In an apparent bid to create further pretext for his planned invasions of states run by Democrats he doesn’t like, the US President gathered far-right influencers to discuss how protesters who oppose his administration are “paid anarchists” and “insurrectionists”
Donald Trump hosted a chilling meeting of far-right influencers to repeatedly declare protesters who oppose his administration “terrorists”.
In an apparent bid to create further pretext for his planned invasions of states run by Democrats he doesn’t like, the US President made a series of false claims about violent protests in Chicago, Illinois and Portland, Oregon.
He ranted about elections being “rigged” and complained about news organisations who cover him critically as MAGA-supportive online personalities smiled and praised him.
Claiming there was an “epidemic” of left-wing violence, he suggested, without evidence, that anti-Trump protesters were “paid anarchists.”
“They have been very threatening to people,” Trump said of people protesting against his immigration policies.
“But we’re gonna be threatening to them. Far more threatening to them than they ever were with us, and that includes the people that fund them … we’re gonna be looking for strongly at the people funding these operations.”
Earlier Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social, demanding Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, both Democrats, should be jailed for resisting his deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago.
Asked on what grounds Pritzker and Brandon should be jailed, Trump said: “I have seen the law and when you have a group of people have police call off safety for ice officials, I have understood that and read it today in numerous journals that that is illegal.”
National Guard troops from Texas are now positioned outside Chicago, despite a lawsuit by the state and city to block their deployment.
Trump invited a ’roundtable’ of right wing YouTubers, bloggers and online personalities to the White House to discuss “Antifa”.
Antifa is short for ‘anti-fascist.’ The term, which those present repeatedly insisted was a “real” group, does not refer to a single group, but rather a broad description of protesters against fascism, racism and far-right extremism.
At one point during the roundtable, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed police had arrested the girlfriend of “one of the founders of Antifa”. Antifa has no “founders”.
The President branded protesters “insurrectionists” – a particular choice of words.
The unhinged US President said last night he would consider invoking the “insurrection act” to allow him to overrule Democrat state governors who resist his bids to send the military into their states.
A judge on Sunday blocked Trump from sending National Guard troops from California into Oregon – second legal ruling against his invasion in 24 hours.
On Saturday he’d been blocked by the same judge from calling up Oregon’s own National Guard – prompting Trump to attempt to deploy troops from another state to circumvent the ruling.
Despite Trump claiming the city is “war-ravaged,” there is no widespread or ongoing unrest in Portland, Oregon.
Nor has there been, as the White House claims, violence targeting federal immigration authorities. Nor has the city been “taken over” by left-wing “domestic terrorists.”
“This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law,” wrote District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, in her judgement.
“If I had to enact it, I’d do it, if people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
“You look at what’s happening with Portland over the years, it’s a burning hell hole,” he added. “And then you have a judge that lost her way that tries to pretend that there’s no problem.”
Invoking the Insurrection Act would allow the President to deploy the military within US borders, or call up states’ National Guard troops to put down Trump’s claimed “insurrection.”
Pro-democracy groups have described using US military troops to quell nonviolent protests against the President’s policies as “unthinkable.”
Chicago, another target for Trump’s invasion, is expected to see hundreds of Illinois National Guard nationalised to do the bidding of the White House, with more apparently on their way from Texas – all against the wishes of Governor JB Pritzker.