Trump Rages at ‘Thugs’ Who ‘INDICATED’ Him
![HOUSTON, TEXAS - MAY 27: Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual convention at the George R. Brown Convention Center on May 27, 2022 in Houston, Texas. The annual National Rifle Association comes days after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas which left 19 students and 2 adults dead, with the gunman fatally shot by law enforcement officers. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)](https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/themes/vip/pmc-rollingstone-2022/assets/public/lazyload-fallback.gif)
Donald Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on Thursday. As expected, the former president and his allies reacted with undiluted ire.
Trump responded initially with a pre-written statement railing against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, President Joe Biden, and the “Radical Left Democrats” for what he described as “Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history.” Two sources familiar with the matter tell Rolling Stone they expect Trump to surrender to authorities on Tuesday.
“The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable — indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference.”
Trump followed up the statement with a separate post on Truth Social, writing that he had been “INDICATED” and calling the United States a “THIRD WORLD NATION.”
Trump tweeted earlier this month that he was going to be arrested in the coming days and for his supporters to “PROTEST.” He has since raged incessantly about the prospect of charges on social media, at a rally last Saturday in Waco, and in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News.
GOP lawmakers and right-wing media also expressed their outrage on behalf of the former president. Trump’s defenders included Ron DeSantis, whom Trump has been attacking incessantly as the Florida governor prepares to challenge Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. “The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head,” he tweeted. “It is un-American.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.) accused Bragg of having “irreparably damaged our country in an attempt to interfere in our Presidential election.” McCarthy vowed that “the House of Representatives will hold Alvin Bragg and his unprecedented abuse of power to account.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) called the indictment a “sham” on Twitter and an example of “extremist Democrats weaponizing government to attack their political opponents.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) wrote on social media that Trump “is innocent and the only one standing in the way of these modern-day tyrants, just like our founding fathers did, to protect each of us from evil.” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) added that “Trump Derangement Syndrome has infiltrated our judicial system and if they can come from him, they can come for anyone.” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) tweeted just a single word: “Outrageous.”
Longtime Trump sycophant Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) wrote on Twitter that “the powerful will never stop coming for Trump,” adding that “a majority of Americans know Alvin Bragg’s witch hunt is a politically motivated prosecution.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said on Fox News that the indictment was a “demonstration of raw power” against Republicans and Independents. “The message is they will use any power that they have to interfere in the next presidential election,” Hawley told host Jesse Watters. “They won’t willingly allow Donald Trump to run for president. They will not willingly lose the next election. They’re going to use every means at their disposal.”
Fellow Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called the investigation against Trump “utter garbage,” and a “catastrophic escalation in the weaponization of the justice system.”
Trump’s sons rushed to their father’s defense. Eric Trump appeared on Fox News’ Hannity, and complained that after all of the investigations Trump has been subjected to “at some point, the guy deserves a pass.”
Donald Trump Jr., opened his podcast by calling the grand jury’s decision “communist-level shit,” claiming the indictment “is stuff that would make Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot blush.”
“This isn’t just the radical left weaponizing the government to target their political enemies, this is them weaponizing the government to interfere in the 2024 election to stop Trump,” Trump Jr. added on Twitter. “The only solution is to shove it down their throats and put him back in the White House.”