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In Trump's 'LIBERATE' tweets, extremists see a call to arms
Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny
When President Donald Trump tweeted "LIBERATE MINNESOTA!" on Friday morning, some of his most fervent supporters in far-right communities — including those who have agitated for violent insurrection — heard a call to arms.
There were sharp increases on Twitter in terms associated with conspiracies such as QAnon and the "boogaloo" term immediately following the president's tweets, according to the Network Contagion Research Institute, an independent nonprofit group of scientists and engineers that tracks and reports on misinformation and hate speech across social media.
Posts about the "boogaloo" on Twitter skyrocketed in the hours after the president's tweets, with more than 1,000 tweets featuring the term, some of which received hundreds of retweets.
"We the people should open up America with civil disobedience and lots of BOOGALOO. Who's with me?" one QAnon conspiracy theorist on Twitter with over 50,000 followers asked.
"Boogaloo" is a term used by extremists to refer to armed insurrection, a shortened version of "Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo," which was coined on the extremist message board 4chan.
Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington condemned Trump's tweets in his own Twitter thread in which he warned the president about encouraging violence.
"The president is fomenting domestic rebellion and spreading lies - even while his own administration says the virus is real, it is deadly and we have a long way to go before restrictions can be lifted," Inslee wrote.
A Twitter spokesperson said the president's tweets didn't violate the site's policies against content that poses a risk to health or well-being around the coronavirus outbreak.
The use of "liberate" in the tweets is too vague to be actionable, according to the Twitter spokesperson.
The activity comes as extremist researchers have warned about increased activity during the pandemic.
Law enforcement officials have previously identified "boogaloo" domestic extremists as a legitimate threat. A report released by the Network Contagion Research Institute about the term "boogaloo" being used to ironically mask violent overthrow attempts had "gone viral" within law enforcement and intelligence communities in February, Homeland Security Advisory Council member Paul Goldenberg told NBC News in February.
"When you have people talking about and planning sedition and violence against minorities, police and public officials, we need to take their words seriously," Goldenberg said about that report.
The president's tweets came just minutes after Fox News aired a segment featuring coverage of a Facebook event called "Liberate Minnesota." Although only a few hundred people expressed interest in the event on Facebook, local news sites and conservative blogs drove attention to the event Thursday, one day before the president's tweets.
"Minnesota citizens now is the time to demand Governor Walz and our state legislators end this lock down!" the event's facebook page reads. "Thousands of lives are being destroyed right now. It is not the governor's place to restrict free movement of Minnesota citizens! Gov. Walz you work for the citizens of this state!"
A few hundred protesters had gathered outside Gov. Tim Walz's residence in St. Paul, Minnesota, by Friday afternoon, packed in tight crowds along the sidewalk. They chanted "USA" and carried signs with pro-Trump, anti-Walz messaging. One sign read, "If ballots don't free us bullets will."
The Minnesota protest followed several others in different states including Ohio, New York, North Carolina, Kentucky and Michigan, in which demonstrators have demanded governors end shutdowns enacted to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
The protests have been a unifier of anti-government and conspiracy-minded subcultures, bringing anti-vaccination activists, anti-government militia groups, religious fundamentalists and white supremacists together at state capitols.
While focused on their respective states, the groups are organizing expressly to call for people to violate the policies that Trump has supported at daily news briefings.
Ohio had one of the first national rallies. On April 9, about 70 protesters gathered on the lawn of the state Capitol. Chanting "Free Ohio Now!," they carried signs and bucked guidelines for maintaining 6 feet of social distancing. Videos of the event were livestreamed in popular anti-vaccination Facebook groups.
On Wednesday, in an action dubbed "Operation Gridlock," thousands in Lansing, Michigan, protested from their cars outside the state Capitol. The crowd included a variety of conservative and far-right icons, including "Don't Tread on Me" banners, Trump campaign flags and at least two Confederate flags. Some people brought their assault weapons. The crowd also chanted "Lock her up," referring to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who has often been criticized by Trump. The chant was popularized during Trump campaign rallies as a call to jail then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
The event was organized by two Michigan conservative nonprofits, but heavily attended by more extreme groups.
