The call for demonstration has been launched, but the response is still timid.
More than 48 hours after asking his supporters to denounce his possible arrest as part of one of the many court cases hovering over him and to “take the nation back” in hand, Donald Trump seems to be struggling to trigger the movement of support and resistance that he hoped for.
Yes, the Republican camp is quick to denounce an “instrumentalization” of American justice which, according to Donald Trump, could lead to his imminent arrest and his indictment, as of Tuesday, he shouted Saturday evening on his network social Truth Social. But his followers remain hesitant to embark on another “January 6, 2021”, a dark day in United States history when supporters of the ex-president stormed the Capitol in the hope to overturn the results of the last presidential election. The tragedy led to national trauma, coupled with hundreds of arrests and several convictions for insurrection and seditious conspiracy. Among others.
On Sunday evening, the Republican majority speaker in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, called the prospect of this indictment of the ex-president for having tried to buy the silence of a porn actress a serious miscarriage of justice. , Stormy Daniels, in the weeks leading up to her 2016 election.
We remember: there was talk of an extramarital relationship with her. A sum of $ 130,000 was then paid to the one that the American civil status recognizes only under the name of Stephanie Clifford by one of the billionaire’s lawyers at the time, Michael Cohen, who has since returned and testified against his illustrious client. After several months of investigation and hearing from dozens of witnesses, New York State’s Attorney for the District of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, appears set to file charges against the real estate magnate for forgery statement and for violating campaign finance laws, among others.
For McCarthy, however, it is an “abuse of power” on the part of the prosecutor, who would thus seek to “overthrow our democracy”, he said at a press conference. But he added: “I don’t think people should protest this, no! »
On Saturday, Donald Trump, one of the first two candidates officially in the race for the next presidential election, with Nicki Haley, nevertheless tried to add fuel to the fire, by asking his supporters to “protest” in the face of “leaks illegal information” from the New York prosecutor’s office and suggesting that “the Republican candidate and former president of the United States will be arrested this Tuesday”, he wrote in capital letters. The information has not been confirmed by the American judicial authorities for the moment.
In his series of messages, Donald Trump reiterated his baseless accusations of election theft he allegedly suffered in 2020 and accused the ruling Democrats of “killing our nation while we sit and watch”, before add: “We must save America. Protest! Protest! Protest! »
On Twitter on Saturday afternoon, far-right activist Laura Loomer called for a rally outside Donald Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida, to denounce “Alvin Bragg’s witch hunt”, but she later erased his call. A few people gathered on the outskirts of Mar-a-Lago in the past few hours, with no outpouring, local NBC reported on Sunday.
On several networks of exchanges and discussion groups of Trumpists, the cries of indignation and gagging have however multiplied since Saturday following the messages of the ex-president. “All patriots must immediately stop what they are doing to bring society to a halt,” one of them wrote on Saturday, calling a “massive national strike” to protest against this possible arrest of the ex. -president. Another asked that the former reality TV star’s faithful “surround Mar-a-Lago or any place where [Trump] is” to prevent the authorities from entering to arrest him.
On Twitter, Jack Posobiec, a leading figure on the religious racial right, threatened the country with the emergence of a “red flu” and asked supporters of MAGA (Make America Great Again) to massively withdraw their money from the banks to bring about a collapse of the banking system. The New York Young Republican Club, meanwhile, called for a rally in Manhattan on Monday night to denounce the possible arrest of the ex-president.
Far from the crowd movements and the fiery harangues of Republicans that preceded the tragedy of January 6 and the insurrection against the dome of American democracy, the cries of the ex-president were received calmly by several spokespersons of Donald Trump, including Ali Alexander, ex-organizer of the group “Stop the Steal”, who denounced the electoral fraud fabricated by the ex-president the day after his defeat.
On the social network with the blue bird, the man warned that the demonstrators will be “imprisoned or worse”, if they decide to take to the streets in New York. “You have no freedom or rights there,” he wrote.
He and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, whom he says he’s spoken to in the past few hours, are “fed up with fighting the government,” he added, adding, “No billionaires are covering our bills.”
If he were to be arrested in the case of the payment of money to Stormy Daniels, Donald Trump would then become the first American president to be exposed to such a procedure. Under New York state rules, the former White House occupant could either drive himself to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office or be driven there handcuffed and escorted by the FBI . He will have to submit to a fingerprinting, but also to the traditional face and profile photo session that awaits the defendants, before being released pending trial. Strong and exceptional images in the circumstances, which the ex-president could seek to politicize and whose consequences for his supporters still remain uncertain.
On Saturday, in an email sent to his employees, the New York State Attorney assured that he was working closely with law enforcement to “ensure their safety”.
“We do not tolerate intimidation attempts targeting our office or threats to the rule of law in New York City,” he wrote. “Our law enforcement partners will ensure that any specific or credible threats against the office are thoroughly investigated,” Politico reported.