Trump Fans Threaten to Take Over Miami—but Will They Show Up?
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Supporters of former president Donald Trump are planning to rally outside a Miami courthouse on Tuesday when he is arraigned on charges of mishandling classified documents. But while fans are pledging a bigger demonstration than the dud that accompanied Trump’s New York arraignment in April, much of the movement remains wary of advertising rowdy rallies in the wake of the Capitol riot and its subsequent arrests.
Trump is expected to be arraigned at 3 p.m. on 37 counts related to a stash of classified documents he allegedly hid at his Palm Beach resort after leaving the presidency. On his social media site Truth Social, Trump called on fans to support him at the courthouse. “SEE YOU IN MIAMI ON TUESDAY!!!” he wrote.
Trump’s arraignment has led to heated rhetoric online, said Jared Holt, senior research manager at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue—but he noted that it appears unlikely to result in January 6-like scenes at the courthouse.
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“We've observed a few halfway coherent attempts to stage rallies and the same kinds of violent rhetoric we have come to expect after most major news events that affect the far-right,” Holt told The Daily Beast. “Remarkably little of that violent chatter, however, was directly related to plans to protest and we don't have reason to believe that mass violence is inevitable at the courthouse tomorrow.”
Some of the heated language comes from Trump himself. “Getting ready to head down to Doral in Miami,” he posted on Monday morning of his trip to Miami “We must all be STRONG and DEFEAT the Communists, Marxists, and Radical Left Lunatics that are systematically destroying our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Supporters have replied with details for an ad hoc collection of rallies running from 10am until the evening.
Trump has not endorsed a specific event. Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist whom Trump reportedly mulled for a campaign role this spring, has advertised a 1 p.m. rally outside the Wilkie D. Ferguson Courthouse.
Loomer told The Daily Beast that she, not the Trump campaign, had organized the rally, and that failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake would be in attendance. During a Saturday speech, Lake boasted that anyone wishing to prosecute Trump is “going to have to go through me and 75 million Americans just like me. And most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA. That’s not a threat, that's a public service announcement.”
Not to be outdone, other MAGA figures have announced even earlier events outside the courthouse. Pro-Trump rapper “Forgiato Blow” urged fans to show up for a 10 a.m. through 7 p.m. “I Stand With Trump Rally.” Blow’s occasional collaborator, the Flat Earth-promoting rapper Jimmy Levy, also announced his intention to rally outside the courthouse. “It’s ridiculous what Satan is trying to do!” Levy wrote on Instagram.
At least one group advertised busing to the courthouse. The Florida Republican Assembly, “a Judeo-Christan Grassroots Organization committed to restoring the Republican Party to it’s [sic] founding principles,” posted on Facebook that it has chartered four buses to take people from Orlando to Miami. (The group did not return a request for comment.)
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Other versions of the event fliers have circulated, with logos for groups like a Florida-based biker group and “Vietnamese For Trump'' superimposed on top. On Telegram, the Miami chapter of the far-right group the Proud Boys shared a poster for a 10 a.m courthouse rally.
Trump’s second arraignment of the year might draw bigger crowds than his first arraignment in New York. Trump has greater support in Florida than New York, and Miami’s streets can be more accommodating of large protests than Manhattan’s.
“Our findings suggest that we’re likely to see larger crowds in Miami than we did in New York after Trump’s prior indictment, but that it’s highly unlikely we'll see a groundswell like we saw on the day of the Capitol riot,” Holt said. “A Miami Proud Boys chapter has shared details for protests, which might suggest some members will attend, and a few individuals online have said they are going to attend while armed, which is legal in Florida, but neither has shown clear intentions of producing violence.”
Fears of violence have loomed large over post-Jan. 6 rallies, especially as Trump faces increasingly serious criminal charges. A Miami-Dade police Homeland Security Bureau advisory bulletin, first reported by the Washington Post, alerted other agencies to Loomer’s rally, as well as to the Proud Boys’ Telegram post.
Loomer said her rally would be peaceful and said the bulletin was potential evidence of an entrapment plot against her.
“Why would they place me in a bulletin unless they were trying to lie about me or entrap me and others?” she told The Daily Beast. “I haven’t committed a crime. I simply called for a peaceful rally. That’s legal.”
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