One anti-vaccination activist and anti-government "sovereign citizen," a reference to a movement that believes taxation is unconstitutional, was arrested in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday at a similar "reopen" rally where over 100 people gathered in their cars to honk every 15 minutes in protest of the state's stay-at-home order.
Each of the events had been organized on Facebook.
Though the protests were reasonably small, they were lauded by members of the conservative media, including most evening Fox News hosts.
One host, Laura Ingraham, voiced her support for the Michigan protests Wednesday, with a tweet that read, "Time to get your freedom back."
The Minnesota protest's description on Facebook was then posted to popular pro-Trump forums and sent around as an email chain letter.
One host of the "Liberate Minnesota" event on Facebook, Don Huizenga, posted a link to the Facebook event Monday, urging peaceful protest.
"I hope to see you all there! We'll be nice, respectful and well dressed. Bring your signs and your passion for America!" he wrote.
By Thursday, Huizenga struck a different tone.
"Some of us understand what is happening. The rest of the sheep do not. But, it was designed that way...which is why we're speaking out and acting out," he wrote. "Wait for the violence. It will happen. People in our culture are NOT designed to obey these kinds of orders."
Huizenga said in a phone interview that he worked in the 6th Congressional District for Trump's campaign. He said that he and event co-host Michele Even, who he said was a "fellow activist," came up with the idea.
He said that while "people are really energized and Trump is an attachment to that energy," he was more concerned about ending the lockdown because of the "precedent it sets."
He added that the violence he anticipated in his Facebook post would not be part of the rally.
"We're gonna do everything we can to clean up our mess when we leave, to make sure people are respectful. This is a conservative rally. I don't expect it to be chaotic. People here really don't want it to be chaotic," he said.
But Huizenga reiterated his warning about violence.
"The message here that I had: Violence will happen and it will happen in two weeks when people literally don't have any food," he said. "When we're pitting neighbor against neighbor, people are going to be angry. Humans aren't designed to act like this, especially American humans aren't used to this at all. You're gonna rub people the wrong way. There will be violence. People are dying from the side effects of all this legislative action."
On pro-Trump message boards like TheDonald.Win, an offshoot of a forum that was effectively banned from Reddit earlier this year, Trump's tweets delivered a clear message: get ready for the civil war.
"Time to BOOG pedes. It's now or never," one highly ranked comment in response to Trump's "Liberate Virginia" tweet reads. "Earn our freedom for us and our kids like our forefathers did in 1776 or stay silent and be the frog boiled in the pot as we sit in the gulags and wonder why we didn't do anything."
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By Michael D. Shear and
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Trump Encourages Protest Against Governors Who Have Imposed Virus Restrictions
The president’s stark departure from his message on Thursday night, when he announced guidelines for governors to reopen their states and said they would “call your own shots,” suggested he was ceding any semblance of national leadership on the pandemic.
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| Doug Mills/The New York Times |
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday openly encouraged right-wing protests of social distancing restrictions in states with stay-at-home orders, a day after announcing guidelines for how the nation’s governors should carry out an orderly reopening of their communities on their own timetables.
In a series of all-caps tweets that started two minutes after a Fox News report on the protesters, the president declared, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” — two states whose Democratic governors have imposed strict social distancing restrictions. He also lashed out at Virginia, where the state’s Democratic governor and legislature have pushed for strict gun control measures, saying: “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”
His stark departure from the more bipartisan tone of his announcement on Thursday night suggested Mr. Trump was ceding any semblance of national leadership on the pandemic, and choosing instead to divide the country by playing to his political base.
Echoed across the internet and on cable television by conservative pundits and ultraright conspiracy theorists, his tweets were a remarkable example of a president egging on demonstrators and helping to stoke an angry fervor that in its anti-government rhetoric was eerily reminiscent of the birth of the Tea Party movement a decade ago.
