DONALD TRUMP became the first former US president to appear in court as a criminal defendant on Tuesday.

The ex-president flew back to his Mar-a-Lago palace in Florida after being indicted by a New York grand jury, having pleaded not guilty to 34 charges relating to payments made to two women with whom he reportedly had sex and a concierge privy to information about his sexual activities, supposedly to buy their silence.

Mr Trump was released on bail and will not appear in court again until December.

Prosecutors want a trial to begin in January — just before Republicans will begin voting to select their next presidential candidate — while defence lawyers want it held next spring.

Hush money payments are not illegal but the case rests on whether he falsified business records to suppress information that could have harmed his candidacy in the 2016 presidential elections.

Mr Trump was the victor in the contest, winning more electoral college votes and becoming 45th president of the US despite winning nearly three million fewer votes than his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton.

The insinuation that his victory was illegitimate adds to the political polarisation around the case, mirroring the ex-president’s own claims that current President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win was fraudulent.

Crowds of supporters and opponents of the former US leader gathered outside the courthouse in New York, while back in Florida Mr Trump addressed a rally of his supporters, declaring the accusations were politically motivated and that the United States was “going to hell.”