As attorneys for Donald J. Trump float numerous authorized arguments to defend him in court docket towards an onslaught of felony costs, the previous president has settled on a political protection: “I’m being indicted for you.”

In speeches, social media posts and ads, Mr. Trump has repeatedly declared the prosecutions a political witch hunt, and he has forged himself as a martyr who’s taking hits from Democrats and the federal government on their behalf.

“They want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away your freedom,” Mr. Trump instructed the gang at a marketing campaign occasion in New Hampshire on Tuesday. “They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you.”

In two earlier campaigns, 2016 and 2020, Mr. Trump introduced himself to voters as an rebel candidate who understood their grievances and promised to battle for them. Now, nonetheless, Mr. Trump has made his 2024 race principally about his personal private grievances — trying to persuade supporters to see themselves in him. He continues to argue, falsely, that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and to current it as a theft additionally towards his voters. The authorized jeopardy he now faces from a number of indictments, he tells followers, is the form of persecution that they, too, may endure.

There is proof that the message is resonating.

Lorraine Rudd, who attended Mr. Trump’s look in New Hampshire, stated that after his third indictment final week, in a point-by-point 45-page account of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, she felt that she, too, may very well be wrongly prosecuted.

“If they can do it to him and take him down, they can come for me,” Ms. Rudd, a 64-year outdated Massachusetts resident, stated.

She stated she firmly agreed with Mr. Trump’s false declare that he received the 2020 election. “What, am I next?” she stated.

In March, when Mr. Trump introduced his candidacy earlier than any indictments, he instructed supporters, “I am your retribution.” The shift to the latest plaint of “I am being indicted for you” suggests an extra tailoring of his marketing campaign pitch, as he paints the felony circumstances towards him as an effort to forestall him from returning to the White House.

In June, after being charged with retaining authorities secrets and techniques, Mr. Trump instructed a Republican gathering in Michigan: “Essentially, I’m being indicted for you.”

On Aug. 3, the day of his third indictment, for searching for to overturn the 2020 election, Mr. Trump posted on his social media web site that going through fraud and obstruction costs in Washington was an “honor” as a result of, as he wrote in all caps, “I am being arrested for you.”

Portraying himself as a sufferer of the felony justice system — and echoing themes from when he confronted an investigation over Russian affect within the 2016 marketing campaign and his first impeachment — has served to consolidate Republican assist round Mr. Trump.

Since his very first indictment in March, in New York on costs associated to funds to a porn star, Republican voters have buoyed Mr. Trump in polls. Congressional Republicans, aware that the occasion base has largely embraced Mr. Trump’s lies in regards to the 2020 election, have leaned into investigations of what they name the “weaponization” of federal legislation enforcement. And lots of Mr. Trump’s 2024 Republican rivals have repeated his pledge to fireside the F.B.I. director and finish the Justice Department’s conventional independence from the White House.

In a New York Times/Siena College poll launched final week, earlier than Mr. Trump’s newest indictment, 71 p.c of Republican voters stated he had not dedicated severe federal crimes and that Republicans wanted to face behind him.

When a long-shot challenger of Mr. Trump, former Representative Will Hurd of Texas, instructed a Republican gathering in Iowa not too long ago that the previous president was operating to not characterize individuals who supported him in 2016 or 2020 however “to stay out of prison,’’ Mr. Hurd was booed.

In public comments, Mr. Trump’s lawyers have indicated they will mount a free-speech defense in the latest case related to the 2020 election. They have argued that anything Mr. Trump said leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot were merely “aspirational” requests. Those embrace mendacity about widespread fraud to voters, pressuring Mr. Pence to disregard the Constitution and asking Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” sufficient extra votes to assist him win the state.

The former president and his allies within the conservative media and in Congress are concurrently waging a battle for public opinion by accusing Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son, of misconduct in enterprise dealings and attempting to tie allegations of shady practices to Mr. Biden himself when he was vice chairman. Investigations led by House Republicans have turned up no evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden, however the effort has satisfied many Republicans that Mr. Trump’s indictments are a part of a conspiracy to divert scrutiny from Mr. Biden and his household.

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump promised to nominate a particular prosecutor to research the Bidens, his doubtless political rival ought to he win the G.O.P. nomination. He additionally continued his private assaults on Jack Smith, the particular counsel within the federal circumstances towards Mr. Trump, calling him “deranged.”

And with out referring to her by title, he criticized Fani T. Willis, the district legal professional in Fulton County, Ga., who’s Black, as a “racist.” She is overseeing a separate investigation into alleged efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to intrude with the election within the state, the place he misplaced to President Biden.

With Mr. Trump dominating each Republican major ballot, a number of 2024 rivals have currently been extra direct in difficult him with regards to the 2020 election.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida stated this week that “of course” Mr. Trump misplaced re-election in his most blunt acknowledgment yet of a actuality he has tiptoed round for 3 years. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who may very well be a star witness in a trial targeted on Jan. 6, stated that Mr. Trump pushed him to “essentially overturn the election.”

Roughly an hour northwest of Mr. Trump’s rally on Tuesday night time, former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, one among Mr. Trump’s hardest critics within the race, mocked the previous president’s proclamations.

“As I’m walking around Ukraine, he’s waltzing into a courtroom in Washington, D.C., to tell us that he’s being indicted for us. For us! How lucky are we! That we have such a selfless, magnanimous leader,” Mr. Christie stated, prompting laughter and a sprinkling of applause. “Because you know that the government was coming to get you and on their way to get you, lo and behold, they came across Donald Trump and they said, ‘Okay, we won’t get you, we’ll get him, for you.’”

The narrative of unfair persecution by the felony justice system, which Republicans because the occasion of legislation and order as soon as staunchly defended, has taken robust root amongst Mr. Trump’s supporters.

Steve Vicere, who drove all the best way from his house in Florida to see Mr. Trump in New Hampshire, stated the indictments have been a “diversion” and represented makes an attempt by Democrats to cease Mr. Trump from regaining energy.

“Everyday freedoms are being systematically taken away, and nobody ever gets held accountable,” Mr. Vicere, 54, stated.

Dean Brady, a limo driver from Newmarket, N.H., embraced Mr. Trump’s message that he was taking successful on behalf of his supporters.

“He’s representing us,” Mr. Brady, 60, stated. “He’s not in it for himself, he could quit this and just go on with life. He’s up there because he loves America and he cares about us.”

But not all Republican voters embrace Mr. Trump’s sense of victimhood. Jean Davis, who attended a barbecue in Iowa on Sunday to listen to seven of Mr. Trump’s G.O.P. rivals, stated that his newest indictment must disqualify him as a candidate.

Her husband, Russ Davis, who helps Mr. DeSantis, stated that if Mr. Trump have been to develop into the nominee, his probabilities of defeating Mr. Biden can be “next to nothing.”

“There are so many individuals on the Republican facet who simply can’t get previous his loud mouth,’’ he stated.