Outside the Miami courthouse where the former president is scheduled to appear on charges of mishandling classified documents, Donald Trump supporters have already begun to congregate.
After urging his supporters to take to the streets, law enforcement officials are prepared for demonstrations.
According to the city police chief, he was geared up for a crowd of "anywhere between 5,000 and 50,000.".
We're treating this event very seriously, he declared. "We are aware that a worsening of the situation is a possibility. ".
"SEE YOU IN MIAMI ON TUESDAY," read a post on Mr. Trump's Truth Social platform earlier in the week.
By mid-morning, there were only a small number of people outside the court, but there were many more outside the hotel where he had spent Monday night. He will then make his way to the courthouse for a hearing that starts at 15:00 local time (19:00).
Online protest calls had been made by organizations like the far-right Proud Boys.
The former president asked his supporters to take to the streets in New York City in April before his most recent criminal indictment, but the majority stayed away out of concern for a trap.
False rumors circulated that Trump supporters would be arrested in Democratic-controlled New York or even that the government or left-wing anti-fascist organizations would be behind the violence, which would then be attributed to the ex-president's supporters.
Ultimately, reports state that a few hundred protesters showed up in front of the Manhattan courthouse.
According to Caroline Orr Bueno, a researcher at the University of Maryland who studies extremism and false information, this time, the attitude of his supporters is different.
She claims that there is more bitterness and malice. "They think Trump handled classified material improperly, but no one else is facing charges, despite similar actions by others. ".
She claims that more eminent voices are supporting protests this time around.
One of them is Charlie Kirk, president of the right-leaning organization Turning Point USA, who tweeted: "GO to Miami Tuesday, and show solidarity or we will mark you as part of the opposition. ".
A protest was called for ahead of Tuesday's court hearing, with supporters being urged to "COME AND BRING BANNER SUPPORTING TRUMP," according to a Telegram channel run by a Miami chapter of the Proud Boys, an extreme right male group that participated in the January 2021 Capitol riot.
Federal agents and local police in Miami will work together to secure the area around the courthouse, and Secret Service agents will watch over President Trump.
Police declined to provide specific security information, but Mr. Morales claimed that they had not requested National Guard assistance and that they had not come across any credible threats of violence for Tuesday.
Before the sun rose on Tuesday, Trump supporter Gregg Donovan was standing outside the Miami courthouse.
He admitted that he had some trepidation about visiting New York. "I've heard there's a lot of crime there, and the police are underfunded. ".
Donovan claimed that Miami made him feel safer.
At the same time, some of Mr. Trump's supporters have intensified their combative language regarding the indictment.
During a party gathering in Georgia last week, Trump supporter Kari Lake, who lost the race for governor of Arizona last year, said: "If you want to get to President Trump, you're going to have to go through me, and you're going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me.
"The majority of us are active National Rifle Association members. That serves as a public service announcement rather than a threat. ".
Following the announcement of the indictment, Arizona-based Republican Representative Andy Biggs tweeted: "We have now entered a war phase," and conservative activist Wayne Allyn Root referred to the most recent indictment as a "declaration of war.".
But according to senior researcher Jared Holt at the Institute of Strategic Dialogue, which monitors hate and extremism, there hasn't been much interaction between online discussions about protests and chatter about violence.
Prior to incidents like the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in 2017 or the Capitol riot in January 2021, he claims, "they're not really intersecting the way they were before.".
Some of the most fervent pro-Trump networks still exhibit some paranoia regarding protests, according to Mr. Holt, and attempts to organize protesters are met with conflicting reactions in those networks.
There is one thing that sets this situation apart from responses to other political flashpoints, according to Ms. Orr Bueno, an extremism researcher, even though talk of guns and violence in general is nothing new.
Other, more mainstream Republicans, who don't typically make these kinds of remarks, aren't expressing any condemnation, she claims. "These remarks could easily replace earlier ones if no one in the party spoke out against them. ".
reporting from Miami's Alexandra Ostasiewicz.
