On Presidents’ Day, hundreds gathered on a Florida street corner with flags and signs. But they weren’t there to celebrate the current democratically elected president, nor American presidents in general. The crowd was dedicating the holiday to Donald Trump, the twice-impeached political exile who passed through the demonstrators in his motorcade and flashed a thumbs-up.
Trump has been out of office for nearly a month, but some of his most diehard supporters remain convinced, falsely, that he won re-election—or at least that he will run again in 2024. Last week, after senators acquitted the ex-president of inciting the deadly mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, Trump issued a statement suggesting he would re-enter the public eye. “Our historic, patriotic, and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun. In the months ahead, I have much to share with you,” the statement read.
That was exciting news for Trump’s most mobilized fans. Although supporters canceled pro-Trump events—some of which were suspected to be violent in nature—shortly after the Capitol attack, citing fear of law enforcement, key organizers of the Jan. 6 rally are back to peddling the same hoaxes and violent rhetoric.
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What remains to be seen is how far they will go after hundreds of far-right foot soldiers got arrested in connection with the assault on Washington.
“With the impeachment trial come and gone, a lot of far-right organizers may look at the acquittal as a kind of permission slip to start organizing more openly,” said Jared Holt, a fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, where he monitors the far right.
Trump’s brief pass through the Presidents’ Day rally in West Palm Beach, near his Mar-a-Lago resort, was his first public appearance after a second impeachment acquittal. Pro-Trump social media figures, including Trump’s son Donald Jr., posted pictures and videos of the event, the latter describing the rally as appearing to be organic in nature.
The rally was not, in fact, spontaneous, but organized by a pro-Trump Facebook page. Leaders of that page also participated in a Jan. 6 rally in Florida concurrent with the attack on the Capitol. (The group did not immediately return a request for comment.)
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Key organizers of the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the Capitol attack pointed to the Presidents’ Day event as proof that Trump fans would continue to mobilize—and dropped hints of their own future ambitions.
“Anyone that discounts President Trump’s supporters, aka the #MAGA movement, does so at their own peril,” Amy Kremer, founder of the group Women for America First, tweeted about the Florida rally. “We are here to stay & won’t be going anywhere.”
Kremer, a former Tea Party activist who moderated a massive “Stop The Steal” Facebook page after Trump’s loss became apparent in November, was a speaker at the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the riot in D.C. Her organization was also instrumental in summoning MAGA fans from across the country to congregate in Washington that day. Women for America First obtained an event permit for the Jan. 6 rally, and Kremer was the first to tweet the event’s location: “just steps from the White House.”
Kremer, who did not return a request for comment, has spent the days after Trump’s acquittal loudly denying that he lost the election. “The blue check brigade is trying to get my acct shutdown bcuz I don’t believe the election results,” she tweeted on Monday.
Other promoters of the Jan. 6 rally have grown even more vocal in their post-acquittal calls for MAGA gatherings.
Ali Alexander, who did not return a request for comment, is a convicted felon and far-right organizer who appeared to threaten an attack on the Capitol as early as Dec. 30. Though he initially called off MAGA rallies after the Jan. 6 event led to mass arrests, and denied responsibility for the deadly chaos, he appears to have returned to organizing, and took to the messaging platform Telegram this week to ratchet up the rhetoric.
“There are 3 outcomes before us,” he posted. “1. Civil War 2. Civil War 3. Concession. And we ain’t getting a concession.”
Previously, on Thursday, he posted what looked an awful lot like a “Stop the Steal”-style call to action. “I may call you into service,” he wrote to his 24,000 followers. “Stand ready.”
Alexander, who immediately after the Capitol attack accused Republican legislators of helping him plan the rally, now accused followers of “giving up [their] rights” because “the FBI is investigating.” Paranoia about federal agents has dogged the far right since the Capitol attack, with fascist live-streamers and chapters of the Proud Boys falling out with each other over fears that some of them were federal informants.
Like Alexander, Kremer made a point of disavowing violence after Jan. 6. But that may not be the whole story.
Holt, the researcher of the far right, said future pro-Trump rallies seemed “inevitable.” No political observer expected the notorious loudmouth to slink away entirely—even if his lack of access to Twitter and other social-media platforms has hamstrung him. Trump might still regain access to his Facebook account, or open an account on alternative sites like Parler, which recently returned to the internet after web-services companies cut ties with the platform.
Even if Trump stays offline, or limits his engagement to flashing a thumbs-up at demonstrators from an SUV window, his fans are unlikely to pack up. And some of the key players in the rally that preceded the ransacking of the seat of the U.S. government are inching back toward their old tricks.
“I think what he set in motion in the GOP will continue in his tradition for many, many years to come,” Holt said.
