his Title 42 immigration policy and implied that he would handle the crisis at the US border with similar methods he used during his previous term.

Republican voter Jennifer Simmons asked, “Title 42 is expected to expire tomorrow. Our southern border and now our northern border are experiencing record migration. We learned on May 2 that the Biden administration plans on deploying 1,500 troops to the southern border. Do you agree with the deploying troops to the border, and how would a Trump administration slow down the rate of migrants coming across our borders?”

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins then clarified that the conditions under which Title 42 was enacted was because of the Covid-19 pandemic. “The reason it’s ending is because the health policy of the Covid era pandemic emergency is coming to an end. That’s what Title 42 was. You put it in place because of Covid,” Collins said.

Collins then pressed Trump on what his immigration policy would be if he was reelected, citing criticism of Republican lawmakers of his border wall plan.

“I did finish the wall. I built the wall, I built hundreds of miles of wall. And I finished it,” Trump claimed. Collins noted that he actually only built 52 miles of new border wall.

Asked if he would reinstitute his controversial family separation policy, Trump said, “When you say to a family that, ‘If you come we’re going to break you up,’ they don’t come.”

Former President Donald Trump said he will protect the Second Amendment and address mental health problems if reelected in 2024.

If elected, he said he would “do numerous things” to address mass shootings, including hiring more security guards for schools and what he called “hardening” entrances to establishments.

“You have to make schools safe,” he said.

Trump also said that many people who do not own guns are “not going to be very safe.”

Some background: There have been more than 200 mass shootings in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

President Joe Biden has taken more than 20 executive actions on guns since taking office, including regulating the use of “ghost guns” and sales of stabilizing braces that effectively turn pistols into rifles. He also signed a bipartisan bill in 2022 which expands background checks and provides federal funding for so-called “red flag laws” – although it failed to ban any weapons and fell far short of what Biden and his party had advocated for.

White House officials have been sober about the political realities Democrats face with the current makeup of Congress, where Republicans in control of the House have rejected Biden’s calls for an assault weapons ban. Even when both chambers of Congress were controlled by Democrats during the first two years of Biden’s term, an assault weapon ban gained little traction, in part because of a 60-vote threshold necessary for passage.

Former President Donald Trump participates in a CNN Republican Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, May 10.

Marta Saravia, an undeclared voter, asked former President Donald Trump what he thought of the debt situation and how the country can move forward.

“We have to start paying off debt … I say to the Republicans out there — Congressmen, Senators — if they don’t give you massive cuts, you’re going to have to do a default, and I don’t believe they’re going to do a default because I think the Democrats will absolutely cave will absolutely cave because you don’t want to have that happen, but it’s better than what we’re doing right now because we’re spending money like drunken sailors,” Trump said.

Collins asked Trump to clarify, asking him if he thinks the US should default if the White House does not agree to spending cuts the Republicans are demanding.

More context: The US hit the debt ceiling set by Congress in January. That forced the Treasury Department to begin taking extraordinary measures to keep the government paying its bills. And Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently warned that the US could default on its obligations as soon as June 1 if Congress doesn’t address the debt limit.  

The White House and GOP Republicans are in a standoff over how to resolve the issue. House Republicans want to attach spending reductions to a debt ceiling increase and have passed a debt limit plan that does just that. But Biden and congressional Democrats have insisted on passing a clean increase on the debt limit before addressing a framework for spending. 

A breach of the US debt ceiling risks sparking a 2008-style economic catastrophe that wipes out millions of jobs and sets America back for generations, Moody’s Analytics has warned. The impact could include delayed Social Security payments, late paychecks for federal employees and veterans and a direct hit to Americans’ investments. 

Former President Donald Trump walks on stage to participate in a CNN Republican Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, May 10.

Former President Donald Trump said that, if reelected, his solution to inflation in the country would be drilling for more oil in the US.

Danielle Rieger, a Republican activist, asked Trump, “If elected president again what is the first thing you will do to help bring down the cost to make things more affordable?”

“Drill, baby, drill,” Trump responded. The former president then claimed that under his presidency, the country was energy independent and that the cost of gas went down to record lows.

He then claimed that the tax bill that passed during his term helped create,”the greatest economy in history.”

Former President Donald Trump speaks with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in a CNN Republican Town Hall at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Former President Donald Trump said he does not think a recent verdict in which a Manhattan federal jury found that he was liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll in a luxury department store dressing room disqualifies him from being president or will have an impact on women voters.

