Ex-President Calls For Protests Hours Before He’s Due In Court

Trump on Monday urged his supporters to “GO OUT AND PEACEFULLY PROTEST” to “SAVE OUR COUNTRY!” while alleging his supporters’ constitutional rights are being violated when their protests outside of Manhattan criminal court are limited by the NYPD to designated areas (a routine practice in New York City for any high-profile event where protests are expected).

Trump claimed his supporters are “rudely and systemically shut down and ushered off to far away ‘holding areas,'” while “those who are destroying our Country on the Radical Left” are allowed to protest “at the front steps of Courthouses.”

Small crowds of pro- and anti-Trump supporters were separated by NYPD barricades in Collect Pond Park, directly across the street from the Manhattan Criminal Court where protesters, reporters and observers routinely gather during high-profile events, during the first week of Trump’s trial (dividing opposing protest groups to avoid clashes is also routine NYPD practice).

In a post after his trial concluded Monday, Trump suggested police presence outside the court was deterring “Republicans” who “want the right to protest in front of the Courthouse, like everyone else” and questioned why police weren’t diverted from the courthouse to “Columbia to protect Jewish students” as the university held classes remotely Monday in the wake of tense protest scenes in which some pro-Palestinian protesters were videotaped yelling antisemitic slurs at Jewish students.

But additional police were called in to Columbia University over the weekend and made more than 100 arrests—which appeared to only enhance the tensions as students set up additional tents in solidarity with those arrested and those at other colleges, including New York University and Yale, also set up encampments to show their support for protesters at Columbia.

In his earlier post, Trump also falsely claimed “Palestinian protesters and even rioters” are “allowed to roam the Cities, scream, shout, sit, block traffic, enter buildings, not get permits, and basically do whatever they want including threatening the Supreme Court Justices right in front of their homes.”

Protesters gathered outside the homes of Supreme Court justices after the leaked Dobbs decision that ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade, and at least one man who law enforcement says traveled to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home with a cadre of weapons was arrested and charged with attempting to murder him in July 2022.