Calls by former President Donald Trump to protest 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 a waste of time. , or scam to make them stop.
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 has. made more than two years before the uprising in the Capitol on January 6, 2021. This also seems to indicate that the hundreds of arrests that occurred after the assault on the seat of the legislature, in addition to court decisions and lengthy prison sentences prison, could inhibit the desire to rehearse a riotous mass.
Still, law enforcement in New York is 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 said. The Associated Press.
The messages, mostly posted online and in chat groups, included calls for armed protesters to block off police and try to avoid possible arrest, officials said.
Around the opening time of the Manhattan court complex on 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 posts emerged on radical social media platforms calling for shootouts with police at the Trump residence of Mar-a- Lagos, Florida.
But almost two days after Trump claimed on his platform Social truth who expected to be arrested on Tuesday and asked his supporters to come out and demonstrate, there is no indication that his supporters are planning events like the one on January 6. At the protest in Lower Manhattan, journalists outnumbered pro-Trump protesters. And a prominent supporter who was one of the organizers of the rallies leading up to the Capitol takeover wrote on Twitter that this time he would stand down.
Ali Alexander, who has organized rallies promoting Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud, this time warned supporters that if they came out to demonstrate in New York 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 spreads conspiracy theories and airs fraud allegations on his Infowars platform. Alexander wrote that he spoke to Jones and neither of them came out to protest.
“We’re 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 uprising, also advised caution.
“If you decide to demonstrate publicly, it is vitally important that you keep your protest peaceful, civil, orderly and completely legal,” he said on Monday, alleging that some on the left want to encourage violence and blame it. on Trump. “In no way do you fall into that trap,” Stone said. “Please keep your protest peaceful and respectful.”
A grand jury is looking into payments made to women who claimed they had sex with Trump to buy their silence. Prosecutors did not say when their work would end or whether they would file charges. House Republicans wrote to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Monday asking for 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, Florida, Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida, and Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.