Donald Trump predicts he will be arrested next Tuesday, Calls for Protests

[TPIG]

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday called on his supporters to protest and “take our nation back” as he girds for an expected effort by the Manhattan district attorney to bring an unprecedented criminal charge over his handling of a hush money payment during his 2016 presidential campaign.

“Protest, take our nation back!” the former president and 2024 GOP presidential candidate exhorted his followers Saturday morning on his social media platform Truth Social, after pointing to news reports about the possibility he could be arrested Tuesday or soon thereafter.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/18/trump-protest-arrest-tuesday-00087738




I pray this doesn't get ugly, but I fear the worst...

[T'Chenka]

Trump knows saying this could lead to a protestor or police officer dying. He doesn't care. What a sick guy...

[Middle-aged Europe]

If he's arrested over the protests that would make it a self-fulfilling prophecy though.

[Del Tachi]

No one will protest. 

[Horus]

No one will protest.  

No one? I can see the reaction getting overhyped but there will definitely be isolated protests, at least.

[TPIG]

No one will protest. 

While I hope you're right, what reason do we have to believe this? We saw what happened last time Trump called for a mass mobilization of his supporters to "take back the country"...

[Crumpets]

This is one of those times when the geography of the two parties is a big weakness for the GOP in terms of planning and visibility. January 6th worked logistically because there was one place (DC) where they were told to gather and had weeks to plan for it. But are we really going to see huge numbers of Republicans organically plan protests in places where they'll be visible to news media+politicians? I'm sure plenty will be able to do it, especially somewhere like DC and Mar-a-Lago, but it'll be interesting to see even if they do what kind of numbers they have and what exactly they plan to do beyond waving flags.

[TPIG]

This is one of those times when the geography of the two parties is a big weakness for the GOP in terms of planning and visibility. January 6th worked logistically because there was one place (DC) where they were told to gather and had weeks to plan for it. But are we really going to see huge numbers of Republicans organically plan protests in places where they'll be visible to news media+politicians? I'm sure plenty will be able to do it, especially somewhere like DC and Mar-a-Lago, but it'll be interesting to see even if they do what kind of numbers they have and what exactly they plan to do beyond waving flags.

Very fair point and hope you're right!

[Hermit For Peace]

What's in it for people who would protest? I mean, why should they risk their safety and their lives for a guy who would only be using them for no good reason? How'd that turn out for the Jan 6 crowd?

[TPIG]

What's in it for people who would protest? I mean, why should they risk their safety and their lives for a guy who would only be using them for no good reason? How'd that turn out for the Jan 6 crowd?

Why do you assume his supporters are aware of the fact that he's using them for personal ends? That was the case leading up to Jan 6, and yet...we still had Jan 6.

[SWE]

Hopefully he's right about the arrest being imminent

[oldtimer]

What's in it for people who would protest? I mean, why should they risk their safety and their lives for a guy who would only be using them for no good reason? How'd that turn out for the Jan 6 crowd?

I think it is misunderstood how much the Jan 6th thing was an average republican voter reaction to incoming democrat, under controversial for them circumstances.

I think that republican voters thought of it as justified under what they believe.

[Roll Roons]

There may be some protests, especially in NYC, DC and Palm Beach, but it won't be a January 6 redux.

January 6 was as bad as it was because Trump himself held that rally on the Ellipse. If he wasn't there, not nearly as many people would have showed up. It's also unlikely that so many people would have gone to the Capitol without him egging them on.

[OSR stands with Israel]

There may be some protests, especially in NYC, DC and Palm Beach, but it won't be a January 6 redux.

January 6 was as bad as it was because Trump himself held that rally on the Ellipse. If he wasn't there, not nearly as many people would have showed up. It's also unlikely that so many people would have gone to the Capitol without him egging them on.

Also people forget that during the winter of 2020-21 many states ramped up COVID restrictions so far more people would have been home than otherwise . Without COVID Jan 6th would be far smaller because most of those people would have been at work .

Now with COVID restrictions dropped , I doubt many people will even find the time to protest like they did in 2020-21.

[TPIG]

I was admittedly ignorant about the facts of this particular case until this morning when I decided to do some digging, and I'm frankly a little disheartened. It seems general consensus, outlined even by non-conservative sources such as TIME and the NYT is that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg's case is based on a very shaky, untested legal theory. The case was dropped by his immediate predecessor, Cyrus Vance, and various former prosecutors seem to agree with this assessment.

