Donald Trump Jr. was reportedly confronted by chants of “Lock him up!” — referring, presumably, to his father — outside of dear old dad’s New York City criminal trial this Tuesday.
“With court over until a 2:15 conference on the jury instructions, Don Jr. is holding a press conference with the Trump surrogates as a small crowd of protesters screams, “We love Trump!” and others scream back, “Lock him up!”” reported journalist Lisa Rubin on X, formerly Twitter.
Something similar actually happened the prior day, when a different assortment of Trump’s allies turned up at the trial to show their support. Part of that group, including prominent names like former federal official Kash Patel, desperately tried putting on some sort of press conference outside the courthouse, only to be confronted by whistling, a cowbell, chants like “Guilty!”, and even a large banner on the fence behind them that called those gathered “bootlickers.”
Those showing up to Trump’s trial have included elected Republicans alongside various Trump allies outside of government. There have been members of the House and Senate and even Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), who faced extensive criticism for showing up and just further normalizing the whole thing as one of those closest in line to the presidency and the literal top official in the U.S. House of Representatives.
At this point, it doesn’t look like things will be going anywhere… for now, but there have also been concerns about those showing up making complaints that if coming from Trump could violate his gag order, whether targeting the jury, a daughter to the judge, or some other figure. A couple of Trump’s goons have actually explicitly expressed an ambition of getting around that order with their pro-Trump commentary. If Trump directed they make such remarks, it could constitute a violation, and he’s under threat of possible jail-time if he repeats his already numerous violations.
