Some MAGAts Are Threatening Violence And Insurrection— Shouldn't Their Weapons Be Confiscated?

Often using Mob boss innuendo, Trump encouraged his supporters to come out and protest during his trial. They didn’t. He had to beg to get his family members to even show up— and some did and some didn’t. A handful of senators who see themselves as potential running mates + other congressional criminals who hope for Trump’s pardons in the future— like Gaetz and Boebert— were there. And then there were the ones who needed more immediate stuff from Trump, like MAGA Mike and Bob Good… although in endorsing Good’s primary opponent, Trump slashed Good to pieces and explicitly said “too late.”

It looks to me that Trump would like the wield his MAGA support as a potential weapon, a threat to… domestic tranquility. And, in fact, last week a trio of Reuters writers reported that MAGAts were online explicitly calling for violence in response to the guilty verdicts. They were enraged and flooding “pro-Trump websites with calls for riots, revolution and violent retribution” particularly on Truth Social platform, Patriots.Win and the Gateway Pundit. “Some called for attacks on jurors, the execution of the judge, Justice Juan Merchan, or outright civil war and armed insurrection. ‘Someone in NY with nothing to lose needs to take care of Merchan,’ wrote one commentator on Patriots.Win. ‘Hopefully he gets met with illegals with a machete,’ the post said in reference to illegal immigrants. On Gateway Pundit, one poster suggested shooting liberals after the verdict. ‘Time to start capping some leftys,’ said the post. ‘This cannot be fixed by voting.’”

To these far right extremists, many— though not all— with very limited intellectual development, they are only capable of echoing Trump's and his media allies’ assertions that the trial was rigged, Merchan, was corrupt and biased against Trump, and that the judicial system has been weaponized by political opponents, specifically the Biden administration, to prevent Trump from returning to power. Incapable of critical thinking, the lack of evidence offers no guardrails at all.

“Threats of violence and intimidating rhetoric,” wrote Joseph Tafani, Ned Parker and Peter Eisler, “soared after Trump lost the 2020 election and falsely claimed the vote was stolen. As he campaigns for a second White House term, Trump has baselessly cast the judges and prosecutors in his trials as corrupt tools of the Biden administration, intent on sabotaging his White House bid. His loyalists have responded with a campaign of threats and intimidation targeting judges and court officials. ‘This was a disgrace, this was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt,’ Trump told reporters afterwards, echoing comments he often made during the trial… Trump continued his attacks online after the verdict. On Truth Social, he called Merchan ‘HIGHLY CONFLICTED’ and criticized his jury instructions as unfair. One commentator responded by posting a picture of a hangman's platform and a noose with the caption: ‘TREASONOUS MOBSTER OF THE JUSTICES SYSTEM!!’”

Jacob Ware, a co-author of the book God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America, said the violent language used by Trump’s followers was testament to the former president’s “ironclad ability to mobilize more extreme supporters to action, both at the ballot box and through violence.”

“Until and unless he accepts the process, the extremist reaction to his legal troubles will be militant,” said Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

…After Thursday's verdict, many of his supporters also said that his conviction was proof that the American political system was broken and that only violent action could save the country.

“1,000,000 men (armed) need to go to Washington and hang everyone. That's the only solution,” said one poster on Patriots.win. Another added: “Trump should already know he has an army willing to fight and die for him if he says the words...I’ll take up arms if he asks.”

Other posts specifically urged targeting Democrats, in some cases suggesting they be shot. “AMERICA FULLY DESTROYED BY DEMOCRATS. LOCK AND LOAD,” wrote a commentator on Gateway Pundit.

…[O]ne researcher who studies extremist militias said the guilty verdict could inspire violence by reinforcing a conviction among some of Trump's supporters that he's a victim of a conspiracy orchestrated by his enemies.

“I do think a lot of these folks have been looking for an excuse to maybe mobilize for a while,” said Amy Cooter of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies’ Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism. “I hope I’m wrong. I’ve said for a long time, though, that I would not be shocked to see violence result from a guilty verdict, either directed toward the jurors” or others connected to the case.

"Under The Influence" by Nancy Ohanian

Many of these people aren’t the hardcore, violent militants Cooter described, just MAGAts and QAnon-afflicted idiots getting swept up in the rhetoric. Remember, conspiracy theories distort reality and can eventually lead weak-minded people to act out on false premises. They believe Trump and are easily manipulated by him so the belief in a widespread conspiracy to undermine him, despite not being supported by credible evidence, isn’t hard to understand.

Let’s keep in mind that to these brainwashed people Trump’s conviction is seen as a gross miscarriage of justice and a direct attack on someone who they are convinced represents their values and interests. They are emotionally invested in Trump. Over 70 million of them voted for him in 2020, despite the widespread belief by historians that he was the worst president in American history and the most corrupt. Trump supporters— I know two— are in an increasingly insurrectionist media bubble and his ongoing claims of being targeted by a corrupt establishment is now seen as vindicated by his conviction. His supporters view this event as further proof that Trump is a victim of a broad conspiracy aimed at undermining his leadership and the MAGA movement they’re completely invested in— even to the point where they can rationalize the calls for violent retribution and civil unrestand even see it as an existential threat, not just to their leader, but to their whole way of life. 

Trump has the kind of hypnotic power over them that Hitler had over his own early adapters in the late 1920s/early '30s. The rhetoric of violent retribution and armed insurrection is interpreted in their brains as a necessary response to defend against a corrupt system and from this perspective, the use of force is seen as the only viable solution to restore justice and protect “American” values. They frame the encouragement of violence— attacking jurors and the judge— as acts of patriotism and self-defense against a tyrannical government, reflecting for some a deep-seated belief in the need to fight for their rights and freedoms.

Even before the 34 guilty verdicts, Citizens for Ethics documented Trump repeatedly promising “to weaponize the federal government during a second administration by pursuing revenge, retaliation and retribution against his political enemies. Because Trump is posting primarily on Truth Social, his newly-public social media company with only a niche following, the extent of his threats have mostly flown under the radar... CREW analyzed over 13,000 of Trump’s Truth Social posts from January 1, 2023 to April 1, 2024, and found that while Trump has recently backed off some of his more violent rhetoric, threatening political opponents has been a consistent fixation for Trump. Since the start of last year, Trump has issued direct or implied threats on Truth Social to use the powers of the federal government to target Joe Biden during a second Trump administration 25 times. Specifically, Trump has threatened him with FBI raids, investigations, indictments and even jail time. But Biden is not Trump’s only target. He’s also threatened or suggested that the FBI and the Department of Justice should take action against senators, judges, members of Biden’s family and even non-governmental organizations.”