Former President Donald Trump appears to be using his supporters as proxies to voice his opinions, circumventing a gag order in his criminal hush money payment trial. In recent days, numerous Trump supporters have flocked to the Manhattan courtroom where the trial is being held, echoing allegations and sentiments that Trump himself is barred from expressing due to the gag order, according to Axios.
On May 14, a group of Republican officials were seen outside the courtroom, dressed in dark blue suits and red ties—a coordinated look that many on social media have dubbed “cultish.” These officials included Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and Florida Rep. Cory Mills, reported The Daily Beast.
Trump has expressed pride in his surrogates, stating, “I do have a lot of surrogates and they are speaking very beautifully. They come from all over, and they’re highly respected and they think this is the biggest scam they’ve ever seen … Election Day cannot get here soon enough.” Johnson, echoing Trump’s sentiments, labeled the trial a “sham” and a “disgrace,” and accused Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, of being a “seasoned liar with a personal vendetta.”
Johnson argued that Trump was being unfairly targeted by political rivals to derail his presidential campaign. Vivek Ramaswamy, a fervent Trump supporter, described the trial as a “politicized persecution” and likened it to something “straight out of a Kafka novel.” He declared, “This is a sham. This is not the United States of America. This is some third-rate banana republic.”
Similarly, Donalds accused the judge and his family of corruption, alleging, “The only thing that’s being done wrong is by this judge. His daughter is making money, raising money for Democrats, and all of the fundraising emails and all the fundraising things are about this trial that his daughter is using.” Gov. Doug Burgum called the trial “election interference” that prevents Trump from campaigning, while Rep. Cory Mills condemned it as “the weaponization of what was the Department of Justice.”
In response, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) issued a scathing statement. DNC spokesperson Alex Floyd remarked, “Donald Trump is convening the saddest posse of MAGA loyalists in Lower Manhattan today, desperate for emotional support and political cover as he spends another week tending to his personal affairs rather than talking to actual voters.
Trump’s pathetic band of MAGA extremists seemingly have nothing better to do than echo Trump’s lies and nod approvingly in the background – because they certainly aren’t doing their day jobs of serving their constituents or running a functional political operation. If deploying this motley crew of cranks and conspiracy theorists was the Trump campaign’s ham-handed attempt to divert attention from their candidate’s disappearance from the campaign trail, they’re in for a stormy six months ahead.”
