Trump in Manhattan courthouse for arraignment

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. President Donald Trump arrived at the courthouse in Manhattan, New York City, on Tuesday afternoon ahead of his expected arraignment.

Trump, a Republican who held the White House from early 2017 to early 2021, will formally become the first former U.S. president to be criminally indicted, an episode likely to deepen partisan divides in the country.

The indictment hasn't been unsealed yet but Trump reportedly faces more than 30 felony counts related to business fraud and allegedly hush-money payment to an adult film actress ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and stated that the criminal inquiry led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, is politically motivated. Trump's legal team has said that their client will plead not guilty and that they will make a motion to challenge the indictment.

"Heading to Lower Manhattan, the Courthouse. Seems so SURREAL -- WOW, they are going to ARREST ME. Can't believe this is happening in America. MAGA!" Trump wrote on his social media platform "Truth Social" on Tuesday afternoon.

There is a heavy presence of law enforcement outside the Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday. At a square nearby, Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters are separated by metal barriers while shouting at each other.

Trump, who is under arrest and in police custody before the arraignment, is expected to be fingerprinted before being brought to a courtroom to officially face criminal charges.

He is not expected to speak in New York City but is slated to travel back to his Mar-a-Lago residence in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he will hold an event to address his indictment on Tuesday night, following the court appearance.

Republicans have rallied behind Trump, criticizing that the justice system has been weaponized by the Democratic Party for political purposes. Democrats, by contrast, are seeking to cast the historic indictment as an accountability move.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on Trump's indictment and arraignment during the press briefing on Tuesday afternoon.

"We're just not going to comment specifically on the case itself," Jean-Pierre told reporters at the White House.

In addition to the hush-money payment case, Trump is facing several other criminal investigations at the state and federal levels, including his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, his handling of classified documents, and his role in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

Sixty percent of Americans approve of the indictment of Trump, according to a new CNN poll released on Monday.

Support for the indictment fell along party lines, with 94 percent of Democrats approving of the decision to indict Trump, while 79 percent of Republicans disapproved of the move to indict.

Besides, about three-quarters of Americans say politics played at least some role in the Trump indictment, including 52 percent who said it played a major role, the CNN poll showed.

Trump, 76, announced after the 2022 midterm elections that he is running for the White House again. According to polls, he is an early frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.