For months, right-wing agitators with millions of followers have contended that a moment was coming soon when violence would become necessary — a patriotic duty — to save the republic.
With the FBI search of Donald Trump’s compound in Florida, that moment is now, say enraged commentators’ all-caps, exclamation-pointed screeds urging supporters of the former president to take up arms, reports the Washington Post.
Within hours of the search at Mar-a-Lago, a chorus of Republican lawmakers, conservative talk-show hosts, anti-government provocateurs and pro-Trump conspiracy theorists began issuing explicit or thinly veiled calls for violence.
“Today is war. That is all you will get on today’s show,” right-wing podcaster Steven Crowder announced Tuesday to nearly 2 million followers on Twitter, referring to the program that goes to his YouTube audience of 5.6 million.
Extremist organizers have tried to hold on to the momentum they built in recent years by finding causes disparate factions could rally around, such as opposition to pandemic restrictions, “Stop the Steal” election denial, or an imagined socialist “indoctrination” of schoolchildren.
Analysts say the networks have grown more sophisticated and more violent, as evidenced by the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Extremism researcher Caroline Orr Bueno of the University of Maryland compiled a collage of dozens of screenshots of tweets calling for violence in response to the search, or “raid” in the view of Trump supporters. “I already bought my ammo,” one person boasted in the sampling. “Civil war! Pick up arms, people!” ordered another.
Once the name of the federal judge in Florida who approved the search warrant made its way to right-wing forums, threats and conspiracy theories soon followed. Online pro-Trump groups spread his contact information and the judge’s official page was no longer accessible on the court’s website.