He denied knowing the columnist and denied the accusations. Trump ridiculed Carroll while discussing the trial, only a day after the verdict was handed down.

“A Manhattan jury found you sexually abused writer E. Jean You’ve denied this. But what do you say to voters who say it disqualifies you from being president?” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked.

Trump answered that he didn’t think there were many voters who would think that. He claimed that the case was made up and that it was all politically motivated. He repeated that he did not know Carroll, but said that he took a photo “years ago” with her and her husband.

When asked if the jury’s decision would deter women from voting for him, the former president said, “No, I don’t think so.”

Some context:  A Manhattan federal jury found Tuesday that Trump sexually abused Carroll in the spring of 1996 and awarded her $5 million for battery and defamation.

Carroll alleged Trump raped her in the Bergdorf Goodman department store and then defamed her when he denied her claim, said she wasn’t his type and suggested she made up the story to boost sales of her book. Trump denied all wrongdoing. He does not face any jail time as a result of the civil verdict.

While the jury found that Trump sexually abused her, sufficient to hold him liable for battery, the jury did not find that Carroll proved he raped her.

Carroll filed the lawsuit last November under the “New York State Adult Survivors Act,” a state bill that opened a look-back window for sexual assault allegations like Carroll’s with long-expired statutes of limitation.

Former President Donald Trump holds notes of his tweets during a CNN Republican Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.

When asked by retired attorney Wayne Beyer whether or not he would pardon January 6 rioters convicted of federal offenses, former President Donald Trump said he would “most likely” do it should he win reelection in 2024.

Trump noted that he won’t be able to pardon “every single one” but said “it will be a large portion of them.”

Former President Donald Trump participates in a CNN Republican Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked former President Donald Trump if he felt he owed Former Vice President Mike Pence an apology for the events of January 6.

Pence has said the former president endangered his life on January 6.

Collins corrected Trump saying Pence did not have the authority to reject election results.

Watch:

Former President Donald Trump participates in a CNN Republican Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Former President Donald Trump repeated false claims regarding his actions during the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.

Trump blamed then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi among others, saying they were at fault for the security failures.

“One of the big problems was that Nancy Pelosi — crazy Nancy as I affectionately call her. Crazy Nancy and the mayor of Washington were charged as you know of security,” Trump said during Wednesday night’s CNN town hall. “And they did not do their job.”

Trump falsely claimed that he called on the National Guard to intervene during the riot, which CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pushed back and noted that he did not, according to former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller.

In an extended exchange with Collins about the riot Trump attempted to repaint his role during the insurrection.

More context: On January 6, 2021, Trump’s supporters broke into the US Capitol building while Congress certified Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. 

The House select committee that investigated the attack uncovered dramatic evidence of Trump’s actions before and on January 6, especially efforts to use the levers of government to overturn the election. 

In a symbolic move, the committee referred Trump to the Justice Department on at least four criminal charges before it concluded at the end of 2022, ahead of Republicans taking control of the House. 

Former President Donald Trump participates in a CNN Republican Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, May 10.

Former President Donald Trump again refused to acknowledge that he lost the 2020 presidential election, instead reiterating false claims that the election was rigged.

Trump, speaking at a CNN town hall in front of New Hampshire voters Wednesday night, repeated false claims of election fraud.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pressed the former president, asking directly if he would publically acknowledge that he lost the 2020 election. Collins pointed out that the election wasn’t rigged, and pointed to statements by Trump’s own election officials noting the election was conducted fairly.

“It was not a rigged election. It was not a stolen election. You and your supporters lost more than 60 court cases on the election. It’s been nearly two and a half years. Can you publicly acknowledge that you did lose the 2020 election?” she said.

Trump did not directly answer the question.

“They found millions of votes on camera, on government cameras, where they were stuffing ballot boxes. So with all of that, I think it’s a shame what happened. I think it’s a very sad thing for our country. I think it’s a very sad thing, frankly, for the world, because if you look at what’s gotten to our country, our country has gone to hell,” Trump said, continuing on to criticize the Biden administration.

Former President Donald Trump participates in a CNN Republican Town Hall moderated by CNN's Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, May 10, 2023.

CNN’s town hall with Donald Trump is underway in New Hampshire and the former president will take questions from Republicans and undeclared voters as the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary field.

