Former US President Donald Trump arrived in New York on Monday, ahead of his appearance in court today where he will be charged with paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to buy her silence before the 2016 presidential election.

The 76-year-old Republican tycoon has already launched his campaign to seek a second term in the White House in the 2024 presidential election. He is the first former US president to face criminal charges.

He maintains that he is “innocent” and in his post on the Truth Social platform he wrote that he traveled to New York to make “America great again”, underlining that he has fallen victim to a “witch hunt” at a time when his country is “going to hell.”

Trump’s Boeing 757 – in the colors of the American flag and with his surname written in capital letters – landed at 15:25 (local time, 22:25 Greek time) at New York’s LaGuardia Airport after a 3.5-hour flight from Florida.

Security measures around Trump Tower, where the former US president collapsed, are draconian. About 55,000 police officers have been put on alert, while streets around a Manhattan court have been blocked ahead of today’s appearance of the Republican tycoon (21:15 Greek time).

According to one of his lawyers, Joe Tacopina, Donald Trump will not be required to wear handcuffs. However, he will not avoid the unpleasant process of having his identity confirmed, fingerprinted and photographed as a defendant.

Before the judge, Trump “will plead not guilty” because “there is no criminal offense,” according to his defense attorneys. He should then be released, possibly on parole, pending trial.

As Donald Trump disembarked from his plane in New York, US President Joe Biden was visiting a factory in Minnesota to praise his economic policy and promise “better days” for workers, avoiding comment on the legal process which is followed in regards to the charges against his Republican predecessor.