Donald Trump is calling on Americans to protest after claiming he will be arrested on Tuesday
Donald Trump has issued a provocative call for Americans to “protest, protest, protest” as he ranted online about the possibility of him being arrested by New York prosecutors.
The former president risked stirring up controversy with a post on his TruthSocial platform saying “it’s time” and calling on his supporters to stage demonstrations and “save America.”
The post, written in all caps, was posted hours after Trump said he would be arrested Tuesday over claims he broke the law by paying porn star Stormy Daniels for an alleged affair.
Trump wrote, “WE JUST CANNOT ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEY ARE KILLING OUR NATION WHILE WE SIT BACK AND WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA!PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!”
The post echoed similar calls to protest his election loss in the hours and days leading up to the riots at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — and comes as police told Dailymail.com they had braced for demonstrations and discussions had already started. were going on about safety.
Supporters began to gather at the bridge near his home in Florida’s Mar a Lago on Saturday afternoon. A woman named Debbie Macchia held up a sign that read, “The Bridge people stand with Trump.”
Trump called on Americans to protest in an angry post on TruthSocial, his social media platform
The post, written in all caps, was posted hours after Trump announced he would be arrested Tuesday
Trump denies having a sexual relationship with Daniels (pictured with Trump) and his lawyer has called the $130,000 she was paid for keeping her mouth shut an “inconvenient payment” that rich or famous people sometimes pay to have a distracting make the situation go away
Trump began the post: “IT’S TIME!!! WE ARE A NATION IN SOLID WASTE, ARE HEADING TO WORLD WAR III BY A LITTLE POLITICIAN WHO DOESN’T EVEN KNOW HE IS ALIVE BUT WHO IS SURROUNDED BY EVIL AND SINISTER PEOPLE WHO, BASED ON THEIR ACTIONS TO DEFUN THE POLICE, DESTROY OUR MILITARY DESTRUCTION , OPEN BORDERS, NO CHOOSING, INFLATION, TAX HIGHER AND MUCH MORE ONLY OUR NOW BAILRIING US CAN HATE.”
Trump’s claim that he will soon be arrested comes more than six years after his lawyers paid Daniels a total of $130,000 during the 2016 election campaign to keep quiet about an alleged affair
Trump said the Manhattan district attorney’s office will arrest him within days and branded the investigation “corrupt and highly political,” calling the alleged hush money payment an “old and completely debunked fairy tale.”
The call to protest is likely to draw fierce criticism following Trump’s statements in the days leading up to the deadly riots at the Capitol.
On the morning of January 6, he gave a rousing speech to supporters in Washington, saying, “I know everyone here will soon be marching to the Capitol to make your voices heard peacefully and patriotically.”
He concluded the speech: “We are fighting. We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell you have no country left. So let’s go down Pennsylvania Avenue.”
Protests over the election results later turned violent as thousands of people flocked to the Capitol. Large parts of the group broke into the building and hundreds were later charged over the riots.
A law enforcement official told DailyMail.com that the Manhattan district attorney’s office will meet Saturday afternoon to discuss how they will handle an announcement about the indictment and prepare with other agencies, including the district attorney, state court officials, the United States Secret Service and the NYPD Strategic Police. Response Group to provide security in and around the New York County Supreme Court.
“The NYPD will provide security around the courthouse and have additional officers on hand if greater mobilization is needed,” the official said.
“I’m sure the NYPD will be much more prepared than the Capitol Police,” the source added. “They were just outnumbered, overwhelmed. They didn’t have the manpower.’
However, the official said, “I think there will be demonstrations on both sides of the aisle regarding this charge. Let’s hope they remain peaceful and there is no property damage and no people injured. That’s the main problem we’re concerned about. We don’t want anyone to get hurt like the last real dude here with the Black Lives Matter protests.”
“I think people are coming from other areas,” the source added. “In Manhattan, most of the residents are Democrats and they won’t really be there unless they go there to protest Trump’s people. That’s where the problem lies. You get one side coming in and then you get the other side coming in with the different opinion and then you can have conflicts.”
“Let’s hope no one gets hurt,” he continued. “We’ll see soon enough.”
The post mirrors Trump’s calls to protest on January 6, 2021, before a large group of his supporters stormed the Capitol
Riot police push back a crowd of supporters of US President Donald Trump after they stormed the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021
Before his call to protest, Trump labeled the case against him as “corrupt and highly political” and called the alleged hush money payment an “old and completely debunked fairy tale.”
A former federal prosecutor even warned on Saturday that Trump’s social media posts sharing details of his anticipated arrest could result in him being denied bail if arrested.
Glenn Kirschner, an MSNBC legal analyst, has compared the all-caps diatribe to his posts leading up to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot — and said it could affect the terms of his release.
Referring to the first post claiming that Trump’s arrest was imminent, Kirschner said, “I would put a sticker with government exhibits on this post and introduce it as his criminal trial.
“He has just given the judge who will preside over his arraignment food for thought about what kind of conditions should be set for the release of this dangerous man pending trial.”
If Trump’s claims of impending arrest are true, he would be the first former president ever to face criminal charges. His post came hours after it was alleged that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was planning to indict Trump next week.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, responded to the development on Saturday by stating that if he is indicted, Trump would be “re-elected with a landslide victory” in the 2024 presidential election. And legal experts say Trump could still be elected president even if he is indicted or convicted.
A Trump spokesman said he is “justifiably emphasizing his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said, “Here we go again — an outrageous abuse of power by a radical prosecutor who is running violent criminals as he pursues political revenge against President Trump.
“I am instructing relevant committees to immediately investigate whether federal funds are being used to undermine our democracy by disrupting elections with politically motivated prosecutions.”
Last week, the former president and 2024 hopeful was invited to testify before a grand jury in Manhattan, with his longtime fixer and former attorney Michael Cohen testifying Monday.
Cohen was in jail after pleading guilty to two criminal charges, including the use of campaign finance related to Daniels and another woman who allegedly had an affair with Trump.
He said he had acted on his orders and that the payouts were intended to keep the affair stories out of public knowledge before the 2016 election. Trump has admitted that he paid back Cohen
Daniels met with prosecutors on Wednesday to answer further questions in the case and her attorney, Clark Brewster, said she would also make herself available as a witness in the future if needed.
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