In another series of tweets on Friday, the president returned again to the kind of rank partisanship that has characterized much of his time in office, rekindling a fight with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, only days after heaping praise on him. Mr. Cuomo, he said, should “spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining.’”
The retort came after the governor said that New York could not fully reopen its economy without more widespread testing and help from the federal government. Even before Mr. Cuomo had finished speaking during his televised daily briefing, Mr. Trump lashed out, tweeting, “We built you thousands of hospital beds that you didn’t need or use, gave large numbers of Ventilators that you should have had, and helped you with testing that you should be doing.” He said Mr. Cuomo owed the federal government a thank-you.
“First of all, if he’s sitting home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work, right?” Mr. Cuomo responded in real time. “Second, let’s keep emotion and politics out of this, and personal ego if we can. Because this is about the people.”
The governor added that he had repeatedly thanked the federal government for its aid.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do — send a bouquet of flowers?” Mr. Cuomo asked.
In unveiling guidelines on Thursday evening at the White House that governors could use to decide when it was safe to phase out restrictions, Mr. Trump had taken a more measured tone, emphasizing that “we are not opening all at once, but one careful step at a time.”
Mr. Trump’s call for liberation from social distancing rules followed protests around the country as protesters — many wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats — congregated in packed groups around state capitols to demand that restrictions be immediately lifted and to demonize their Democratic governors.
In Michigan, protesters waved banners in support of Mr. Trump and protested Gov. Gretchen Whitmer by chanting, “Lock her up.” In St. Paul, Minn., a group calling itself “Liberate Minnesota” rallied against stay-at-home orders in front of the home of Gov. Tim Walz, demanding he “end this lockdown!” In Columbus, Ohio, protesters crowded closely together as they pressed up against the doors of the state’s Capitol.
Speaking Friday evening at the White House, the president expressed sympathy for the protesters for having to endure what he called “too tough” social distancing orders in their states, and he dismissed concerns that they could spread the virus by holding demonstrations.
“They seem to be very responsible people to me,” he said.
By embracing the backlash to the coronavirus restrictions, Mr. Trump is tapping into a powerful well of political energy as he seeks re-election this year. The president is also trying to deflect anger about his response to the virus away from him and toward Democratic governors, who he hopes will shoulder the blame for keeping the restrictions in place and for any deaths that occur after states reopen.
The pressure to reopen the economy comes amid skyrocketing joblessness claims and an unemployment rate that is approaching 17 percent, higher than any mark since the Great Depression. On Friday, several governors began responding to that pressure by taking their first, tentative steps toward loosening the rules about work, school and socializing.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said that by next Friday all retail establishments, not just grocery stores, could operate what he called “retail to go” services in which customers pick up items or have items delivered, but do not physically go inside to shop.Parks will reopen on Monday, but visitors will be required to wear face coverings and follow social distancing rules, while schools would remain closed for in-person instruction for the rest of the school year.
“Opening Texas must occur in stages,” Mr. Abbott said.
In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine, another Republican, said that as businesses reopen, they will have to enforce six-foot distancing, mask-wearing, and staggered arrival and lunch times. He said there would be more barriers at workplaces, more employees wearing gloves and more frequent cleaning of surfaces. Employees might have their temperatures checked and sent home if they show any symptoms.
In Florida, the mayor of Jacksonville announced that beaches and parks would reopen Friday, as long as visitors practiced social distancing. In Washington State, where the virus first emerged and shut down life for weeks, Boeing announced plans to resume commercial airplane production and bring about 27,000 employees back to work, many as soon as next week.
In Vermont, the governor gave the green light to property managers, real estate agents and some construction crews to return to work, but said they must comply with social distancing and mask-wearing. In Minnesota, golf courses and driving ranges could reopen Saturday morning, along with bait shops, shooting ranges and game farms. But campgrounds, recreational equipment rentals, charter boats and guided fishing will remain closed.
