Trump Touts Indictment As A 'Great Badge Of Honor,' Tells Supporters 'I'm Being Indicted For You'

Embattled former President Donald Trump called his indictments and other criminal probes into his alleged conduct a "badge of honor" in a speech Sunday night.

"Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists, and fascists indict me, I consider it a great badge of honor and badge of courage," Trump told the crowd after accepting the Oakland County GOP's "Man of the Decade" award during its annual Lincoln Day Dinner.

"I consider it both. Essentially, I'm being indicted for you," the former president added.

Since leaving office in 2021, Trump has been indicted twice. In March, he was indicted in New York for his alleged involvement in hush-money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. He was then indicted earlier this month on federal charges for his alleged mishandling of classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

"Two weeks ago, Joe Biden ordered his top political opponent to be arrested. That's me! ... Arrested on fake and fabricated charges right in the middle of a presidential election in which Biden is losing by a lot," Trump claimed Sunday.

However, recent polls, including the latest CNN/SRSS poll, showed that they are basically tied in terms of favorability, with Biden ahead of him by at least two percentage points in some.

"This is a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time," Trump claimed.

The real estate mogul said the "final battle" would be the 2024 election, and in the same breath, vowed to punish Republicans in Washington who went against him if reelected.

Trump also said that if he gets reelected as president but is not exonerated of all charges, the country risks facing destruction.

"If this corrupt persecution succeeds, they will complete their takeover of this country and they will destroy your way of life in the United States of America forever, it will be forever destroyed," Trump said.

Meanwhile, fellow Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called Trump's speech "absurd."

"He had the audacity to say that he got indicted for us," Christie told ABC News' "This Week."

"I don't know how it benefited the American people for him to take highly sensitive intelligence and secret documents out of the White House, to stonewall the government on returning them for over a year and a half, to subject himself to a raid by the FBI, even though they asked him voluntarily to return this stuff, and to then be subject to an indictment which is obviously going to be one of great trouble for the country because no one wants to see this happen," Christie added.

Legal experts estimate that the election tampering case Trump faces in Georgia would be forthcoming this summer.