Donald Trump is to surrender on racketeering charges and likely have his mugshot taken at a Georgia jail on Thursday, setting the stage for a fourth criminal trial next year as he bids to reclaim the White House.

The 77-year-old former president will be arrested at Atlanta's notorious Fulton County Jail, accused of conspiring with 18 codefendants to try to overturn the 2020 election result in the key southern state.

The booking of the billionaire real estate tycoon in his fourth and final indictment sets up a year of unprecedented courtroom drama as he tries to balance appearing in the dock with hitting the campaign trail.

The arrest comes just hours after Trump spurned a televised primary debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin featuring eight of his rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination -- all of whom lag well behind him in the polls.

He managed to steal the spotlight though as the focus of questions, with all but two of the candidates saying they would support Trump as the party's nominee even if he were convicted in any of the cases.

During a rambling pre-recorded interview with former Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson -- which aired on X, formerly known as Twitter, at the same time as the debate -- Trump dismissed the four criminal indictments filed against him as "nonsense."

He said the Justice Department had been "weaponized" under Democratic President Joe Biden to hamstring his White House bid.

A tight security perimeter has been set up ahead of Trump's arrival at the Fulton County Jail, an overcrowded facility that is under investigation by the Justice Department for a slew of inmate deaths and deplorable living conditions.

Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney who brought the sweeping racketeering case, set a deadline of noon (1600 GMT) on Friday for the 19 defendants to surrender.