Trump campaign forced 'on sabbatical' as hush money case takes up chunk of time: report

Former President Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan could end up consuming a lot of the time he should be spending convincing voters to give him another term, The New York Timesreported.

This comes as the former president appeared in court on Monday, officially becoming the first U.S. president to face a criminal trial after leaving office. Prior to doing so, he went on a last-minute Truth Social tirade.

"Mr. Trump and the drama around him may be unavoidable as he goes on trial in a case that centers on a salacious hush-money payment made to a porn star in the run-up to the 2016 election and that threatens the presumptive Republican nominee with potential jail time for 34 felony counts," reported the Times.

"The trial will begin with perhaps the most scrutinized jury selection since the trial of O.J. Simpson three decades ago."

The report added that the trial, "Will confine Mr. Trump to New York City for as many as four days a week for about eight weeks, and possibly more" — which would be about "one-quarter of the calendar" before November's election.

“This looks like no other presidential campaign in the history of the country,” GOP pollster Neil Newhouse told the Times. “It kind of puts the regular presidential campaign on sabbatical.”

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Another complicating factor is going to be how Trump handles himself during the case, the report noted: "Mr. Trump has already shown little patience as a courtroom attendee, storming out of the court in the closing arguments of the E. Jean Carroll sexual abuse and defamation case and earning rebukes from the judge. A jury ultimately ordered Mr. Trump to pay more than $83 million to Ms. Carroll for defaming her after she accused him of rape."

The Manhattan case, brought by District Attorney Alvin Bragg, is one of four separate criminal trials Trump is facing, although it remains unclear when the others will move ahead, and whether they can go forward before the election, owing to a range of procedural hurdles including an upcoming Supreme Court case on presidential immunity.