Donald Trump supporters gathered at his Palm Beach, Florida resort to protest the FBI raid on his property earlier in the day after news of the investigation broke Monday night.
Videos and photos on Twitter showed supporters arriving at the resort and the former president’s new home, while tweets from his fans promised that “thousands” planned to show up.
Dozens of people were at the scene before midnight on Monday, although the mood could hardly be described as angry. Loudspeakers blared dance music as fans arrived in cars to the darkened stage, where lights were hastily set up.
Some supporters may have heard the former president address his situation at a Sarah Palin telethon, which he attended despite the news.
“Another day in paradise. It was a weird day,” said Mr. Trump, who laughed at his fans.
His supporters, who arrived late Monday, were unlikely to hear their leader directly, but that didn’t stop the crowd from growing as midnight approached.
Some of those who attended the protest told reporters that their investigation appeared political because the FBI had not yet taken action against Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, for criminal activities that Trump supporters have long alleged he was involved in. abroad.
The Justice Department has yet to publicly comment on the unprecedented attack on a former president’s residence. Former President Donald Trump is believed to be under investigation by a grand jury led by the agency in response to the Jan. 6 attack on Congress; the investigation recently took testimony from Mark Short, a top aide to former Vice President Mike Pence.
But The New York Times reported that the raid may have been linked to a separate (though not entirely unrelated) matter of whether Mr. Trump improperly took classified material with him after he left the White House in January 2021 and returned to his home in Florida.
Some of Mr. Trump’s associates told The Times that the president was in possession of “many” pages of classified material, which could mean the president or members of his staff could face criminal charges for removing them.
It was reported earlier this year that the president had delayed returning more than a dozen boxes of such material to the National Archives until the threat of legal action was raised. It was not clear if any more boxes or materials were seized on Monday.
Supporters of the former president who gathered outside Mar-a-Lago were joined in spirit by Republican members of Congress who took to Twitter to voice their disapproval after the news broke and even, in the case of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, vowed to launch congressional investigations of the Justice Department in response.
The date of Monday’s attack has some historical significance: It is the anniversary of the resignation of Richard Nixon, the only president ever to leave office under such conditions, as he faced impeachment for his part in breaking into the Democratic headquarters.
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