Donald Trump said he could be arrested on Tuesday. Let’s unpack what he said

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Over the weekend, former US president Donald Trump wrote a series of social media posts – all in capital letters – saying he could be arrested on Tuesday, calling on his supporters to protest.

He also repeated the false claim that the last US presidential election was rigged against him.

Here’s what we know.

Was Donald Trump arrested?

We haven’t heard if Mr Trump will actually be arrested – all we know is that he claims he expects to.

And he hasn’t said what charges he’s supposed to face.

Mr Trump cited what he called “illegal leaks” from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

He said of those leaks:

“…INDICATE THAT, WITH NO CRIME TO BE PROVEN, & BASED ON AN OLD & THOROUGHLY DEBUNKED (BY MANY OTHER PROSECUTORS!) FAIRYTALE, THE FAR REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF THE UNITED STATES. WAS ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK…”

A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment.

The office is calling witnesses to a grand jury investigating hush money paid on Mr Trump’s behalf during his 2016 presidential campaign.

The grand jury will decide whether there is enough evidence to indict Mr Trump.

The proceedings are not public, but the case is gaining media attention.

Mr Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen testified last week.

Mr Cohen said he arranged the payments in 2016 to the two women to buy their silence about the sexual relations they told Mr Trump a decade or more before his presidential run.

Michael Cohen testified last week. (AP: Yuki Iwamura)

Mr Trump, who is campaigning to be the Republican presidential candidate in next year’s election, has denied the encounters happened, saying he did nothing wrong and calling the investigation a “witch hunt” by a Democratic prosecutor.

He called on his followers — about 5 million of them — to protest his supposed arrest.

Many Democratic leaders and even former Trump allies criticized his posts.

“The former president’s announcement this morning was reckless: it was done to keep himself in the news and to stir up trouble among his supporters,” said former House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Mr Trump’s former national security adviser HR McMaster and former economic adviser Gary Cohn on Sunday both urged Trump supporters to respond peacefully to any developments this week.

The former president has called on his support base to protest on his behalf in the past — thousands stormed the US Capitol building in January, 2021 after he repeated false claims that the election had been rigged.

What do the authorities say?

So far, there has been no announcement about a timeframe for the grand jury’s secret work on the case – or a potential vote on whether to indict Mr Trump.

But New York authorities are making security preparations for the possibility that Mr Trump could be indicted.

The officials, who spoke to the Associated Press (AP) on condition of anonymity, described those plans as “preliminary”.

It’s unclear exactly what this entails, but it could be similar to the security protocols put in place for New York parades.

The AP said that includes the potential for street closures around the Manhattan criminal courthouse.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sent an internal memo hours after Mr Trump’s post.

“We do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York,” Mr Bragg was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

He wrote that the office is working with court and police officials to ensure that “any specific or credible threats against the office” are investigated.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said he “does not condone attempts to intimidate our office”.(AP: Seth Wenig)What did Donald Trump do?

Mr Cohen said he arranged payments totaling $US280,000 ($417,000) to porn actor Stormy Daniels (whose real name is Stephanie Clifford) and Playboy model Karen McDougal.

He said Mr Trump – who was running his first presidential campaign at the time – ordered him to pay.

Mr Cohen said the payments were to prevent Ms Daniels and Ms McDougal from speaking about the encounters they said they had with Mr Trump.

Mr Bragg’s office is apparently investigating whether any state laws were broken in relation to the payments, or how Mr Trump’s company paid Mr Cohen for his work to keep the women’s allegations quiet.

Reuters reported that Robert Costello, a former legal adviser to Mr Cohen, has been asked to appear before the grand jury.

His testimony was requested by Mr Trump’s lawyers because he may have information that disproves the events as described by Mr Cohen, an unnamed source told the news agency.

Mr Trump has also reportedly been invited to testify, which legal experts say is a sign that an indictment may be imminent.

However, an anonymous source told Reuters that Mr Trump rejected this offer.

Ms Daniels and at least two former Trump aides – one-time political adviser Kellyanne Conway and former spokeswoman Hope Hicks – are among the witnesses who have met with prosecutors in recent weeks.

But Mr Trump denied any wrongdoing and did it again at the weekend.

“No misdemeanor,” he wrote.

“No crime, period.”

Wait, is Donald Trump back on Twitter?

Yes.

His account was reinstated in November last year.

Mr Trump has been back on Twitter for months now. (Twitter: @realDonaldTrump)

But he doesn’t tweet — in fact, his last Twitter post was in January, 2021.

Posts from the weekend were made on her own social media platform, called Truth Social, which launched in late 2021.

Here’s what it looks like:

Here’s what Mr Trump’s Truth account looks like. (Truth Social: Donald Trump)

While posts on Twitter are called “tweets”, posts on Mr Trump’s platform are called “facts”.

Reposting a tweet on Twitter is called a “retweet”.

When users reposted a post on Mr Trump’s platform, it was labeled “ReTruthed”:

Users can repost other users’ contributions to the platform. (Truth Social: Donald Trump )

Truth’s platform is currently not accepting users, with Truth’s website stating that user registrations are closed.

The platform’s terms of use prohibit incitement to violence:

“When you make or make any Contributions, you hereby represent and warrant that…

7. Your contributions do not depict violence, threats of violence or criminal activity.

8. Your Contributions do not promote or incite, encourage, or threaten physical harm against others…”

In the past few days, Mr Trump’s Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts have been reinstated after a two-year ban:

Mr Trump’s first Facebook post in two years garnered more than 215,000 reactions in two days. (Facebook: Donald J. Trump)

His campaign spokesman told Fox News Digital in January that a return to Facebook would be “an important tool for the 2024 campaign to reach voters”.

ABC/wires

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