“CNN This Morning” anchor Kaitlan Collins is moderating. This is Trump’s first appearance on CNN since the 2016 election.

New Hampshire, home to the first-in-the-nation GOP primary, is also home to many swing voters. Trump handily won the primaries there in 2016 and 2020 before losing the state in both general elections.

He is facing voters the day after a Manhattan federal jury found the former president sexually abused E. Jean Carroll in a luxury department store dressing room in 1996 and awarded her $5 million for battery and defamation. Trump has denied all wrongdoing and called the verdict in the civil case a “total disgrace.”

Last month in New York, he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump also faces potential legal peril in both Washington, DC – where a special counsel is leading a pair of investigations – and in Georgia, where the Fulton County district attorney plans to announce charges this summer from the investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the Peach State.

The town hall is streaming live without requiring a cable log-in, on CNN.com’s homepage and across mobile devices via CNN’s apps for iOS and Android, on CNN OTT and mobile apps under “TV Channels,” or CNNgo where available.

The town hall will also be available On Demand beginning Thursday, May 11, to pay TV subscribers via CNN.com, the CNN OTT app, and Cable Operator Platforms.

CNN’s Jeremy Herb contributed reporting to this post.

People wait in line to enter the Koonz Theatre, which is part of the Dana Center for Humanities.

There’s a definite feel at Saint Anselm College that the 2024 presidential campaign is really beginning tonight. There’s excitement, tension and dissent in the air that recalls the build-up to a presidential debate. 

The fact that the unpredictable Donald Trump is the presidential frontrunner after a tumultuous presidency and refusal to accept the result of the 2020 election is only deepening the feeling that something big is about to happen – as town hall attendees line up to clear Secret Service security checks near protesters shouting anti-Trump slogans.

Many of the registered Republicans and voters who plan to vote in the 2024 GOP primary are hoping they will get called upon.

One Trump supporter, Karen Langella, said that she hoped that the questions would “not focus on what happened” on Tuesday when a jury found Trump sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in 1996 in New York and that he was liable for battery and defamation after a civil trial.

Langella’s daughter, Isabella, who is an independent and shopping around for the most conservative Republican candidate, hoped that “people stick to his ideas and his policies instead of what happened 20 years ago.”

Another attendee, Al Peel, hoped to get a question to Trump about his own ideas on how to help homeless veterans. He also wanted the former president to tone down his wild antics and focus instead on policies.

“I think he’s Bozo the Clown, OK. But I love his results,” he added.

Across the road, a crowd of students held up signs reading “love Trumps hate” and “nobody is above the law,” while chanting “You’re abhorrent, you’re broke, you lost the popular vote.”

Former President Donald Trump will participate in a CNN Republican Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, May 10.

More about the town hall location: Saint Anselm College has its own fabled history in presidential campaigns. Republican Richard Nixon made it his first stop in his successful 1968 bid for the presidency. Pretty much every one who is anyone in presidential politics has visited — from Ronald Reagan, both presidents Bush, Trump and Bernie Sanders.

The Benedictine liberal arts college hosted a fiery Democratic presidential debate days before the 2008 primary that saw Hillary Clinton win a comeback victory after Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses — though it was a false dawn for the then New York senator’s campaign.

Former President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom with his attorneys Todd Blanche, Susan Necheles, Joe Tacopina and Boris Epshteyn during his arraignment at the Manhattan Criminal Court April 4, in New York City.

It’s been nearly eight years since he rode down the escalator in Trump Tower and more than two years since the January 6, 2021, insurrection, but the legal drama surrounding Donald Trump has never been more intense.

In New York, a hush money payment to an adult film star has resulted in his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury over his alleged role in the scheme — the first time in American history that a current or former president faces criminal charges.

Also in Manhattan, a federal jury just yesterday found Trump sexually abused former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in a luxury department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and awarded her about $5 million in the battery and defamation civil case.

In Atlanta, a select grand jury has investigated the efforts by Trump and allies to overturn his election loss in Georgia in 2020.

In Washington, a Justice Department special counsel is looking at the 2020 election aftermath and the removal of presidential documents to Florida.

Trump and his company deny any wrongdoing or criminality in all matters, state and federal, and he has aggressively maintained his innocence.

Here’s an updated list of notable investigations, lawsuits and controversies the former president faces.

