Echoing concerns from other Republicans, Donald Trump has been distancing himself from this weekend’s “Justice for J6” rally because he believes the event is a “setup.” Despite enthusiastically defending the insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol building following his “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, the former president is steering clear of this Saturday’s event that’s being in thrown in support of jailed rioters.
Capitol Police have already beefed up security ahead of the rally, and even the most diehard Trump supporters in Congress are not attending. As for Trump, he plans to go golfing to avoid getting snared in what he believes is an orchestrated event to make him look bad, according to The New York Times:
Mr. Trump, aides said, has little interest in engaging with the protest and has no plans to be anywhere near Washington on Saturday. Instead, his schedule includes a golf tournament at his Bedminster, N.J., club before he heads back down to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, according to people familiar with his schedule.
Mr. Trump views the planned protest as a setup that the news media will use against him regardless of the outcome, according to people familiar with his thinking.
Unsurprisingly, Trump’s thoughts align exactly with his close friend and advisor, Roger Stone, who recently told Russia Today that he doesn’t “know a single person in the MAGA movement who’s going.”
Obviously, the “setup” talking point is an attempt to get ahead of the fact that the rally is the work of real Trump supporters and has a very good chance of going south like the Jan. 6 attack. Case in point, Stone said “if there’s a single armed protester there, they’ll be working for the federal government.” You know, because everyday Trump supporters would never carry a gun. They barely even like the things.
(Via The New York Times)