Former president Donald Trump's most fervent followers remain convinced that he won an election he actually lost, and they're waiting for him to begin his campaign for the 2024 election.
The twice-impeached one-term president issued a statement after his Senate acquittal promising he had "much to share" with his supporters in the coming months, but some of the planners of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection are already back at work, reported The Daily Beast.
Sword-wielding Trump fan wearing MAGA hat attacks skater outside San Francisco roller-rink
Sword-wielding Trump fan wearing MAGA hat attacks skater outside San Francisco roller-rink
Hat on sidewalk after bloody skirmish -- via Facebook
"Anyone that discounts President Trump's supporters, aka the #MAGA movement, does so at their own peril," tweeted Amy Kremer, founder of the group Women for America First. "We are here to stay & won't be going anywhere."
Kremer, a former Tea Party activist, obtained an event permit for the Jan. 6 rally and first tweeted the event's location -- "just steps from the White House" -- and moderated an immensely popular "Stop The Steal" Facebook page that helped draw Trump supporters to Washington, D.C.
She's been pushing Trump's bogus claims about election fraud since his Senate acquittal, and Kremer also helped promote a Presidents' Day rally near Mar-A-Lago.
"With the impeachment trial come and gone, a lot of far-right organizers may look at the acquittal as a kind of permission slip to start organizing more openly," said Jared Holt, who monitors the far right at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab.
Ali Alexander, another "Stop The Steal" organizer who has denied inciting any of the violence that followed, has resumed his efforts to stir up anger among the defeated president's followers.
"I may call you into service," he posted last week on Telegram. "Stand ready."
Alexander, a convicted felon, has claimed Republican lawmakers helped him plan the Jan. 6 rally, and he has been turning up the dial on his rhetoric since Trump's acquittal.
"There are 3 outcomes before us," he posted on Telegram. "1. Civil War 2. Civil War 3. Concession. And we ain't getting a concession."
