blitzer in the situation room. happening now, a judge in manhattan just scheduled donald trump s criminal trial for next year right in the middle of the republican primary season. we ll share all the latest details from the former president s court appearance earlier this afternoon. also tonight, governor ron desantis is about to official. the florida republican is poised to launch his white house campaign tomorrow during a conversation with elon musk on twitter. we have new details on the announcement and how his gop rivals plan to respond. plus, we re learning new information right now about the driver who slammed a u haul truck into a white house barricade, what a court filing is revealing about the threats he allegedly made about president biden and his praise for adolph hitler. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer, you re in the situation room. . let s get straight to the news on former president trump s criminal trial
out of the gate. so what we know is he will sit down with elon musk tomorrow and talk through some of this. elon musk confirming that today, but stopping short of endorsing him in any way or saying that he has plans to endorse. so all eyes will turn to that, also here to miami, where he is going to gather his donors to talk to them about his presidential bid and really try to maximize this moment. again, going back to what his team wants. they want to go on the offensive. they want a big blitz coming out of this announcement. they want a lot of media attention and also money. they want to really have a strong showing with millions and millions of dollars right out of the gate so that s what you can bet they ll be leaning on their d donors to do then move toward the next phase of the campaign. jessica, so the event in twitter spaces is 6:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow, i believe. what is desantis going to do after that? right. so after that, we look ahead to next weekend. you me