Thread by @LauraJedeed

Good morning, I'm back for one day only to bring you Trumpening II: Miami Vice, where police have just kicked media and a handful of protesters out of the park

Maybe 30 people protesting on the cement area directly in front of the courthouse

In case you missed it somehow, Trump is being arraigned for the funniest violation of the espionage act anyone has ever committed

Laura Loomer has called for a rally at noon, one hour from now

Press outnumbers protesters, but since this isn't NYC where every journalist lives it's less extreme than Manhattan

It's Frontier Airlines' fault I'm here. My flight back to LaGuardia from Dallas got cancelled and I decided to go to Miami for $0 rather than stay in Dallas for God knows how long

The capitalists have arrived

At least half of the people here so far are Blacks for Trump, who are everywhere all the time and must have so much funding

Police are patrolling pretty heavily. I saw a gaggle of bike cops earlier, and some sidewalks around the courthouse are barricaded off. Not sure what that's supposed to do but given the way Floridians seem to drive it won't end well if this somehow turns into a large gathering

A small procession of cops on tactical golf carts have arrived

More sidewalks closed. I'm hearing getting to the other side of the park requires a walk of a few blocks now

Some Trumpy vehicles circling, one of them was blasting MAGA rap earlier but it's Florida so that might not be unusual

A helicopter is now circling, this might be the most proportionately ridiculous reaction to a Trump protest yet

A woman is yelling into a bullhorn that everyone who voted for Trump is next. That's right, every single Trump voter is getting indicted for espionage

"What do we have to lose?!" A middle-aged guy shouts

About 20 people chanting "we love trump!"

Forgiato Blow has arrived, many selfies taken

There are about 50-100 protesters here now, I'm not great at estimating crowds, but they're being loud and yelling and giving various interviews

These people are yelling this over and over and over and over and

An interesting get up in front of the Miami Courthouse this morning

A small counter-protest. "No Trump! No KKK! No Fascist USA!"

"Nobody's above the law!"

This fine fellow just walked up and Forgiato Blow quickly stepped in to explain that this fellow wants to lock BIDEN up, even though George Soros will say otherwise

This seems to be true

This is very funny

The media aren't the only people who are confused, love this for him

"I can tell you that guy is absolutely possessed by Satan"--this guy

Ok apparently this guy is ABSOLUTELY saying we should lock Trump up. A huge hairball of screaming ensues. Bike cops show up to separate the two. Protester takes a seat and does not seem inclined to leave

At this point I'd estimate about 300 protesters here. I have some great confrontation footage but Twitter really, really sucks and will not let me

No notes

This guy wants to know where the hell DeSantis is. He's sold us out, be says. He will never be president
"He will ruin this country more than Joe Biden!"

"I doubt that" the guy next to me says, but that's the most defense Three Finger Ron gets

the mayor of Miami showed up

I know nothing about the mayor but apparently he is a RINO, a swamp monster, and his time will come

"If you aren't MAGA get out of my country!"

"Go back to Cuba!"

I'm probably gonna end up making a YouTube video of all this, I've got great footage but Twitter is not having it

There's a woman who keeps screaming that Biden is a pedophile who touches little kids and Trump would never because Trump loves the people and she believes it and she's hysterically upset and this sucks for everyone

Bike cops showed up to separate the mayor from the furious mob. Mayor gave a brief interview. He says the Mysterious Package turned out to not be a bomb, people here are exercising their right to free speech and that's beautiful, and that the cops are doing a great job

This fellow keeps yelling about swamp monsters and locking people up and this plus the fact that he's wearing a wool cap in weather that should be indicted for being too hot suggests to me that he may have some stuff going on

I am the Lorax; I speak for the trees

(by the way, if you're enjoying this thread you'll probably enjoy my s*bstack, it's fun and it's free (link in bio). I'm never on here unless Trump's getting arrested)

I cannot believe how hot it is here no wonder this state is insane

We're at the stage in the protest where various people are shouting and the media is conducting interviews and everyone is mingling and it's hard to tell who's who

Bike cops uncomfortable with how close the protest is getting to the courthouse, but I wouldn't worry. This isn't the right kind of crowd

A protester yells for everyone to get back and stay peaceful

Florida is like if the center of the sun was wet

Ok I had to go get water but I'm back now

Police have cordoned off the courthouse. Based on the way the media is perched I'm guessing there's hope that Trump may come out this eay

The thing about police lines is they focus protest attention. Protesters are no longer scattered around the courthouse area but condensed in front of it

