What will Judge Merchan do now that Trump has hinted that his supporters should break the law? By Hal Brown, MSW

Trump just pulled a Jan. 6th by posting this on Truth Social:

Why are Palestinian protesters, and even rioters, allowed to roam the Cities, scream, shout, sit, block traffic, enter buildings, not get permits, and basically do whatever they want including threatening Supreme Court Justices right in front of their homes…. 

This is the rest of the post:

….and yet people who truly LOVE our Country, and want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, are not allowed to ‘Peacefully Protest,’ and are rudely and systematically shut down and ushered off to far away ‘holding areas,’ essentially denying them their Constitutional Rights. America Loving Protesters should be allowed to protest at the front steps of Courthouses, all over the Country, just like it is allowed for those who are destroying our Country on the Radical Left, a two tiered system of justice.”
 

In fact, peaceful protests are allowed outside of courthouses.

He is pulling a version of his Jan. 6th speech. He is indirectly asking, our putting it in the minds of, his MAGA hoard that he wants them to roam NYC, to scream, shout, and sit, not illegal per se, but also to block traffic, enter buildings, not get permits, do whatever they went including threaten a judge.

He also posted this:

Free Speech and Assembly has been ‘CHILLED’ for USA SUPPORTERS. GO OUT AND PEACEFULLY PROTEST. RALLY BEHIND MAGA. SAVE OUR COUNTRY! “THE ONLY THING YOU HAVE TO FEAR IS FEAR ITSELF.

By writing that the only thing his supporters have to fear is fear itself is also saying that they should be fearless, again a reminder that he is okay with them risking the consequences of breaking the law. This of course is the most famous statement made by Franklin D. Roosevelt and is associated with war. Trump wants his supporters to feel and act as if they are in a war.

Even though throws in the words “peacefully protest” this does not negate the words that precede and follow it which will be understood by many of his intended audience to mean that anything goes.

What Trump is doing is winking at his most zealous and prone to violence supporters when he tells them to be peaceful. I’d call this incitement by a wink.

I doubt that Judge Merchan will take action, at least not severe action, on the these Trump posts if only because it will get the trial off track. However, I can see him admonishing Trump not to post or make any statements that could be construed as even hinting that he’d approve of his supporters breaking the law even if he qualifies what he says with the word “peaceful.” I hope he does this.

If it happens that Trump gets what he really wants, that is, a violent protest where people are hurt, he may rue the moment when he decided to post these messages.

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