Former President Donald Trump’s calls for protests ahead of a possible indictment against him in New York have drawn little reaction from his supporters, with even some of his staunchest supporters calling the idea either a waste of time or a scam. to get them arrested.
The ambivalence raises questions about whether Trump, while still the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and still having a loyal following, still has the power to mobilize his far-right supporters as he did more than two years before he the insurrection in the Capitol on January 6, 2021. It also seems to indicate that the hundreds of arrests that occurred after the assault on the seat of the legislative branch, in addition to the court rulings and long prison terms, could be inhibiting the desire to repeat a mass riot.
Still, law enforcement agencies in New York are closely monitoring the situation, checking online for calls to protest or commit violence if Trump is arrested, with threats that vary in detail and credibility, four officials told The Associated Press.
The messages, mostly posted online and in chat groups, have included calls for armed protesters to block police officers and try to avoid any possible arrest, according to officials.
Around opening time at the Manhattan court complex Monday morning, a New York Police Department truck began dropping off dozens of portable chain-link fences that could be used to block streets or sidewalks.
The New York Republican Youth Club held a small protest in lower Manhattan on Monday, and inflammatory but isolated messages have emerged on radical social media platforms calling for gun battles with police at Trump’s residence. from Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
But almost two days after Trump claimed on his platform Truth Social who expected to be arrested on Tuesday and asked his supporters to come out and protest, there is little indication that his supporters are planning events like the one on January 6. At the protest in Lower Manhattan, reporters outnumbered pro-Trump protesters. And a prominent supporter who was an organizer of the rallies leading up to the storming of the Capitol wrote on Twitter that this time he would step aside.
Ali Alexander, who organized rallies promoting Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, warned supporters this time that if they came out to protest in New York City they could be “jailed or worse.”
“There they have no rights or freedoms,” he tweeted.
One of Alexander’s allies at the rallies was Alex Jones, who propagates conspiracy theories and spread the fraud claims on his Infowars platform. Alexander wrote that he had spoken to Jones and that neither of them was coming out to protest.
“We are both pretty busy fighting this government already,” Alexander said. “No millionaire will pay our bills.”
Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser who spoke at rallies the day before the Capitol insurrection, also advised caution.
“If you decide to protest publicly, it is vitally important that you keep your protest peaceful, civil, orderly and completely legal,” he said Monday, alleging that some on the left want to encourage violence and blame it on Trump. “Under no circumstances do you fall into that trap,” Stone said. “Please keep your protest peaceful and respectful.”
A grand jury is reviewing payments made to women who claimed to have had sexual encounters with Trump to buy their silence. Prosecutors have not said when their work will end or if they would file charges. House Republicans wrote to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Monday to request documents related to his investigation, which they said was an “unprecedented abuse of judicial authority.”
___ Kunzelman reported from Silver Spring, Maryland. Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Michael Balsamo in Washington, Farnoush Amiri in Orlando, Fla., Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Fla., and Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.
