Donald Trump Can’t Incite Riots Like He Used To
Donald Trump has implored conservatives to hit the streets if he ends up indicted in New York. It might be cause for worry — if Trump had any ability to mobilize mass numbers of supporters anymore.

Former president Donald Trump called for protest to “take our nation back” in advance of his possible indictment by the Manhattan DA. (Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
For reasons that remain unclear, Donald Trump decided over the weekend that he was going to be indicted in Manhattan on Tuesday. On his own Twitter-like platform Truth Social, he called on his followers to protest his imminent arrest and “take our nation back.”
Tuesday came and went, and Trump remains unindicted in the investigation stemming from payments his lawyer made to an adult performer in exchange for her silence about an affair she had with Trump. But the indictment could still come any day.
At first glance, Trump’s post looked alarmingly like his tweets in the lead-up to the Capitol Hill riots of January 6, 2021, which caused chaos at the joint congressional session and nearly stopped the certification of electoral votes. Before the 6th, Trump encouraged his social media followers to show up to a rally near the Capitol, saying it would “be wild.”