President Donald Trump’s supporters will take to the streets on Saturday to back his unsubstantiated claims of election fraud as he pushes ahead with a flurry of longshot legal challenges to overt
Trump has refused to concede to Biden and claims without evidence that he was cheated by widespread election fraud. State election officials report no serious irregularities, and several of his legal challenges have failed in court.
SUPPORTERS OF US President Donald Trump are set to head to Washington DC today for what’s being dubbed as the ‘Million MAGA March’.
Conservative protesters drawn to Washington, D.C., by the planned rallies in support of President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the results of the presidential election were confronted by D.C. activists and surrounded by police Friday as the nation’s capital prepares for a possibly tense weekend of protest.
Dozens of Trump supporters in red Make America Great Again hats and no masks squared off with masked D.C. activists who arrived to defend art and protest signs on the fence surrounding Lafayette Square – the center of months of racial justice protests. They shouted, holding up their phones to record the interaction for their respective audiences on social media, then eventually dispersed as police officers on bicycles circled the plaza.
“As I look at this scene right now, I can’t help but to think how much this is truly the personification of two Americas,” a Black Lives Matter D.C. activist observed as she filmed the scene.
Small confrontations were ongoing through the late afternoon near the White House.
The president called Saturday’s rallies – which have been promoted by far-right media personalities, white nationalists and conspiracy theorists – “heartwarming” in a tweet Friday afternoon.
“I may even try to stop by and say hello,” Trump wrote.
Friday’s confrontations at Black Lives Matter Plaza were the second time in as many months that self-identified Trump supporters had torn down photographs from a memorial honoring Black men and women killed by police.
“It’s horrible because it’s a memorial to the people who died and who didn’t get justice and so to see them stepping on it and being careless about it, it’s just frustrating,” said Nadine Seiler, 55, who has spent weeks tending to the fence and the artwork placed there.
Christoper R. Barron, a spokesman for the Women for America First march, said the group will “welcome all peaceful protesters in support of President Trump” but does not condone violence. Barron declined to comment on the simultaneous pro-Trump rallies planned for Saturday because, he said, organizers were not involved in planning those.
The march is being held by disparate groups of Trump supporters following the President’s electoral defeated to President-elect Joe Biden last week.
Many of those attending the march are parroting Trump’s baseless claims of electoral fraud with the march also being framed as ‘Stop the Steal DC’ and the ‘March for Trump’.
The march is scheduled to begin at Freedom Plaza at 12 pm local-time (5 pm Irish time) before a march to the Supreme Court two hours later.
Politico reports that Women for America First promoted the March for Trump and that far-right groups including the Proud Boys and the white nationalist group Groypers are also planning to attend.
Left-wing counter-protesters are also believed to be planning the attend in Washington DC today.
Speaking to Fox News, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said she expected the event to draw a huge crowd.
“I think it’s going to be quite large from what I’m hearing, I don’t have an estimate for you but people want to show up and have their voice heard,” she said.
“This President got more votes than any Republican for president in the history of our country and indeed got more Republican votes than any nominee in history of our party back in 2016. 72 million people love him and want to show up and support him.”
A Michigan state court on Friday rejected a request by Trump’s supporters to block the certification of votes in Detroit, which went heavily in favor of Biden. And lawyers for Trump’s campaign dropped a lawsuit in Arizona after the final vote count there rendered it