In the hours after the president’s tweets, several Democratic governors joined Mr. Cuomo in expressing their exasperation with Mr. Trump.
Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, who ran an unsuccessful bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, said Mr. Trump’s tweets “encourage illegal and dangerous acts” and said the president was “putting millions of people in danger of contracting Covid-19.”
Mr. Inslee added: “His unhinged rantings and calls for people to ‘liberate’ states could also lead to violence. We’ve seen it before.”
And in Michigan, Governor Whitmer said she hoped the president’s comments would not incite more protests.
“There is a lot of anxiety,” she said. “The most important thing that anyone with a platform can do is try to use that platform to tell people, ‘We are going to get through this.’”
The latest escalation in the back-and-forth between Mr. Trump and the nation’s governors underscored the high stakes as they grapple with how to respond to the pandemic.
Governors of both parties have drawn praise for their decisive actions and calm leadership in shutting down businesses and schools to protect public health, but the decision about when and how to reopen could prove far more politically perilous. Moving too soon comes with the risk of more cases and deaths, but moving too late means people’s livelihoods could be destroyed for good.
For Mr. Trump, the calculation is also perilous as he tries to mobilize his core supporters while abandoning once again his sporadic attempts at bipartisanship.
Openly supporting those who challenge the stay-at-home orders could help the president re-energize the coalition of conservative Republicans and working-class populists who agree with the anti-government sentiment that helped power Mr. Trump’s election victory in 2016.
Large majorities of the country — including Republicans — are concerned about the dangers of reopening the country too quickly. But among very conservative voters, 65 percent said they were more worried about reopening too slowly, according to a Pew Research Center poll released on Thursday.
Shaping their views has been Fox News, which has devoted extensive coverage to the protests that took place this week, reminiscent of the way it provided a platform for Tea Party activists early in the Obama administration. For the past several days, the network has shown videos of the crowds gathered outside State Capitols and aired interviews with organizers who fumed at their governors.
Ms. Whitmer, in particular, has become a target of Fox hosts like Tucker Carlson, who has described her quarantine orders, which are among the most restrictive in the country, as “authoritarian.”
“I hope she loses her job because she certainly deserves it,” Mr. Carlson said.
Others, like Fox’s Laura Ingraham, have encouraged more demonstrations. Before Mr. Trump put out his “LIBERATE” message on Friday morning, Ms. Ingraham addressed a tweet to Virginians. “When will residents protest and reclaim their freedom?” she wrote.
Among those who have participated in the early resistance movement is Stephen Moore, an adviser to Mr. Trump’s Covid-19 economic recovery task force and a founder of a new group lobbying for a quick opening of the economy, Save Our Country.
In an interview on a little-viewed YouTube program called “Freedom on Tap,” first spotted by the progressive group True North Research, Mr. Moore said this week that he had been helping a group organize a protest in Wisconsin and arrange for legal costs that could be associated with mass gatherings during a safer-at-home order in the state.
“We need to be the Rosa Parks here,” he said, “and protest these government injustices.”
Mr. Trump is also providing support to some of the darkest corners of the internet, where far-right activists have encouraged the protesters to defy Democratic governors and demand that restrictions be lifted.
Owen Shroyer, a host on Infowars, a website that disseminates conspiracy theories, called this week for people to gather at a “You Can’t Close America” rally on the steps of the Texas Capitol in Austin in violation of a stay-at-home order.
After that announcement, Twitter — which has a policy that it will not tolerate posts that are “a clear call to action that could directly pose a risk to people’s health or well-being” — permanently suspended Mr. Shroyer’s account, though it said in a statement that he had violated “our platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically creating accounts to replace or mimic a suspended account.”
Michael D. Shear reported from Washington, and Sarah Mervosh from Canton, Ohio. Reporting was contributed by Emily Cochrane from Washington; Dionne Searcey, Jim Rutenberg, Jeremy W. Peters, Adeel Hassan and Michael Gold from New York; and Manny Fernandez from Houston.
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