In this 2019 photo, then-President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with advisors about fentanyl in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC.

It’s long been known that former President Donald Trump’s actions while in office have upended the norms of the presidency — from his use of social media to make major announcements to his use of the pardon power to the amount of turnover in his administration.

The story of the Trump presidency cannot be fully told in numbers. But here are some numbers illustrate some of the many ways Trump and his administration defied the status quo of the executive branch.

Judicial appointments: Trump was able to successfully appoint three US Supreme Court justices, and he’s surpassed the number of federal judges appointed by George H.W. Bush — the most recent one-term president.

Earlier in 2020, Trump was also on track to appoint more federal appellate judges than any recent president at the same point in his presidency, according to the Pew Research Center. Although Trump served only four years, his changes to the makeup of federal courts will be felt long after he leaves the White House.

Executive action: As of December 11, 2020, there had been 520 presidential documents signed by Trump — including executive orders, presidential memorandums, determinations and notices — had been published in the Federal Register. Of those, 288 were executive orders and presidential memorandums, not including memos were clerical in nature.

Presidents have increasingly used executive orders and presidential memorandums interchangeably to issue directives to their agencies; they are both legally binding, though executive action can be undone by the next president.

The increased reliance on such actions has come as an increasingly gridlocked Congress has made it difficult for presidents to act on their agendas.

Obama had issued 226 executive orders and memorandums at this point in his tenure in office, while George W. Bush had signed 189.

Before becoming president, Trump complained about what he saw as Obama’s overuse of executive authority but also suggested that the government could be run like a business.

Yet Trump has already exceeded both George W. Bush and Obama in the number of published executive orders and memorandums.

Read about other key figures from his presidency here.

Former President Donald Trump will participate in a CNN Republican Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at St. Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, May 10.

Former President Donald Trump is set to participate in a CNN town hall soon in New Hampshire, where he’ll take questions as the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary field.

The event will be moderated by “CNN This Morning” anchor Kaitlan Collins.

The town hall will stream live without requiring a cable log-in, on CNN.com’s homepage and across mobile devices via CNN’s apps for iOS and Android, on CNN OTT and mobile apps under “TV Channels,” or CNNgo where available.

The town hall will also be available On Demand beginning Thursday, May 11, to pay TV subscribers via CNN.com, the CNN OTT app, and Cable Operator Platforms.

President Donald Trump signs policy changes he is making toward Cuba at the Manuel Artime Theater in the Little Havana neighborhood on June 16, 2017 in Miami, Florida. 

Donald Trump’s presidency was largely defined by his disregard for political norms and his historic two impeachments.

Trump purposefully sought to upend conventional domestic and foreign policy, fundamentally altering America’s role in the world. And he disrupted the status quo in Washington, recalibrating the federal government’s role in everyday American life in ways both temporary and for a longer term effect.

Some of Trump’s most consequential decisions, such as his judicial appointments, will dictate the ideological make-up of the courts for decades. And the physical reminder of his immigration and border security policies, in the form of a US-Mexico border wall, have remained etched into America’s landscape well past his presidency.

Other actions, including many issued through the use of executive authority, can be undone through the regulatory process or with the flick of Joe Biden’s pen. Still, those actions will have sometimes had a years-long impact on American lives, affecting everything from their jobs to their schools to the kinds of lightbulbs they can buy.

Read through some of the most significant ways Trump’s policies and actions changed the country here.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is planning an “aggressive” rapid response effort for former President Donald Trump’s town hall with CNN tonight, a DNC official tells CNN.

The DNC is setting up an in-person “war room” rapid response operation to fact check the former president in real time, the official said. This will include news releases and tweets released through at least two Twitter accounts — @DNCWarRoom and @TheDemocrats.

The official said this will mark the DNC’s most aggressive posture to date in responding to any of the GOP contenders with preparations beginning as soon as the town hall was announced.

The DNC released a video on Twitter earlier today outlining elements of Trump’s record, including “embracing insurrectionists” and “attacking women’s rights.”  

President Joe Biden for his part is attending fundraisers in New York City Thursday evening and scheduled to be traveling for most of the town hall.

Former President Donald Trump exits after speaking during a rally at the Waco Regional Airport on March 25 in Waco, Texas. 

The verdict on Tuesday in E. Jean Carroll’s case against Donald Trump has no legal effect on his 2024 presidential candidacy.

