Extremists Fantasize of Violence After Trump Guilty Verdict
Extremists are reacting to Donald Trump’s guilty verdicts in the New York hush-money trial with calls to violence — both overt and covert.
The news that the former president was found guilty on 34 different felony counts did not sit well with Stew Peters, a far-right shock jock who has frequently called for executing government officials, Biden family members, and journalists.
Reacting to Trump’s conviction Thursday on Telegram, Peters claimed that the judicial system has been “weaponized against the American people,” adding: “We are left with NO other option but to take matters into our own hands. ⚔” Leaving no doubt about what the crossed swords emoji signified, Peters soon posted a picture of a noose overlaid with the words “Extreme Accountability.” He added the text: “It’s Time.”
The Columbus, Ohio, chapter of the Proud Boys also responded on Telegram to the news of the Trump verdicts with a single word: “War.” That post was shared by the state chapter of the Proud Boys, which also posted an image that read: “PB Standing By” — a reference to Trump’s call on the group to “stand back and stand by” during a 2020 election debate.
Former “Stop the Steal” ringleader Ali Alexander was somewhat more subtle. He posted on Telegram that Trump’s felony convictions were “worse than the Civil War.” He also posted an upside down image of the American flag — a distress symbol appropriated by the Jan. 6 rioters — with the words: “No one is coming to save us. We must.”
At The Donald, a Reddit-like forum for the former president’s most hardcore supporters, the chatter was extreme. One post was titled: “We no longer have a viable country. We are now living under more tyranny than ever existed even in 1776.” Commenters added fuel to the fire with statements like: “Our forefathers would be stacking bodies by now” and “Ready for the Call to Arms!”
Not all on the far right were ready to take to the streets, however. Notorious antisemite Nick Fuentes, leader of the Groyper movement, encouraged his followers not to engage in “illegal actions,” adding that “the Feds will not be messing around this year.”
Similarly, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones filmed a short video posted to X in which he claimed that Trump had been found guilty of “kangaroo counts.” Jones asserted that “the next card” in the “playbook” of the “Deep State and the globalists” would be to mount “false flag terror attacks” that could be “blamed on Trump supporters angry about the verdict.”
Jones insisted that attacks are not necessary: “We do not want any violence. We do not want any attacks,” he said. Despite claiming that the Republic is “on its deathbed,” Jones continued, “We are — intellectually, culturally, spiritually — winning.”
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