'Hang Everyone': The Far Right's Violent Rhetoric in Response to the Conviction of Donald Trump
'Hang Everyone': The Far Right's Violent Rhetoric in Response to the Conviction of Donald Trump
In response to the conviction of Donald Trump, the far right made explicit calls for political retribution, and expressed violent fantasies including demands to 'hang everyone.'
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When the jury returning a verdict which convicted former President Donald Trump on “34 felony counts of falsifying business records,” there was an explosion of vociferous outrage across right-wing media and within the far right ecosystem. The response included “incendiary rhetoric about how the guilty verdict was a sign of America’s collapse,” and “calls to violence — both overt and covert.”
While violent rhetoric has proliferated online, there has been no visible efforts to organize mass protests or targeted direct actions. However, there are causes for concern, as “conspiracy theories encircling this development have the potential to serve as a catalyst for individual acts of violence, while also radicalizing those on the fringes of these conspiratorial belief systems,” according to an analysis published by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD).
Mainstream conservative media personalities including Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Jesse Watters, each used violent rhetoric and imagery when reacting to the verdict. “We’re going to get back up, we’re going to regain our strength, and then we’re going to vanquish the evil forces that are destroying this republic,” Watters said during his program on Fox News. This narrative framing of the perceived political opponents of Donald Trump as evil is the continuation of the far right’s mainstreaming of “genocidal rhetoric.”
‘Welcome to the United Soviet States of America.’
Tucker Carlson opined that the verdict marks the “end of the fairest justice system in the world,” and “anyone who defends this verdict is a danger to you and your family.” Candace Owens commented that the U.S. is now a “banana republic,” and that “nothing is legitimate— not the media, our elections, or the courts.” William Wolfe proclaimed: “Welcome to the United Soviet States of America.”
Tim Pool reacted to the verdict by posting a single word: “war.” Pool has repeatedly invoked the idea of civil war, including claiming the FBI’s authorization of the use of deadly force at Mar-A-Largo was “attempt to kill Trump or incite civil war,” or claiming that any attempt to remove Trump as the GOP nominee is “act of civil war” that “ends the Republic.” Pool would later claim that the “Establishment is trying to start a war in an effort to dissolve the US constitution.”
Laura Loomer, the far right conspiracy theorist, was a guest on Pool’s podcast. During the livestream of the podcast, Pool said that if Trump is elected he should imprison his political opponents, “should there be list of Democrats who need to go to jail? One hundred percent.” Loomer responded that “not just jail, they should get the death penalty,” and seconds later the video feed abruptly stop broadcasting.
Loomer would later claim that she was “talking about the people who staged the coup against Donald Trump,” and that “people who commit TREASON should get the legal punishment for TREASON, which is the DEATH PENALTY.” The video of the podcast “longer appears on YouTube, and was instead replaced with the disclaimer that it had been ‘removed by the uploader,’” according to Eyes on the Right.
‘Indict the left, or lose America.’
Charlie Kirk, the founder and executive director of the right-wing group Turning Point USA, wrote that Republicans should fight fire with fire and “Indict the left, or lose America.” Kambree Kawahine Koa, the right-wing podcast host and social media influencer, asked “what Democrats are the Republicans going to arrest now?” Auron MacIntyre, the right-wing podcast host and columnist at The Blaze, posted that Republican district attorneys should be “putting corrupt Democrats in jail immediately. No excuses, no equivocation.”
Sean Davis, the co-founder and CEO of right-wing publication The Federalist, was among the loudest voices on social media calling for political retribution. Davis posted that Republican candidates should “give me a list of which Democrat officials you’re going to put in prison, or get lost,” quoted and agreed with a post that “Ken Paxton should just indict every Democrat in the state of Texas tomorrow.” Davis created a literal “enemies of the people” list on Twitter/X, and which apparently includes everyone from Chris Cillizza to Barbara McQuade to Anthony Fauci.
Mike Davis, the right-wing lawyer and widely speculated candidate for Attorney General, told Axios that “he wants GOP prosecutors in Georgia and Florida to open criminal probes into Democrats for conspiring to interfere in the election by indicting Trump.” During an appearance on Benny Johnson’s right-wing podcast, Davis said that “there will be a criminal probe opened on this criminal conspiracy” targeting several government officials, and “there is absolutely gonna be retribution.”
‘The head of the snakes need to be executed.’
On Patriots.win, the message board populated by the online MAGA community which began as the The Donald on Reddit, commenters indulged in violent fantasies including stock pilling guns and ammunition for a civil war, and calling for arrests and execution of perceived political enemies.
In the thread announcing the verdict, one commenter asked, “are we not in a cold civil war at this point!?” Another commenter wrote, “now we can finally get this civil war to pop off,” and another wrote, “we can no longer live peacefully with Democrats.” Another commenter predicted that “it's time to stock up on guns & ammo, and emergency supplies. You will need them sooner than you think.”
On the same thread, some were calling for violent retribution, including a commenter who wrote that “All involved need to be designated as traitors to America and banished from the country. The head of the snakes need to be executed,” and another wrote that “1,000,000 men (armed) need to go to washington [sic] and hang everyone. That's the only solution.”
‘Take matters into our own hands.’
On Telegram, several far right figures with hundreds of thousands of subscribers posted implicit calls for violence, and in many cases commenters echoed those calls for violence — at times explicitly.
Stew Peters, the far right antisemtic White Nationalist media personality, wrote in a post on Telegram that the “judicial system has been weaponized against the American people,” and that “we are left with no other option but to take matters into our own hands.” Peters also posted an image of a noose under the words “extreme accountability,” and captioned “It’s time.” However, Peters would later claim that the post was not “calling for violence,” and that “penalty for TREASON has always been death. That’s not fedposting, it’s LITERALLY THE LAW.”
Ali Alexander, the far right activist behind the “Stop the Steal” campaign, wrote in a post on Telegram that the verdict was “worse than the Civil War,” and shared a post from Nick Fuentes, the antisemitic White Nationalist, warning “not to fed post today or engage in illegal actions.” Jack Posobiec, the far right conspiracy theorist, wrote in a post on Telegram that he had been “checking the woke right timelines” and noticed a lack of vocal support for Trump, and that “when the bullet are flying, they’re nowhere to be found.”
The Telegram channels of several chapters of the Proud Boys, the far right violent extremists group, where posting more content in the last 24-hours than in the last several months, and several of the channels echoed Trump’s call to “stand back and stand by.” The Columbus, Ohio chapter of the Proud Boys posted on the group’s Telegram channel that the group was previously “very careful to parse our words and remind people that political battles are best suited for the ballot box,” however, the post continues, “Today? You can take it however the fuck you want. Your move.”
‘Satanic site to blow up for each false charge.’
Within the QAnon and adjacent far right conspiracy theory communities, the conviction of Trump is being viewed as “all part of the plan,” and that the verdict represented the “biggest day in history since the Declaration signing.”
Among the top post on the Great Awakening message board, a poster claims that “if President Trump can be charged, prosecuted and convicted, then so too can the Bushes, Bidens, Clintons, and every Deep State swamp rat.” While on the 4chan pol board a popular thread in which commentators outline “next step of the plan,” which includes a prediction that “at some point the street (for them) will not be safe.”
Loni Palmer posted on Facebook that “there is a satanic site to blow up for each false charge,” and listed 34 locations which included buildings such as the Pentagon, the Capitol, and the White House. The post, which has received more than 500 likes and been shared more than 250 times, has received mostly positive reactions from commenters. Palmer also posted “if ur a Qanon.. this is our moment!”
We live in frickin scary times.