The former president issued the call on social media right before he entered the courthouse on Monday.
On the day opening arguments started in the so-called “hush-money” trial in New York, former President Donald Trump called on would-be demonstrators to “go out and peacefully protest” the case.
In a Truth Social post before he left for the courthouse on Monday morning, President Trump wrote that he wonders why pro-Palestinian demonstrators are allowed to “roam the Cities, scream, shout, sit, block traffic, enter buildings, not get permits, and basically do whatever they want” while pro-Trump backers 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,” the former president wrote on social media, making reference to demonstrators who have appeared in front of the Manhattan courthouse where his trial is being held. Those protests are “allowed for those who are destroying our Country on the Radical Left, a two tiered system of justice,” he added. “Free Speech and Assembly has been ‘CHILLED’ for USA SUPPORTERS.”
Later, he urged his supporters to “GO OUT AND PEACEFULLY PROTEST. RALLY BEHIND MAGA. SAVE OUR COUNTRY!”
President Trump on Monday morning also made reference to leftist pro-Palestinian protests at New York City’s Columbia University, according to a separate post he made before entering the courthouse.
“Unlike at Columbia University where the Radical Left Palestinian Protesters sat on the Front Lawn, practically took over the School, and screamed, ‘Death to the Jews, Death to Israel, Death to America,’ and nothing happened to them, Lower Manhattan surrounding the Courthouse, where I am heading now, is completely CLOSED DOWN. SO UNFAIR!!!” he wrote.
When entering the courthouse on Monday, President Trump again criticized the case during a brief interview with reporters. “I’m here instead of being able to be in Pennsylvania and Georgia and lots of other places campaigning and it’s very unfair,” he said.
