The Atlantic

Now They’re Calling for Violence

Trump loyalists have reacted to the search of the ex-president’s Mar-a-Lago residence with unhinged fury.
Source: Katie Martin / The Atlantic; Getty

In a sane world, a partisan Republican reaction to the FBI’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home on Monday would be something like this: We don’t believe Trump did anything wrong. We’re skeptical about the Department of Justice’s actions, but we’ll wait to see the evidence before we make any sweeping claims or definitive judgments. Unfortunately, the reaction online, in the right-wing media, and even among lawmakers has been far from sane. It’s been unhinged and ominous.

MAGA-world denizens have called for violence and civil war, so much so that the phrase civil war was trending on Twitter Monday night. One user on Trump’s social-media platform, Truth Social, said, “Fuck a civil war, give them a REVOLUTION. We out number all of the 10 to 1.”

We’re seeing references to “lock and load” and : “It certainly feels like they’re treating it as a hot

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