What's the phrase? Ah, yes, "highly irregular." That's what it is when a potential defendant sets the date of his arrest rather than a corrupt, radical leftist, socialist, Marxist prosecutor first indicting him.
Then again, everything about Donald Trump is highly irregular, from his extorting a foreign country in a political dirt-scavaging escapade to his literal rewriting of the weather. Thus his Saturday morning announcement — "WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK," sans notice from Manhattan's district attorney — was actually more buffoonishly typical than highly irregular.
Still, an indictment is coming over his criminal $130,000 payout to a porn star, although Trump's temporary residence at New York City's Rikers Island will remain an egalitarian daydream. He'll be afforded all manner of exceptional treatment — exceptionally light treatment, which is, you know, also typical of soft-on-crime, radical leftist prosecutors, which Trump abhorred until this week.
And he's hoping for a violent one. Only a lobotomized revolutionary could misunderstand Trump's provocative call to action: "PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!" he wrote in one post; and "WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!" he wrote in another.
It's unclear what precisely his Second Amendment supporters would be "protesting." He certainly won't be clapped in irons (as he should be), his legal team is working to keep his mug shot concealed from the public, and he may not even need to appear in a New York court. Is Trump's desired replay of January 6th to detonate at the official news of an indictment? Or upon an order to appear, after all, in NYC for arraignment? Or some sort of perp walk out of Mar-a-Lago?
Trump's planning of a Capitol Hill redux is as coherent as any other Trumpian plan. But, however nebulous it may be, a plan it is — a political scheme for what he hopes is the eve of seditionist riots against the rule of law, if not the inauguration of an actual civil war. His presidential campaign has been less than electrifying to date, and his fanatical wish is that Manhattan's prosecution will re-energize the savage faithful to early 2021 madness.
Echong Steve Bannon's predictions of J6 bloodshed, Trumpeteers posted Truth Social comments such as "all hell will break loose." On the other hand, notes The Washington Post, "'Stop the Steal' rally organizer Ali Alexander ... seemed to be backing away from Trump’s calls for action. Alexander wrote that people who protest in New York City 'will be jailed or worse.'" He added, “Previously, I had said if Trump was arrested or under the threat of a perp walk, 100,000 patriots should shut down all routes to Mar-a-Largo. Now, I’m retired. I’ll pray for him though!"
In other words, amen and ta-ta. This particular fair-weather friend is decidedly dodging any Stormy fallout. Alexender understands that rather than Trump taking a perp stroll, it would be he and thousands of other "patriots." He's having n close remembrance of things past, dark visions of Washington D.C. courtrooms and felony sentences being served. Thank you, no. Donald, you're on your own. I suspect most of if not all of the steal-stopper's former comrades are having the same anti-reverie.
Even Trump's own advisers are subduing his civil-warring ebullience. The Post reports they were "alarmed" at his calls for protest and "they fear his rhetoric will grow increasingly incendiary as he feels cornered by prosecutors." Hence a Trump spokesman announced there's been no "notification" of an indictment and all good loonies should simply show up at his next bund rally. But who ya gonna call for incitement-to-riot advice? A Trump spokesman? Or Trump? We'll see.
If nothing else, Trump will raise buckets of plunder from this, merely his first real run-in with the law (a federal special counsel and Georgia state prosecutor await their turns). Along with his calls to protest!!! he's fundraising like an apoplectic TV evangelist. "MANHATTAN D.A. COULD BE CLOSE TO CHARGING TRUMP," read one devotional spiel yesterday morning. "Patriot — With the Deep State gunning for President Trump with phony witch hunts like never before, we had to be sure you saw the 'private and secure' message he wrote for YOU. See below!" read another.
In the Post story, the most rewarding sentence is this: "[Trump] has long dreaded a potential arrest or indictment," say his advisers. He's trying to play it cool but he's rattled. Those walls, they seem to be closing in. And they're doing so at the imminent, inescapable command of three separate prosecutors. And so Trump will do what he's done for years: He'll further divide the nation into warring camps — and hope like hell that his attempted siege on the rule of law pulls his criminal butt from the inferno.
But will the loonies and crackpots join the firestorm and defend him at Fort Sumter? What Trump really dreads is that they won't.