![]() "It's the natural thing. It's the thing they always do," Squire said. "They get in trouble, they get looked at, they get scrutinized, they get horrible media attention, a lot of legal attention, and they say the thing that pops into their head, which is 'Retreat. Go back into your mom's basement and don't come out.'" No central focus for protestsĬomplicating the efforts of any Trump supporters who do wish to protest in support of him is a lack of any central focus for their movement. Online, people are being extremely cautious about what they say, and what they plan, she said. The sense of paranoia among these Trump supporters echoes the concerns felt by white supremacists in the months after the deadly Charlottesville rally in 2017, Squire said. Squire said she has started a research folder called "It's a trap" where she is storing screen-shot examples of this messaging she finds online. The notion that pro-Trump protests are traps laid by law enforcement has been around for years, said Megan Squire, deputy director for data analytics at the Southern Poverty Law Center. But in the last few days, that narrative has dominated online discussion about whether to come out in public and support Trump if he is arrested, she said. "If you protest in New York City, you will be in the single most hostile jurisdiction in the United States. On Trump's social media site, Truth Social, British far-right provocateur Paul Joseph Watson polled his 218,000 followers with the question: "Is the potential protest against Trump being arrested a J6-style trap?"Īnd on Twitter, Ali Alexander, one of the main pushers of the "Stop The Steal" movement, which claimed the 2020 election was actually won by Trump, warned his more than 175,00 followers: The rioters will be paid bad actors not Trump supporters. "There is no point in playing into their hands. Overwhelmingly, the comments in response - almost 2,000 of them - were in the negative. In one pro-Trump channel on the encrypted messaging service Telegram devoted to the QAnon conspiracy, a moderator asked the channel's 212,000 subscribers whether they would protest if Trump is arrested Tuesday. 6 riot, hundreds of identifiable people remain free. Will Trump be arrested?: Here are the possible charges in the New York investigation But overall, there is no sort of cohesive movement in terms of where these protests should happen." "We're also seeing some people urging people to protest despite that risk, with some calls for violence. "We're seeing folks cautioning people about engaging in protests out of fear that it's a trap by the government," said Oren Segal, Vice President, of the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism. With no known time and place for a Trump arrest - and the possibility that he won't even be arrested, that his call to action is some kind of ruse - there remains no central target for his supporters this time around. 6, details on this latest rallying cry are scant. 6 rioters were somehow framed.Īnd unlike Jan. That offers even the most ardent supporter tangible evidence that pro-Trump fervor can lead to jail time - even as some conspiracy theorists continue to claim those Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, which was preceded by a call to action at a Trump rally, has led to nearly 1,000 prosecutions. That reaction fits a pattern, experts say: Broadly, extremist movements are often whipsawed, with aggressive activity followed by pushback from law enforcement, resulting in withdrawal as remaining followers grow paranoid. ![]() Rather than organizing protests, prominent Trump supporters online are instead driving a different narrative: That any public events are a "trap" set by law enforcement, and that attending any events will be counterproductive and will likely result in protesters being arrested. Three days after Trump's desperate pleas, online support for public protests remains unfocused, disorganized and muted, according to experts who monitor far-right extremists online. The messages have been flowing ever since Trump announced on Saturday that he believes he will be arrested in New York on Tuesday.īut while the former president calls on his supporters to gather in protest at his prosecution, that message seems to be falling on deaf - or at least unwilling - ears. So ended two posts from former President Donald Trump, who has been posting incessantly - often in all caps - on his Truth Social page for the last few days. "WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!" Watch Video: As Trump indictment lingers, New York City officials prep for protests ![]()
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