Mother Jones; Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty
In the wake of Donald Trump’s conviction yesterday, far-right influencers have taken to Twitter to express their dismay—and desire for revenge. While some have simply urged Trump supporters to show their support at the ballot box in November, others have gone full apocalypse, urging retribution through thinly disguised calls for violence. Here are a few of the suggestions they have for standing up for their hero during his time of need.
First up: the more establishment wing of the MAGAverse. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) oozes with disgust over “the left’s smirking, pretentious little faces:”
A disgraceful moment for our country, when activism and emotion trampled longstanding judicial principles and standards. This case is ripe to be overturned on appeal, as it should be, and Donald Trump will be reelected in November. Ultimately this will blow up in the left’s…
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) May 30, 2024
Then, there’s Charlie Kirk, head of the conservative student movement group TurningPoint USA. On Thursday following the verdict, he tweeted this to his 2.9 million followers on X:
They rigged the trial to rig the election.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) May 30, 2024
Make them pay.
Relentless Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who in 2022 was ordered to pay $1.5 billion dollars in damages to the families of the children slain during the 2012 massacre, plays his version of three-dimensional-conspiracist chess by claiming to his 2.3 million followers that calls for violence from Trump supporters are actually a “false flag” operation by Democrats.
Anonymous people on message boards are calling for violence. An investigation of the IP addresses would discover that leftist posing as Trump supporters are making the comments. False flag attacks emanating from the deep state are imminent. https://t.co/GGUyryITWm
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) May 31, 2024
From Jackson Hinkle, an extremist antisemite and white nationalist with 2.6 million followers on X, comes this suggestion:
🚨🇺🇸 Donald Trump must IMPRISON these three WAR CRIMINALS FOR LIFE when he is reelected.
— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) May 30, 2024
Expose their financial crimes, sex crimes, murders & war crimes @realDonaldTrump! pic.twitter.com/CSJgRSkML6
Looking at some actors with fewer followers but equal passions, we can start with Stew Peters, a former bounty hunter-turned-extremist-livestreamer. He took a break from spewing his usual antisemitic horrors by tweeting on Friday to his 596,000 followers on X a video he dug up of a guy ranting about the sheer injustice of Trump’s conviction. “We’re going to put Donald Trump in office, and we want him to lock you motherfuckers up and put a lot of you motherfuckers to death,” he fumes.
The 937,000 followers of the far-right account The Vigilant Fox were gifted with the tweet of an admiring description of a video it produced of conservative pundit Megyn Kelley. “She compares the Democrats to a wolf that just ‘tasted blood’ and suggests the only way to stop a wolf from ‘coming back for more’ is ‘if he loses a limb of his own.’
🚨 NEW: Megyn Kelly suggests a reckoning is coming for Biden, Obama, and Clinton after Trump verdict.
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) May 31, 2024
“You just wait, and it won’t be Hunter Biden the next time. It’s going to be Joe Biden. It could potentially still be Barack Obama. It could still potentially be Hillary… pic.twitter.com/VCl9DxBKwL
The religious right also had strong feelings they needed to express. Smash Baals is an account, with 47,000 followers associated with a group of far-right Christian Nationalist pastors. It urged followers—maybe one notable follower in particular?—to fly a flag bearing the slogan “Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.”
It’s time to hoist your colors. pic.twitter.com/d09nAeNiQe
— Smash Baals (@smashbaals) May 31, 2024
Lastly, let’s review a few reactions from a pair of brothers associated with the New Apostolic Reformation, a growing, controversial evangelical movement whose adherents believe they are called to fight for the supremacy of Christianity in all aspects of life—and that includes the US government. One distinguishing feature of the New Apostolic Reformation is the belief that God speaks through modern-day prophets. Guess who Tim Sheets, who says he is an apostle and pastor in Middletown, Ohio, considers that modern-day prophet to be?
Friday
— Tim Sheets (@TimDSheets) May 31, 2024
May 31, 2024
We decree an angelic whirlwind over the Ekklesia and ministry. And these angels and this anointing will be sent and released over this country and the nations to call things back to divine order. So be it. pic.twitter.com/SenVQfmdqz
Tim is less well known than his brother, Dutch, another NAR apostle who gained notoriety recently when Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito flew an “Appeal to Heaven” flag over his house. Dutch Sheets has frequently used the “Appeal to Heaven” phrase and symbols as a rallying cry for the ascendant Christian nationalist movement.
In a YouTube address to 340,000 followers on Friday titled “Stay Focused: God Will Have the Last Word,” Dutch Sheets said he had been “revisiting what I’ve been hearing from the Holy Spirit in the last several months.” He shared the dreams of several other prophets, which he said foretold the Trump verdict. “The fire and glory of God is coming to America—it will cleanse and it will empower,” he assured viewers. “It will tear down that which is evil, not us.”
