The words “RIP America” trended on X minutes after a Manhattan jury found former President Donald Trump guilty of all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with a money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to maintain his silence.
Images of an inverted American flag, a symbol of distress that was adopted by the Stop the Steal movement of 2020, flooded social media, as Trump supporters, fringe extremists, right-wing pundits and politicians expressed their anger.
Since the trial began, pro-Trump commentators—and Trump himself—have been priming online MAGA ecosystems to allege foul play if the jury finds him guilty. The response to his felony conviction was, unsurprisingly, swift, with many characterizing it as a declaration of “war” by the “deep state.” Incendiary rhetoric about how the guilty verdict was a sign of America’s collapse resonated from the mainstream to the margins.
“As of today, with this false guilty verdict against Trump, America is no longer America,” Joey Marianno, a pro-Trump political commentator, wrote to his 466,000 followers on world heading towards a Civil War. I have no desire to see this country unified. There is no country to unite. We’re long past that.”
Many of the biggest supporters of “Stop the Steal,” which culminated in the Capitol riots on January 6, did not hesitate to claim that the verdict was the result of a “rigged” justice system.
In a video posted to his 2.3 million followers on . “Ladies and gentlemen, we see our republic on its deathbed right now,” Jones said, adding that he believed “false flag terrorist attacks attributed to Trump supporters angry about the verdict” were imminent. “We don’t want violence, we don’t want attacks,” he said.
Ali Alexander, a far-right conspiracy theorist, didn’t mince his words either. “Today is January 6 for the entire nation,” he wrote on Telegram to his 12,000 subscribers. “This is worse than the Civil War. Respectfully.”
That kind of rhetoric even made it to the airwaves. “We’ve been calling it lawfare,” said Jeanine Pirro of Fox News. “I think lawfare is too soft, too benign. “This is a war.”
Trump spoke on Truth Social and in a fundraising email shortly after the verdict, doubling down on his false claim that he is a victim of political persecution, perpetrated by a corrupt system that is hell-bent on “stealing” the 2024 election from him again. .
“THIS WAS A DISGRACE: A FIXED TRIAL BY A CONFLICTED JUDGE WHO IS CORRUPT. WE WILL FIGHT FOR OUR CONSTITUTION: THIS IS A LONG WAY FROM OVER!” he wrote in Truth Social.
Trump supporters repeated accusations of “manipulation.” Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk also perpetuated conspiracy theories about the verdict. “This case was designed for years, from the top of the Democratic establishment, to overthrow Trump, using a rigged law in a rigged courtroom with a rigged jury,” Kirk wrote in X. “We must win. We must defeat these savages. Support Trump.”
