Donald Trump's initial reaction to a potentially imminent indictment was to issue a call to arms.
"PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!" Trump implored his followers on Saturday.
But incitement by Trump—who's still under investigation for inspiring the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol—appears to have fallen flat. Why? In large part because it's getting eaten alive by right-wing conspiracy culture.
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NBC News' Ben Collins reports that protests against Trump's indictment being organized in New York City and Mar-a-Lago have been hampered by Trumpers discouraging each other from going because they think it's a "fed trap," or what right-wingers call a "false flag" operation designed to pin responsibility for the protest on someone else. Most of the organizing has been on the pro-Trump platform Telegram.
"Part of the problem is that the potential pro-Trump NYC protest is at a heretofore non-public secret location," writes Collins, "making it all seem sketchier to people who might want to go."
MAGA enthusiast Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia tweeted Monday, “How many Feds/Fed assets are in place to turn protest against the political arrest of Pres Trump into violence?”
One key organizer of the 2020 “Stop the Steal” rallies, Ali Alexander, warned Trump supporters they could be “jailed or worse” if they protested in New York City.
“You have no liberty or rights there,” Alexander tweeted, according to the Associated Press.
Early on Monday morning, New York City law enforcement officials began hastily erecting barricades around the Manhattan Criminal Court.
Someone also might want to alert a perhaps unsuspecting In-n-Out Burger in Orange County Southern California, where Roger Stone has publicized a protest, according to USA Today correspondent Will Carless.
"Keep it peaceful!" warned good citizen Stone.
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