Donald Trump has claimed he will be arrested on Tuesday and called for protests to “take back our nation”.
In a furious all-caps post on his Truth Social page, the former president hailed “a corrupt and highly politicized Manhattan district attorney’s office” that is likely to lead to allegations against Trump over a hush-hush payment to adult movie star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
“NOW ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT AND HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY, WHO HAS ALLOWED NEW RECORDS IN VIOLENT CRIME AND WHOSE LEADER IS FINANCED BY GEORGE SORASE, THINKS NOTHING ABOUT WEARING, AN OLD AND COMPLETE (OF MANY OTHER PROSECUTORS!) TALES, THE LONG AND THE LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE AND PRESIDENTIAL PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WILL BE ARREST ON TUESDAY NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE BACK OUR NATION!” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social.
The twice-impeached former president’s claim that he will be taken into police custody early next week comes less than a day after reports that law enforcement agencies in New York have been quietly bracing for the possibility that Trump will spark civil unrest if he becomes subject to any form of legal liability at all.
The ex-president’s call for “protest” to “take back our nation” on the day he says he will be arrested is a clear echo of his call for supporters to descend on Washington DC in the run-up to the final certification of his election loss 2020 against Joe Biden.
At the time, Trump had called for a “wild” protest on January 6, 2021, the day Congress would pass this certification in a joint session chaired by then-Vice President Mike Pence.
After the then-president gave an incendiary speech near the White House in which he urged his supporters to “fight like hell,” a riotous mob led by violent extremists began attacking police officers and stormed the Capitol, hoping to stop the certification of his 2020 election defeat.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has not yet indicated that Trump has actually been charged in the hush money case — or any other matter. But the New York-based investigation is just one of several potential areas of criminal danger for the ex-president.
Trump also faces the possibility of indictments from prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, and from two separate federal investigations now led by a Justice Department special counsel, Jack Smith.