Morning Briefing: Far Right Prepares for Trump's Appearance at Miami Courthouse
Morning Briefing: Supporters of former president Donald Trump are planning mass protests at the Wilkie D. Ferguson U.S. Courthouse in Miami, Florida, and researchers have reportedly “identified individual users who are threatening violence against Trump’s perceived enemies and at least one who has explicitly said they are planning on attending with guns.”
At least two GOP members of Congress “used alarmingly warlike rhetoric in response to the federal charges filed against Donald Trump,” including Rep. Clay Higgins and Rep. Andy Biggs.
The calls to action and threats have been “amplified on right-wing media sites and have been met by supportive responses from social media users and cheers from crowds, who have become conditioned over several years by Mr. Trump and his allies to see any efforts to hold him accountable as assaults against him.”
Data from social media platforms reveal that “references to ‘civil war’ more than doubled on alternative social media platforms frequented by the American far right the very day that Trump posted on Truth Social about the indictment,” according to an analysis by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE).
During the past few days, prominent and influential members of the far right and right-wing media have called for mass protests at the federal courthouse in Miami in support of the former president.
Wayne Allyn Root, the far right pundit and conspiracy theorist, wrote at World Net Daily that the “Democrats in power and the people who run our government are evil. Demonic. Satanic,” and add that “this is war. This is life or death. This is the end of America if we don't fight fire with fire.”
Ali Alexander, the far right activist, wrote on Telegram that “if we don't have LAW, we shouldn't give them ORDER.” Alexander also wrote that if “Republicans do not do something unprecedent, we’ll all hang,” and added that “everyone should see Members of Congress sweating in the heat with ordinary supporters.”
Laura Loomer, the far right conspiracy theories and failed Florida Congressional candidate, promoted the protest at the federal courthouse on the InfoWars program War Room with Owen Shroyer, and Kari Lake, the 2020 election denier and failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate, promoted her plans to attend the protest on Steve Bannon’s War Room.
While it has been reported that the Proud Boys, the far right violent extremist street gang, publicly displayed “apathy towards Trump’s legal woes sets them apart from the wider far-right extremism world,” the Miami chapter of the Proud Boys promoted the Loomer’s protest in their Telegram channel.
The violent rhetoric of the far right is “echoing among some Donald Trump sympathizers ahead of the former president’s appearance in a Miami court,” and both federal and local law enforcement “assigned to domestic terrorism squads are actively working to identify any possible threats.”
Advisors of the former president are reportedly “quietly expressing some concern that the pro-Trump protesters already assembling in front of the courthouse aren’t helping the former president’s case,” and one advisor predicted there is “going to be a disaster” and there will be people who “don’t want to be peaceful.”