'US is going to hell': Trump in first speech after arraignment

Hours after pleading not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the New York court, former US President Donald Trump claimed that he was a victim of election interference.

Addressing a crowd of some 500 people in his Mar-a-Lago estate ballroom in Florida, the former US President said he "never thought anything like this could happen in America". Trump claimed that the only committed crime he committed was to "fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it."

The 76-year-old politician stated that the US "is going to hell".

"There is no crime, and this should never have been brought. Even people who are not our fans have said that this is not the right thing to do," he said while referring to his arraingnment.

Trump spoke about "election interference" as he claimed that "a local racist district attorney in Atlanta" is trying to "do everything" in their power to indict him. "This fake case was brought only to interfere with the upcoming 2024 election and it should be dropped immediately," he added.

The former US President brought up the issue of Hillary Clinton getting rid of 33,000 emails and and Joe Biden's classified documents incident.

"This is a persecution, not an investigation" but "our heads are held very high," he continued.

US in a Mess
The former US President the US is in "a mess". "Our economy is crashing and inflation is out of control....Russia has joined China. Can you believe this?" he asked. He then stated that he would not have allowed the Ukraine war to happen if he were the President of the US.

"This is where we are right now. I have a Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and family, whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris," he further stated.

Attacking the Joe Biden administration, he said, "If we took five worst presidents of the United States, and added them up, they would have not done near destruction to the country as Joe Biden and the Biden administration have done."

"Incredibly we are now a failing election and now these radical left lunatics want to interfere with our elections by using law enforcement. We can't let that happen.

"With all of this being said and with a very dark cloud over our beloved country I have no doubt that we will make America great again," he concluded.

Earlier in the day, at a historic court hearing in New York, the former US President personally pleaded not guilty to 34 criminal charges stemming from hush-money payments made during the 2016 campaign to bury allegations that he had extramarital sexual encounters.

The former president became the first sitting or former president to face criminal charges in a historic arraignment in New York on Tuesday. He was formally arrested and processed at the court and is believed to have had his fingerprints taken.