The timing of former President Donald Trump’s hush-money trial in New York has drawn a wide array of criticism for its apparent goal of preventing the presumptive GOP presidential nominee from effectively campaigning ahead of November’s general election.

Judge Juan Merchan has mandated that Trump be in court for the entire trial, which is expected to last about eight weeks and will be held every weekday except Wednesdays. 

Earlier this year, Trump acknowledged the toll that the trial will take on his ability to reach voters, explaining: “We’ll just have to figure it out. I’ll be here during the day and I’ll be campaigning during the night.”

As the former president noted this week, the trial is also impeding his ability to participate in important personal events — including his youngest son’s upcoming high school graduation.

Barron Trump is scheduled to receive his diploma in Florida next month and, while Merchan confirmed that he received a request from the elder Trump’s legal team to postpone trial proceedings for that date, he refused to make a decision.

“It really depends on if we are on time and where we are in the trial,” the judge said.

As jury selection got underway on Monday, the former president took to social media to share how the trial’s schedule will impact various aspects of his life over the next two months.

“In Addition to being prohibited from attending my son Barron’s High School Graduation, I have just learned that the highly biased Judge in the Soros ‘appointed’ D.A. Alvin Bragg’s Witch Hunt Case, will not allow me to attend the historic PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY argument in front of the United States,” he wrote. “This shows great disdain and disrespect for our Nation’s Highest Court, especially for a topic so important as Presidential Immunity, without which our Country would never be the same!”

Trump also addressed the issue during remarks to reporters on Monday.

🚨 Donald Trump speaks after the first day of his criminal trial, reveals Judge threatened him with JAIL if he skips court to go to Barron's graduation. pic.twitter.com/hQRPohB2Bu

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) April 15, 2024

“As you know, my son is graduating from high school and it looks like the judge will not let me go to the graduation of my son, who has worked very, very hard,” Trump said. “He was looking forward, for years, to that graduation with his mother and father there, and it looks like the judge isn’t going to allow me to escape this scam.”