Trump Supporters Attack Anti-Trump Protesters In New York

It’s arraignment day in New York for the former President so his supporters have shown up to spew anti-Semitism, wear ironic homemade flag overalls, and attack anti-Trump protesters.

People who support the rule of law and the indictment of Donald Trump were also making themselves known, with a large banner reading “Trump lies all the time.”

The giant banner is back and says TRUMP LIES ALL THE TIME. pic.twitter.com/ox7iYdSWSG

— David Mack (@davidmackau) April 4, 2023

This banner so enraged Trump supporters that they attacked the anti-Trump supporters and police struggled to break it up:

JUST NOW: A Trump supporter just rushed the banner and tried to tear it up. Started attacking the anti-Trump protesters. Very ugly and heated. Swarmed by media. Police struggled to get in to break it up. Getting heated. pic.twitter.com/H2pfiHI2cN

— David Mack (@davidmackau) April 4, 2023

Trump told 30,573 false or misleading claims over 4 years, according to the Washington Post. So the banner is not only accurate, but a reasonable and peaceful use of the First Amendment.

The result of the Trump supporters trying to destroy the banner? Oh, they got what they wanted. The anti-Trump protesters were moved to a separate pen, while the media stayed with the pro-Trump supporters, according to Mack.

“We’re trying to keep the peace,” one cop is telling me. “You can express opinions on this side or this side.”

David Mack of Buzzfeed News is on the scene in New York, capturing the media’s obsession with the stragglers of Trump supporters with the “Covid-19 is a lie” and “Trump or death” signs.

This gentleman made his own overalls, which he displays while announcing, “We should throw the district attorney in Guantanamo Bay.”

Michael Picard, 34, of Hartford CT is here in this outfit. “This is an unjust prosecution,” he says.

He says he made the overalls himself. pic.twitter.com/Cr0tQvcWfj

— David Mack (@davidmackau) April 4, 2023

Guantanamo Bay is of course a detention camp for a U.S. military prison. Also known as not the place a patriotic person would threaten to toss a District Attorney who is upholding the law by applying it (somewhat) equally, making Picard’s homemade flag overalls unwittingly paradoxical.

Of course, the law is not being applied to former President Donald Trump as it would be to anyone else. He is getting a lot of privileges, including having not been charged with this crime for which his “fixer” went to prison for years. Fair enough, charging a former President is unprecedented territory, but to pretend Trump’s 50 years of being investigated by law enforcement, long before he came on the political scene, is all motivated by hate is absurd.

It’s also fair to say that once in office, Trump generated a lot of hate and created a lot of division here in the U.S. and globally, by aligning himself with dictators and treating allies shamefully. He did that through his own actions, though. The fact is that many people respond negatively to the harm and division he caused, as well as the ethics and norms upon which he trampled and the laws he skirted, as well as the incitement of a deadly domestic terrorist attack on his own country.

While no one should be prosecuted as a punishment for being a bad person, this specific case is related to a crime that Trump’s own fixer already served time for. It is a crime, if reports of falsifying business records are accurate (34 felony counts, reportedly according to a source), for which others are routinely prosecuted.

But Trump supporters demand the former President be judged as if there is no context of a 50 year career in the crosshairs of law enforcement and as if he had not weaponized the U.S. government against critics when he had the power.

Trump and his elected officials and PR arm at Fox News have been smearing the Manhattan DA as ‘Soros-backed and Soros bought and paid for’ but an advisor for Soros, who is a longtime target for Republicans, told CNBC that Soros “has never met or spoken to Alvin Bragg.”

The accusation stems from a rather absurd reach:

“The criticism appears to stem from donations Soros and a nonprofit funded by him made to the national racial justice group Color of Change, which backed Bragg’s DA campaign and later pressured him on a prosecution unrelated to Trump.”

Soros donated to Color of Change, which backed Bragg’s campaign. That is not the same thing as donating to Bragg, let alone pressuring him.

Mack noted wryly that “Blacks for Trump” arrived on the scene and were immediately swarmed by media as they spewed anti-Semitic accusations around. “A group of a half dozen “Blacks for Trump” guys just arrived. Immediately swarmed by media. Talking about Soros, the banks, Bragg, and “this judge who hates Trump.”

A group of a half dozen “Blacks for Trump” guys just arrived. Immediately swarmed by media. Talking about Soros, the banks, Bragg, and “this judge who hates Trump.” pic.twitter.com/ijKVBchfPV

— David Mack (@davidmackau) April 4, 2023

That judge that “hates Trump” is the same one,
New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan, who ruled in Trump’s lawyers’ favor by banning cameras in the courtroom.

But unless this Judge gives Trump’s lawyers every single thing they ask for, he will be accused of “hating Trump,” in an attempt to delegitimize the judicial process.

This is a typical Trump event, replete with ridiculous costumes, hate speech, and attempts to silence with physical violence any opposition. This is why the media loves Trump and ignores the opposition, even though the opposition represents more people, as the last election demonstrated rather definitively.

But this is also so far a very reduced Trump army. Let’s hope the police are more prepared than the banner clip suggested.