What will happen next if Donald Trump gets arrested?

With the threat of an indictment still looming over Donald Trump’s head, many anxious Americans are asking what will happen next if the former president is actually arrested.

Well, it's important to understand that Trump is facing possible charges in New York, which means if he is indicted he would need to surrender himself or be extradited. 

“If the grand jury votes to indict Trump, he would have to surrender or be extradited to New York for arraignment,” wrote Newsweek’s Ewan Palmer. 

Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina has indicated that the former president would willingly give himself up to authorities if he was indicted, but who knows if that would be the reality. 

The arrest of a former president is big news and that means Trump could use the occasion to his advantage, and some political analysts are suggesting he just might. 

The New Republic’s Prem Thakker reported that the twice impeached former president was planning to turn his indictment and arrest into a “spectacle.”

“Trump seems more concerned with how to display strength and defiance amid the potential criminal charges,” Thakker wrote, quoting reports from The Guardian. 

“He has essentially told advisors that, if he is going to be forced to surrender to authorities and have fingerprinting and a mugshot done at the courthouse, he may as well turn the whole process into a ‘spectacle’,” Thakker added. 

Extradition is the most likely scenario if Trump doesn’t surrender himself to the authorities in the event he is charged according to Alison Durkee of Forbes. 

“If Trump doesn’t voluntarily surrender and is still at his home in Florida at Mar-A-Lago, he would have to be extradited,” Durkee wrote, adding that either a Florida judge or Governor Ron DeSantis would have to sign off on the extradition. 

If Trump is arrested, he would be booked by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and would have his fingerprints and mugshot taken according to Durkee, after which things get a little murkier. 

“Trump is almost certain to be immediately released once he’s arraigned,” Durkee wrote, adding that New York’s new bail rules would almost certainly guarantee Trump’s release unless he was deemed a flight risk.

Trump and his lawyers would go through the process of defending the former president, meaning they would probably try to find a way to have the charges dismissed. 

Joseph Ax of Reuters noted that Trump and his legal team have accused Manhattan’s District Attorney Alvin Bragg of “targeting him for political gain and could try to seek dismissal of the charges on those grounds.”

Trump could also try to challenge the charges using New York’s statute of limitations under the idea that his crimes would have already exceeded their five-year statute of limitation. 

"There's a whole host of possibilities," David Shapiro, a prosecutor and former FBI agent told Reuters, "This is a dream case for defense attorneys."

However, the real question everyone is dying to have answered is whether or not the former president’s arrest would prevent him from running in 2024. 

Trump himself said earlier in March that if he was indicted he wouldn’t drop out of the race, and it seems there is no law that would prohibit him from running according to NPR’s Dustin Jones. 

“Fortunately for Trump, there's nothing in the Constitution prohibiting candidates with criminal records from holding office,” Jones wrote.