Former President Donald J. Trump faces 37 federal expenses that would ship him to jail for the rest of his life, however it’s the remainder of the Republican subject that’s in probably the most fast political hassle.

Advisers working for Mr. Trump’s opponents are going through what some take into account an infuriating job: attempting to steer Republican major voters, who’re inured to Mr. Trump’s years of controversies and deeply distrustful of the federal government, that being criminally charged for holding onto categorised paperwork is a foul factor.

In earlier eras, the indictment of a presidential candidate would have been, at a minimal, a political reward for the opposite candidates, if not an occasion that spelled the top of the indicted rival’s run. Competitors would have thrilled on the prospect of the front-runner’s spending months tied up in courtroom, with damaging new particulars steadily dripping out. And they nonetheless might be Mr. Trump’s undoing: If he doesn’t find yourself convicted earlier than November 2024, his newest arrest just isn’t probably win him converts within the normal election.

But Mr. Trump’s opponents — counterintuitively, based on the previous typical political knowledge — are literally dreading what threatens to be an infinite indictment news cycle that would swallow up the summer season. His rivals are determined to get media protection for his or her campaigns, however because the indictment grew to become public final Thursday, as a number of advisers grumbled, the one method they will get their candidates booked on tv is for them to reply questions on Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump is making full use of the trimmings of his former workplace: the large, black sport utility automobiles; the Secret Service brokers in darkish glasses; the stops at grocery shops and eating places with entourages, bodyguards and reporters in tow, mentioned Katon Dawson, a former South Carolina Republican Party chairman who works on Nikki Haley’s marketing campaign.

“That is powerful stuff when you’re campaigning against it,” Mr. Dawson mentioned.

And there’s no finish in sight for indictment season. This was the second time Mr. Trump has been indicted in two months, and he could also be indicted no less than as soon as extra this summer season, in Georgia, for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The Georgia prosecutor main that investigation signaled the timing when she introduced final month that almost all of her workers would work remotely through the first three weeks of August — proper when Republican presidential candidates will probably be getting ready for the primary debate of the first season, on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee.

In Mr. Trump’s federal case, in South Florida, it’s potential that the previous president might face trial in the midst of the first marketing campaign season.

One Republican candidate who has gotten some airtime, Vivek Ramaswamy, a rich entrepreneur and creator, did so by flying to Miami from Ohio and addressing journalists gathered outdoors the courthouse to document Mr. Trump’s arraignment on Tuesday. He promised to pardon Mr. Trump if he will get elected president. He railed towards a “donor class” that he asserted was urging him to spurn Mr. Trump, knocked the news media and demanded that each different G.O.P. candidate signal a pledge to pardon Mr. Trump if elected.

“Half the battle is showing up,” Mr. Ramaswamy mentioned in an interview Tuesday night time on his solution to Iowa. “I am getting my message out, at least the part of it that relates to the events of the day.”

Most of Mr. Trump’s different rivals have tied themselves in knots attempting to vogue responses to the indictments that will seize media consideration with out alienating Republican voters who stay supportive of Mr. Trump.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida got here down on Mr. Trump’s aspect however with little enthusiasm. He subtly rebuked Mr. Trump’s conduct, elevating Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of categorised paperwork as a stand-in for Mr. Trump’s when he mentioned he would have been “court-martialed in a New York minute” had he taken categorised paperwork throughout his service within the Navy.

But Mr. DeSantis has additionally used the chance to provide Republican voters what they largely need: He has defended Mr. Trump and attacked President Biden and his Justice Department, saying they unfairly goal Republicans. On Tuesday, Mr. DeSantis started to roll out his plan to overtake the “weaponized” F.B.I. and Justice Department. And the primary pro-DeSantis tremendous PAC released a video attacking the “Biden D.O.J.” for “indicting the former president.”

Before the indictment was launched, former Vice President Mike Pence mentioned on CNN that he hoped Mr. Trump wouldn’t be charged as a result of it might “be terribly divisive to the country.”

Then Mr. Pence learn the indictment. On Tuesday, he informed The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, “These are very serious allegations. And I can’t defend what is alleged. But the president is entitled to his day in court, he’s entitled to bring a defense, and I want to reserve judgment until he has the opportunity to respond.”