For one, it is a civil case, and during the 2016 campaign, Trump also faced all sorts of civil action, like the fraud cases concerning Trump University. Those were settled shortly after he was elected and had no bearing on the requirements for the presidency laid out in the Constitution.

Trump also faces unrelated criminal exposure, most prominently in the case that Manhattan prosecutors have brought against him for hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claimed the two had an extramarital affair (Trump denies the claim).

There are also federal criminal investigations — one concerning the mishandling of documents from his White House and another into the efforts to disrupt Congress’ 2020 election certification — are also encircling him, as is an Atlanta-based probe into the election subversion plots.

Similarly, a successful criminal prosecution of the former president is unlikely to affect, at least from a legal standpoint, his ability to be reelected to the White House.

Notably, there is a precedent for convicted felons to run for federal office — including for the office of the presidency.

Eugene Debs, a perennial socialist candidate for the White House in the early 20th century, was incarcerated on an espionage conviction when he won more than 900,000 votes in a 1920 presidential campaign.

Former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign is pursuing a strategy of expanding his appeal by reaching out to audiences beyond friendly conservative media outlets, multiple advisers familiar with the strategy said, including a CNN town hall this week.

The town hall event in New Hampshire Wednesday evening, Trump’s first appearance on CNN since the 2016 election, joins a list of other signs that Trump is adopting a more traditional campaign in his third run for the White House.

The former president has surrounded himself with a more organized, experienced team to complement his unconventional campaign style. He’s also scaling back larger rallies, a Trump campaign trademark, for more intimate campaign settings and retail stops that allow the former president to engage with voters.

That approach speaks to an acknowledgment by the Trump campaign and its allies that the former president must broaden his appeal inside and outside the Republican Party if he is to clinch the GOP nomination and retake the White House in 2024, following his failed reelection bid and disappointing results by Republicans in last year’s midterm elections. The process is being driven by a team of veteran political operatives, skilled in matters such as the delegate process, who believe Trump’s path to victory cannot simply be a reprisal of his insurgent 2016 bid or his large, expensive 2020 operation.

The former president’s team has increased its outreach with traditional news outlets, taking questions from television and print correspondents on recent campaign swings from organizations Trump has spent years attacking.

Trump’s team also sees the town hall has an opportunity to draw a contrast with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has clashed with what he often refers to as “legacy media” organizations.

Keep reading here.

Voting booths filled the the Ward Five Community Center during the New Hampshire primary in Concord, New Hampshire on February 11, 2020.

Wednesday’s live town hall audience will be made up of Republicans and undeclared voters who plan to vote in the GOP primary.  

This is Trump’s third trip to the Granite State since launching his campaign last fall. He handily won the primaries there in 2016 and 2020 before losing the state in both general elections.

New Hampshire is the second state to vote in the Republican presidential nominating calendar — but after the Iowa caucuses, it’s the first primary to take place. 

The Granite State has long prized its role in vetting presidential contenders, and state law protects that status: Secretary of State David Scanlan is required to set a primary date a week ahead of any other “similar contests” elsewhere on the map. Democrats have reshuffled their primary calendar, leaving some dates in flux, but the GOP has maintained New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary status. 

Though New Hampshire is among the smallest states in delegate counts, it has a history of propelling primary winners forward toward Super Tuesday with momentum — and winnowing out candidates who fail to gain traction there. 

The winners of the last two competitive New Hampshire Republican presidential primaries, Mitt Romney in 2012 and Donald Trump in 2016 went on to win the party’s nomination. 

New Hampshire’s primary allows “undeclared” voters — those who are not registered as Democrats or Republicans — to choose which primary they participate in. It’s a key voting bloc since about two-in-five New Hampshire voters are undeclared. 

The process has its quirks: Three tiny locations, Dixville Notch, Hart’s Location and Millsfield, vote at midnight and report their tiny numbers of votes immediately. Those vote tallies aren’t large enough sample sizes to be indicative of anything, but they are the only known results for nearly 20 hours, until polls elsewhere close that evening. 

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the DoubleTree Manchester Downtown on Thursday, April 27, in Manchester, NH. 

Former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination, will take questions from New Hampshire Republicans and undeclared voters in a CNN town hall Wednesday as a myriad of legal issues loom over his 2024 White House bid.

The town hall will be moderated by “CNN This Morning” anchor Kaitlan Collins at Saint Anselm College and is Trump’s first appearance on the network since 2016.

