Former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, May 21, 2024 in New York. (Mark Peterson/Pool Photo via AP)
Donald Trump’s felony conviction has drawn outrage from Republican leaders and voters, some of whom have even called for violent retribution against the jury and judge involved in the former president’s New York hush money trial.
In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts of falsified business records last week, supporters and political allies have turned out in full force to defend the president-turned-felon. Reactions have ranged from solemn and disappointed to full-blown frightening, with some Trump faithfuls even making threats against the jurors involved in his New York conviction.
Trump was found guilty on all counts in the case, which centered around his efforts to conceal $130,000 in hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The jury unanimously agreed that Trump tampered with business records to hide his financial dealings with Daniels and protect his reputation ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The former president himself had strong words to share directly following the verdict, calling the trial “rigged” and “a disgrace”—echoing his past remarks about his 2020 election defeat.
Violent rhetoric, threats against jurors flood far-right social media
Some Congressional Republicans followed Trump’s lead in attacking the jurors’ verdict, while others expressed more extreme views.
“Millions of Nazi and Imperial Japanese soldiers could not take down America but one Scumbag New York judge did just that,” Derrick Van Orden, a Republican representative from Wisconsin, wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Outside of Congress, reactions took an even more extreme tone. Trump’s base, some of whom famously partook in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection intended to overturn the results of Trump’s 2020 election loss, quickly mobilized across the web in response to his felony conviction—many spewing violent, threatening rhetoric toward Judge Juan Merchan and the 12 citizen jurors who decided the case.
NBC News reporting highlighted unnerving posts from Trump supporters calling for jurors to be “doxxed,” which refers to the practice of unearthing and sharing individuals’ personal contact information online.
“We need to identify each juror. Then make them miserable. Maybe even suicidal,” a user wrote on a pro-Trump website.
“1,000,000 men (armed) need to go to Washington and hang everyone. That’s the only solution,” wrote another user. “This s— is out of control.”
One user of Trump’s Truth Social platform wrote that every juror involved in the New York case should “pay for what they have done.”
“May God strike them dead,” the user said. “We will on November 5th and they will pay!”
Calls for ‘Civil War’ and executions
Other users suggested that Trump’s conviction was grounds for a “Civil War.”
“it’s time to stock up on guns & ammo, and emergency supplies. You will need them sooner than you think,” one Patriots.win member commented, while another wrote, “we can no longer live peacefully with democrats.” Another seemed eager for conflict, writing, “now we can finally get this civil war to pop off.”
In the same Patriots.win thread, a commenter added that all involved in Trump’s conviction “need to be designated as traitors to America and banished from the country. The head of the snakes need to be executed.”
The Civil War comparisons didn’t end there, as far-right activist Ali Alexander called Trump’s conviction “worse than the Civil War” in a post on messaging app Telegram. Alexander is best known for organizing the “Stop the Steal” campaign, which promotes the conspiracy theory that Trump actually won the 2020 presidential election.
Emotionally charged reactions also came from the Proud Boys, a far-right white supremacist group that espouses political violence and is known for its support of Trump. A post from one Proud Boys chapter referenced Spanish fascist dictator Francisco Franco while reacting to Trump’s conviction, writing, “Now you understand. To save your nation, you must fight. The time to respond is now. Franco Friday has begun.”
Other followers called for direct violence against Democrats and Biden supporters, sharing messages like “AMERICA FULLY DESTROYED BY DEMOCRATS. LOCK AND LOAD” and “Time to start capping some leftys” on far-right conspiracy website Gateway Pundit.
Both Truth Social and Gateway Pundit have sitewide policies against violent language, which led to the removal of some posts in the wake of Trump’s conviction.
And, in a shocking moment on political commentator Tim Pool’s podcast, far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer advanced calls for violence against Trump opponents. “They should get the death penalty,” she said, just moments before the podcast live feed abruptly cut out.
In a follow-up post on X, Loomer said she was referring specifically to people who “staged a coup” against Trump. “I said people who commit TREASON should get the legal punishment for TREASON, which is the DEATH PENALTY, per US law,” she wrote.
Loomer’s statement is part of a concerning trend of far-right allies and pundits calling for political executions in recent years. Reporting from Radical Reports points to a dozen examples of such rhetoric, including calls for violence against President Biden and his supporters. Last year, for example, far-right media personality Charlie Kirk called Biden “a corrupt tyrant who should honestly be put in jail and/or given the death penalty for his crimes against America.”
Trump’s right-wing media allies call for jailing Democrats
Right-wing media coverage of the trial has also been peppered with heated language.
Former Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon, who’s facing legal woes of his own, stoked anger in Trump supporters on his “War Room” podcast. “It’s not President Trump they’re trying to destroy,” he said during a May 30 episode of the show. “They’re trying to destroy you.”
Sean Davis, co-founder of right-wing publication The Federalist, also expressed anger about the verdict. Davis took to X to demand retribution from Republican lawmakers. “Give me a list of which Democrat officials you’re going to put in prison, or get lost,” Davis wrote. “There’s only one way to deal with nuclear war, which is what Democrats have unleashed, and that is mutually assured destruction.”
Far-right columnist and podcast host Auron MacIntyre was equally demanding in his call for retaliation. “You need Republican DAs putting Democrats in jail immediately,” he wrote in a post on X. “No excuses, no equivocation.”
And Newsmax viewers might have seen a rant from host Carl Higbie, who called parties involved in Trump’s hush money trial “tyrants” during a Friday episode of his “Frontline” program. Higbie also suggested that Democrats are the party encouraging violence.
“You are pushing people to the edge. The same party that is offended by the wrong pronoun is pushing the party that owns 90% of the guns, of which the majority defends our nation,” he said, implying that Democrats are deliberately provoking violent conflict between the parties.
“You weak people have no idea. You people in your cities with your white-shoe consultants, country clubs who thought prosecuting Trump was a good idea. You have never met America.”
As tensions continue to flare, the punishment for Trump’s 34 felony convictions remains to be seen. The former president will return to court for sentencing before Judge Merchan on July 11—the very week before he’s expected to accept the Republican presidential nomination.