Mr. Pence went on to denounce the Biden administration’s Justice Department as politicized — largely due to its remedy of Mr. Trump — and promised that as president he would clear it up.

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina and Ms. Haley, the previous United Nations ambassador, each initially greeted the indictment with condemnation of what they referred to as unequal justice — harsh for Republicans, lenient for Democrats — earlier than tacking on their evaluation that the accusations towards Mr. Trump have been grave and must be taken severely.

Then, on Tuesday, Ms. Haley volunteered that if elected she, too, would take into account pardoning Mr. Trump.

All of these contortions provide a gap to candidates with less complicated messages, both for or towards Mr. Trump’s prosecution.

“I don’t think they know what they think yet,” mentioned Mr. Ramaswamy of the candidates he referred to as the “finger-in-the-wind class.” Some candidates “tend to serve as mouthpieces for the donors who fund them and the consultants who advise them, and the donors and consultants haven’t figured out their advice yet.”

All of this presumably is music to Mr. Trump’s ears: So lengthy because the news media and his rivals are preventing one another and obsessing about him, he have to be profitable.

The solely Republican presidential candidate thus far to talk clearly and forcefully towards Mr. Trump over the actions documented within the indictment was former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey. He condemned Mr. Trump and confirmed contempt for Republicans who have been directing blame elsewhere.

“We’re in a situation where there are people in my own party who are blaming D.O.J.,” Mr. Christie mentioned on Monday night time in a CNN city corridor assembly. “How about blame him? He did it.”

He additionally implored his fellow opponents to concentrate on the front-runner, not one another, saying 2024 is taking part in out as a rerun of 2016 when a big subject, which included Mr. Christie, sniped at one another and let Mr. Trump gallop away with the nomination.

Tucker Carlson, who was taken off air by Fox News however stays influential with the Republican base, put out a video on Twitter on Tuesday night time that captures what Mr. Trump’s rivals are up towards. Mr. Carlson sought to portray the federal indictment as proof that Mr. Trump was “the one guy with an actual shot of becoming president” who was feared by the Washington institution. The clip is an implied rebuke of Mr. DeSantis and comes near an endorsement of Mr. Trump.

It is simply too quickly after the indictment to attract strong conclusions about how Republican voters are processing the news. But the early information bodes effectively for Mr. Trump and ominously for his opponents. In a CBS News poll launched on Sunday, solely 7 p.c of probably Republican major voters mentioned the indictment would decrease their opinion of Mr. Trump. Twice as many mentioned the indictment would change their view of him “for the better.”

An adviser to certainly one of Mr. Trump’s rivals, talking on the situation of anonymity to be candid, admitted he was depressed at how Republican voters have been receiving the news of what he thought-about to be devastating details unearthed by the particular counsel, Jack Smith.

“I think the reality is there’s such enormous distrust of the Department of Justice and the F.B.I. after the Hillary years and the Russiagate investigation that it appears that no other fact set will persuade Republican voters otherwise right now,” the adviser mentioned.

Mr. Dawson, who’s backing Ms. Haley, mentioned Mr. Trump’s ballot numbers have been prone to rise within the coming weeks, together with the sentiment that the federal government can’t be trusted.

The different candidates are playing that they’ve the luxurious of time.

Mr. Christie has stepped as much as bloody the previous president along with his assaults, that are unlikely to assist Mr. Christie’s standing however might assist different Republicans within the race: those that are refraining however “drafting” behind Mr. Christie, as one adviser put it, maybe wishfully, utilizing a horse-racing time period.

As extra data spills out forward of the previous president’s trial, particularly concerning the specifics of what was contained within the categorised paperwork that Mr. Trump held onto — particulars of battle plans and nuclear packages — the severity of what crimes the previous president is charged with might slowly seep in.

That’s the hope, no less than, for Mr. Trump’s rivals who languish far behind him in polls.

“Let that little pop blow up, then get out of here, let the voters read the term paper, and let it sink in,” Mr. Dawson mentioned. He added, of Mr. Trump: “People are going to start questioning his sanity.”