'Rally behind MAGA': Trump calls for courthouse 'protests' nationwide

Hours before the start of opening arguments and the second week of the trial of the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges, Donald Trump is urging his supporters to “rally behind MAGA” and “go out and peacefully protest” at courthouses across the country, as he laments the protections and high security at Manhattan’s Criminal Courts Building.

Trump’s remarks come just days after a man set himself on fire last week outside the same courthouse where jury selection was underway in Trump’s criminal trial. That man later died.

Seizing on current news stories, Trump claimed “Palestinian protesters, and even rioters,” are “allowed to roam the Cities, scream, shout, sit, block traffic, enter buildings, not get permits, and basically do whatever they want including threatening Supreme Court Justices right in front of their homes.”

READ MORE: Fox News Host Suggests Trump ‘Force’ Court to Throw Him in Jail – by Quoting Him

NCRM has found no reports of pro-Palestinian protestors “threatening Supreme Court Justices right in front of their homes.” Over 100 pro-Palestinian protestors were arrested in New York City last week, according to Reuters.

Trump also complained that “people who truly LOVE our Country, and want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, are not allowed to ‘Peacefully Protest,’ and are rudely and systematically shut down and ushered off to far away ‘holding areas,’ essentially denying them their Constitutional Rights.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled areas designated to house protestors are legal, including at courthouses depending on the protestors’ motivations.

READ MORE: Biden Amps Up Field Offices, Trump to Mobilize Thousands of Lawyers to Monitor Vote Counts

“America Loving Protesters should be allowed to protest at the front steps of Courthouses, all over the Country, just like it is allowed for those who are destroying our Country on the Radical Left, a two tiered system of justice. Free Speech and Assembly has been ‘CHILLED’ for USA SUPPORTERS. GO OUT AND PEACEFULLY PROTEST. RALLY BEHIND MAGA. SAVE OUR COUNTRY!”

Trump concluded by misquoting the famous Democratic U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt: “THE ONLY THING YOU HAVE TO FEAR IS FEAR ITSELF.”

This is not the first time Trump has urged his followers to show up and show support for him. Ahead of his expected indictment in New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s criminal case against the ex-president, Trump told his supporters to “protest,” and “take our nation back!” in all-caps.

Last week, MSNBC‘s Lawrence O’Donell “explain[ed] how Donald Trump’s wish for a revolution during his first criminal trial did not happen because his supporters did not show up.”

Donald Trump has been criminally indicted in four separate cases and is facing a total of 88 felony charges, including 34 in his New York criminal trial for alleged falsification of business records to hide payments of hush money to an adult film actress and one other woman, in al alleged effort to suppress their stories and protect his 2016 presidential campaign, which could be deemed election interference.