Former president and current GOP frontrunner Donald Trump has announced via Truth Social that he received word he’s the target of another of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations. This one looks into the January 6 riot and the events surrounding it, and it’s been suggested that Smith would be making Trump the focus of that investigation, but Trump’s announcement all but proves he’s facing another likely indictment.

The steady drip, drip, drip of investigations and indictments continue against Trump, further complicating the GOP primary ahead of the 2024 re-election.

Entirely possible by this point next month that Trump will have been indicted 4 times.

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) July 18, 2023

The New York indictments are widely considered to be a joke, at best. The Mar-a-Lago indictment is considered to be far more serious in most legal circles. The investigation in Fulton County, Georgia, which is focused on election interference, is still working its way toward indictment, and now the January 6 investigation could be the fourth indictment. In the short term, it means more good things for Trump, who is running away with fundraising where small-dollar donors are concerned. Much of the Republican base believes that these investigations are little more than retaliation against Trump for daring to beat them in 2016.

It should be noted, however, that much of the polling after the Mar-a-Lago indictment did not show the same bump in polling we saw after the New York indictment. If something similar happens with the remaining (presumed) indictments, that could be a sign that solidarity over the indictments only goes so far and that voters may look for alternatives who are not as inundated with legal drama.

No matter what you believe regarding the indictments and their legitimacy, the legal problems exist and time and money must be used to fight them. That is time and money Trump won’t get on the campaign trail, and that’s incredibly valuable when you have a field of almost half a dozen serious opponents (and another dozen or so absolute jokes). Trump can’t afford to ignore the legal battles, but he also can’t afford to not campaign, no matter what his polling numbers are right now.

Keep in mind that Trump raised $17.7 million in the last corner, but a lot of the money he’s getting will ultimately be used for legal expenses in the near future. That hurts his chances to use that money to reach voters, and while he’s sitting on top of the polls now, burnout over the legal drama could have an impact on that in the future. His absence was already noted at The Blaze Summit over the weekend, and while he’s laying low and using Truth Social to spread his message, other candidates are continuing to make the rounds in early primary states. He can’t get away with being absent forever.

Earlier, I noted the structural changes Ron DeSantis’ campaign was going through, and other campaigns are still working on their messaging. In particular, there are a lot of eyes on Sen. Tim Scott as a possible next choice should DeSantis fall further. Republicans looking for a more viable alternative to a candidate embroiled in multiple legal battles have options.

All of that said, however, under no circumstances should anyone be foolish enough to think Trump is destined to fall. People have been saying that since he first came down that escalator in Trump Tower, and they’ve been wrong ever since. The level of influence that Trump has over the base is not going away anytime soon. Those viable alternatives to Trump have to find a path forward without alienating Trump voters – not Trump supporters, who are pretty ride-or-die with the former president, but people who are inclined to vote for Trump yet persuadable, which is a far larger group of voters than Team Trump probably thinks.