As NYT reported last year: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/21/nyregion/trump-bragg-stormy-daniels.html

"by the time Mr. Vance obtained Mr. Trump’s tax returns in early 2021, he had developed concerns about indicting Mr. Trump on charges of falsifying Trump Organization records related to the hush money.

Falsifying business records can be charged as a misdemeanor in New York. To make it a felony, prosecutors would need to show that Mr. Trump falsified the hush-money records to help commit or conceal a second crime.

Mr. Vance’s office examined several secondary crimes Mr. Trump might have been seeking to conceal, people with knowledge of their discussions said, and concluded that the most promising option for an underlying crime was the federal campaign finance violation to which Mr. Cohen had pleaded guilty.

But with help from the outside legal experts, the prosecutors ultimately concluded that approach was too risky — a judge might find that falsifying business records could only be a felony if it aided or concealed a New York state crime, not a federal one.

It is possible, legal experts said, that Mr. Bragg is pursuing a violation of a New York State election law to underpin a potential case. Under Mr. Vance, the prosecutors briefly mulled using a state election law violation, but rejected it: Since the presidential race during which the hush-money payment occurred was a federal election, they concluded it was outside the bounds of state law.

I don't think I could be accused by anyone here of being a Donald Trump apologist. I think he's a clear and present danger to our constitutional system, but it seems to me that Mr. Bragg is desperately seeking to find something that will stick in this shaky case. Indicting Trump for the sake of a mugshot with a case this flimsy is not only incredibly risky/has the potential to backfire with a Trump acquittal but also feeds directly into Trump's narrative of being the victim of a witch hunt and could escalate violently.

There are so many other things to go after Trump for...Jan 6, classified document handling, fraudulent business practices, etc...


Perhaps the forum can help me see why I'm potentially wrong here, but this just doesn't seem to be the right move...

[Inmate Trump]

Republicans: Your leading candidate is once again calling for violence.

[Orwell]

Republicans: Your leading candidate is once again calling for violence.

Peaceful protest isn’t violence, were Democrats calling for violence when they supported the BLM Riots of 2020? $1 billion in damages.

[Hermit For Peace]

What's in it for people who would protest? I mean, why should they risk their safety and their lives for a guy who would only be using them for no good reason? How'd that turn out for the Jan 6 crowd?

Why do you assume his supporters are aware of the fact that he's using them for personal ends? That was the case leading up to Jan 6, and yet...we still had Jan 6.

It's what Trump does. It's all he does. If they can't see it then they are blind.

[Hermit For Peace]

Republicans: Your leading candidate is once again calling for violence.

Peaceful protest isn’t violence, were Democrats calling for violence when they supported the BLM Riots of 2020? $1 billion in damages.

Trump doesn't advocate for peaceful anything. He doesn't know the meaning of the word.

[ProudModerate2]

What's in it for people who would protest? I mean, why should they risk their safety and their lives for a guy who would only be using them for no good reason? How'd that turn out for the Jan 6 crowd?

His closest, loyal supporters will die for him, if need be.
They have a cult-like mentality for the Orange God.

[BG-NY]

I’m sure they’ll be mostly peaceful.

[Bakersfield Uber Alles]

Hopefully he's right about the arrest being imminent

Honestly, I’ll believe it when it actually happens. Once bitten, twice shy.

[emailking]

I was admittedly ignorant about the facts of this particular case until this morning when I decided to do some digging, and I'm frankly a little disheartened.

There is a lot more info in the "Law enforcement preparing for Trump indictment as early as next week" thread where I quoted the history into it. We had been tracking it for the past few weeks in the Trump Org thread.

[emailking]

Perhaps the forum can help me see why I'm potentially wrong here, but this just doesn't seem to be the right move...

he's probably still going to be indicted in GA and by the feds in the coming months. By the time the debates roll around, it will probably recede in importance which case went first. If this is all that happens I agree in the sense that it's a waste. But it's probably not all that will happen. Ideally something J6 related would have gone first though yeah. But they're all independent jurisdictions.

[DrScholl]

He's trying to incite another riot like January 6th. That doesn't mean it will happen, but he's trying to make it happen.