Which means I can give you a better idea of how many people there are

Someone just said that Trump is expected to leave the courthouse at around 3:00, I think it was a media person, take that for whatever it's worth

Many businesses in the vicinity of the courthouse have shuttered their shops

Another picture to give you an idea: the police line is long, so the crowd is long and thin

Difficult to convey how true that right side isn't

A different kind of sign

"You're outnumbered! Go home!" Someone yells

"Why don't YOU go!" replies someone else

Noye they're arguing

This woman who wants people who disagree with her to go home is now mad that people are recording her at an event bristling with cameras, and wants all counterprotesters to go up front if they're so brave

"Ok Karen"

One fun thing about today is that all my clothes are either conference clothes or filthy so I'm wearing a free tshirt I got at the TPUSA conference--not TPUSA branded but, you know. There's a vibe

But also I'm acting like press so everyone is just leaving me alone and it's nice

I'm not trying to be undercover I'm just trying not to be naked

A very aggressive chant of "Christ Is King!" followed by the Lord's Prayer

I'm being told that Melania walked in front of the courthouse to a rousing chant of "America First!"

People in this section of the crowd upset about paying for Europe's wars, Ukraine

I don't want to stereotype but hearing Florida dudebros talking shit about Hunter Biden for using cocaine just hits different

One of the dudebros sees a "no one is above the law" sign in the distance, declares his intention to fuck up the sign, he then yells at the woman holding it and returns to his fellow bros to gloat

"If this was an antifa rally and a single Trump supporter showed up they'd get beaten up. That's the difference" a guy tells the media behind me

A shofar is blown

There will be no insurrection here today for a lot of reasons but one of them is it's too hot to fight

Then again, I bet there's a/c in that courthouse

Fuck it let's do this

Some counterprotesters, including the Lock Him Up guy from earlier

Earlier, when I asked him whether he meant Trump or Biden, he said quietly: "Trump. Trump should have been in jail long ago"

Haven't mentioned this but since this is Miami, at least half of what's been said at this pro-Trump protest has been in Spanish

A couple people just sprinted out of the courthouse, no idea what that was about

I'm over where the people sprinted out of the courthouse a second ago

The cops at this entrance appear to have loaded M4s

We've got a musical artist representing Chimps for America over here

He is telling us that back when we were chimps we didn't fight over stuff and we should be like that again; Trump 2024

#ChimpsForAmerica, my man: chimps are vicious creatures. Go with bonobos next times

Media are conducting serious interviews with Chimps for America (aka Salgorithm, apparently)

An argument between a guy in a Hawaiian shirt and a New York transplant. A media guy asks them both to say something nice about each other

Hawaiian shirt guy manages it, Trump supporter doesn't

"if you don't support one side, you support the other! We're at war!"

"We're at war?" Hawaiian shirt guy asks

"Yes! You're a soldier right now!"

"A soldier?" Hawaiian shirt guy laughs. "Do I have a weapon?"

Inserting another plug for the s*bstack which is both fun and free. Link in bio!

Sound on, that noise in the background is me almost dying laughing

The best sign

A bunch of people in suits just ran out of the courthouse. A blonde older woman in a blue dress is talking to some people in the crowd, she's probably someone I should recognize

Crowd is breathless

Does anyone know who she is?

Activity at a side entrance, where some other protesters are, unclear what's up. Looks like some protesters are calmly approaching the courthouse but hard to say

Ok idk what's going on over here but there's a whole police line and stuff

No wall breaches or anything, no riot or significant disorder, everyone seems pretty chill at this time considering the presence of this many cops

Shit, that's a lot of cops

Meanwhile, that chimps for Trump guy is trying really, really hard to be famous

"every thirty seconds a kid goes missing in America" pressing X to doubt

Bike cops have pulled back, people dispersing

Right wing protests are fun because the cops mostly don't want to hurt people. Like, they will, but they don't want to

Leftist protests are not like that

I'm seeing that Trump is at a cafe somewhere in Miami

News crews starting to pack it in

I probably will soon too. Gotta see how Frontier Airlines is going to mess up my Philly flight

Buncha cops going into the courthouse area

I have suffered +5 psychic damage (getting a sunburn while biracial)

I have sweat my entire body weight

I'm out

Thanks for reading!

[this concludes me being on Twitter: find me on Bluesky, s*bstack, and wherever fine goods are sold]

linktr.ee/laurajedeed