Former US President Donald Trump expects to be arrested next Tuesday. Therefore, he called on his supporters to protest. "The leading Republican candidate and former president of the United States of America will be arrested on Tuesday next week. Protest, take back our nation!" wrote Trump on Saturday on his social media platform Truth Social.
Trump did not provide any evidence for his claim. In the past, Trump had called on his supporters to protest, should he be indicted. The prosecutor of New York is investigating Trump for hush money payments to a actress. In the United States, the jury decides whether to bring charges in a case after submission of evidence by the prosecution. American media assume that this will happen with Trump in the coming days, but it is completely unclear whether it will actually happen. He would be the first former American president to be charged with an alleged crime.
There are other proceedings against Trump, mainly related to his attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election. Both federal government agencies and prosecutors in Georgia are investigating the former president. In Georgia, it is mainly about a call that Trump made to the then Secretary of the Interior of the state, Brad Raffensperger. In it, Trump called on Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes" that would have made up the 11,779 votes he trailed his challenger, Democrat Joe Biden, in Georgia.
So far, Trump's calls have had no lasting consequences. It was different after the presidential election, when he called his supporters to a rally in Washington. "It's going to be wild," he predicted at the time. In his speech, he then urged the audience to fight if they wanted to keep their country. Most of those present then moved to the Capitol, where Joe Biden's election victory was to be confirmed, and participated in the storming of the building.
Trump is currently campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination. Last November, he announced his candidacy again. Observers suspected at the time that he had done so under pressure from investigators, as he had assumed that they would be more cautious about taking action against an official candidate.