Trump is set to face voters as he deals with unprecedented legal clouds hanging over him and as he seeks to become only the second commander-in-chief, ever, elected to two non-consecutive terms. 

The town hall comes just a day after a Manhattan federal jury found the former president sexually abused E. Jean Carroll in a luxury department store dressing room in 1996 and awarded her $5 million for battery and defamation.

Trump has denied all wrongdoing and called the verdict in the civil case a “total disgrace.” 

Last month in New York, he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump also faces potential legal peril in both Washington, DC — where a special counsel is leading a pair of investigations — and in Georgia, where the Fulton County district attorney plans to announce charges this summer from the investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the Peach State.

Still, the twice-impeached former president has repeatedly said that any charges will not stop him from running for president, dismissing all of the investigations as politically motivated witch hunts.

That’s a view many GOP voters share, according to recent surveys. Nearly 70% of Republican primary voters in a recent NBC News poll said investigations into the former president “are politically motivated” and that “no other candidate is like him, we must support him.”

While a handful of rivals have entered the Republican presidential primary, and Trump’s biggest potential rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has not yet officially launched a bid — Trump has maintained a healthy lead in early GOP primary polling.

In a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Sunday, 43% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents named Trump unprompted when asked who they would like to see the party nominate in 2024, compared with 20% naming DeSantis, and 2% or less naming any other candidate.

Trump’s participation in the town hall is indicative of a broader campaign strategy to try to expand his appeal beyond conservative media viewers, CNN’s Kristen Holmes reported earlier Wednesday.

Former President Donald Trump enters Wednesday’s CNN town hall as both the prohibitive GOP frontrunner for the 2024 nomination and a man just found liable in a civil case for sexually abusing and defaming former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll.

While we cannot yet know what effect that verdict will have on the race for the Republican nomination, Trump’s large polling advantage was built with this civil trial in the news and after being indicted earlier this spring in a separate criminal case related to hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. (Trump has denied all wrongdoing.)

The leads Trump has in surveys of Republican voters and in endorsements from elected officials at this stage are some of the strongest for a nonincumbent in the modern presidential primary era.

Trump is polling, on average, north of 50% in national polls of likely GOP primary voters. His nearest potential challenger – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has yet to launch a campaign – is earning a little north of 20% of the Republican primary vote on average. No other potential Republican candidate is in double digits.

There are very few candidates, of either party, in nonincumbent races who were near or north of 50% in the national primary polls this early on. Those included Republicans Bob Dole in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000, and Democrats Al Gore in 2000 and Hillary Clinton in 2016. All of those candidates won their party’s nominations, and none of those races were particularly close.

Interestingly, all the legal controversies involving Trump have not hurt him in the polls. At the beginning of the year, Trump was earning a little more than 40% of the vote, on average, and was only about 10 points ahead of DeSantis. Trump’s lead is now triple that at closer to 30 points, on average.

You can read more about the polls here.

The first reaction to Tuesday’s unprecedented verdict finding a former president and current White House candidate liable for sexual abuse offered no reason to suggest that Donald Trump’s position as the frontrunner for the GOP nomination is under any immediate threat.

But some of his GOP critics raised questions about his fitness for office that are certain to be at the center of the next general election if he is the Republican nominee.

The unanimous verdict could deepen his vulnerability among key voting groups, including women – among whom the GOP needs to improve to win back the White House.

The jury found Trump sexually abused former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll in a New York Department store in 1996 and that he was liable for battery and defamation, while awarding her $5 million. The unanimous jury verdict was vindication for Carroll and offered a symbolic win for other women who have made assault allegations against the president. Trump, who has denied all wrongdoing, immediately denounced the trial as a witch hunt and said he didn’t even know Carroll. He said later Tuesday evening that he will appeal.

For most of modern US history and for most candidates, Tuesday’s developments would raise potentially insurmountable questions of viability. Many White House hopefuls have exited presidential races for less. And Trump, who’s pleaded not guilty in a separate criminal case involving hush money payments to an adult film star in New York, is facing multiple legal threats. He’s waiting to see whether he will be indicted in separate probes into his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election and his hoarding of classified documents. But the fact that Trump won’t quit the GOP race – and no one will make him – shows his dominance of the Republican Party, and how he redefined behavioral expectations for public life.

Read the full analysis here.