In online far-right extremist circles, news of the latest Trump indictment drew outrage. But there weren’t immediate calls for violence or for more big public rallies like the one that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
As with the previous indictment announcements, Trump’s extremist supporters registered their fury with memes, angry-face and poop emoji, and social media posts calling the charges a “waste of paper.”
Scattered calls for unspecified retribution against an imagined “Marxist takeover” typically stopped short of explicitly violent talk. Instead, far-right extremists echoed many of the same complaints as mainstream Republicans in their reactions to the indictment: The case is a gambit to sideline Trump and “steal” the 2024 election. They also argued that a D.C. court couldn’t possibly be a fair venue, and that it’s a ploy to distract from the alleged legal woes of the “Biden crime family.” Overall, they contend, the Jan. 6 prosecutions are an overblown reaction to fiery but constitutionally sound right-wing protest.
Online, Trump’s die-hard supporters vowed that the new accusations would only galvanize their MAGA movement. As one social media post put it: “more charges, the more committed.” These days, extremism trackers say, the main threat of political violence comes from radicalized individuals acting locally rather than more organized far-right movements such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, two groups whose national leadership crumbled under seditious conspiracy convictions for their roles in the U.S. Capitol attack.
As with the previous indictment announcements, Trump’s extremist supporters registered their fury with memes, angry-face and poop emoji, and social media posts calling the charges a “waste of paper.”
Scattered calls for unspecified retribution against an imagined “Marxist takeover” typically stopped short of explicitly violent talk. Instead, far-right extremists echoed many of the same complaints as mainstream Republicans in their reactions to the indictment: The case is a gambit to sideline Trump and “steal” the 2024 election. They also argued that a D.C. court couldn’t possibly be a fair venue, and that it’s a ploy to distract from the alleged legal woes of the “Biden crime family.” Overall, they contend, the Jan. 6 prosecutions are an overblown reaction to fiery but constitutionally sound right-wing protest.
Online, Trump’s die-hard supporters vowed that the new accusations would only galvanize their MAGA movement. As one social media post put it: “more charges, the more committed.” These days, extremism trackers say, the main threat of political violence comes from radicalized individuals acting locally rather than more organized far-right movements such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, two groups whose national leadership crumbled under seditious conspiracy convictions for their roles in the U.S. Capitol attack.
