Newsmax Touted Trucker Protest Over Trump Real Estate Judgment — And Its Swift Cancellation

Newsmax continued its complaining about the judgment against Donald Trump for deliberate overstating the value of his properties to get better deals on loans — a Feb. 19 article by Lee Barney, for instance, hyped claims that “New York businesses may leave the state following New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s historic $364 million verdict against Donald Trump,” huffing that “Wall Street bigs are astounded at Friday’s judgment against Trump, the attorney general’s thirst for power, leftists running the New York Legislature, and Gov. Kathy Hochul making the state unlivable.” Barney didn’t explain how penalizing Trump for lying is making New York “unlivable.”

Newsmax also promoted an effort at retaliation against New York for holding Trump accountable for his crimes, as the apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy wrote in a Feb. 18 article:

Truckers who support former President Donald Trump say they will refuse to drive loads to and from New York City following the $355 million verdict in Trump’s civil fraud trial.

A trucker with the X name “Chicago Ray” took to the social media platform Friday night and posted a video in which he expressed fellow truckers’ outrage at the verdict.

“I’ve been on the radio for over an hour and I’ve talked to at least (10) Truckers who are gonna start refusing loads of Monday for (NYC) …I talked to (3) guys that I work with who texted the boss and told him no (NYC),” Chicago Ray posted on X.

“Truckers are (95%) Trump… it’ll get overturned on appeal but you know how f**ken hard it is to get one of these mfrs into (NYC)  cut the bulls**t I’ll cya down the road”

In the video, Chicago Ray said truckers were “tired with you leftists” focused on getting Trump, and added the truckers’ bosses did not care where the loads are dropped.

“I don’t wish nothing on nobody, but what I’m hearing, this is real,” said Chicago Ray, wearing a cap that showed “TRUMP” across the top.

By Sunday morning, Ray’s post had been viewed more than 5.4 million times and received more than 54,000 likes.

McCarthy hyped the effort again in a Feb. 19 article that was otherwise focused on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul reassuring New York buisness owners:

While Hochul insisted businesspeople should not worry, some New York companies may find themselves failing to receive needed shipments of goods. That’s because truckers who support Trump say they will refuse to drive loads to and from New York City following the verdict.

One trucker took to social media Friday night and posted a video in which he expressed fellow truckers’ outrage at the verdict.

“I’ve been on the radio for over an hour and I’ve talked to at least (10) Truckers who are gonna start refusing loads of Monday for (NYC) … I talked to (3) guys that I work with who texted the boss and told him no (NYC),” Chicago Ray posted on X in a since deleted post.

That effort ended rather quickly, however, as Fran Beyer reported in an article later on Feb. 19:

A trucker who backed a boycott of New York City after former President Donald Trump got slapped with whopping civil fraud penalty reportedly opted out after a flurry of posts, some of which were later deleted.

“Chicago Ray” wrote in a Friday post “there’s millions of Truckers for Trump” in warning New Yorkers to “start stocking up” and to “leave TrumpTF alone.”

That post came after Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump must pay $355 million in penalties in the civil fraud case brought against him by New York Attorney General Letitia James. 

[…]

The original post was deleted, according to Newsweek, but a new one popped up Monday in which he distanced himself from the boycott calls and said he was not encouraging anyone to do anything. 

That post was also deleted, though a screenshot was shared by MeidasTouch. 

“Just to be clear…. I’m no figurehead of any movement….” the screenshot showed. “I’m not leading, nor have I encouraged, or am I encouraging anyone to do anything other than what they were doing prior to the ruling on Friday in New York City.”

Chicago Ray posted another, claiming he deleted the original video because it went viral, and that his grandson had seen it on TikTok. He also claimed his decision was not because anyone “got to” him, stressing his continued support of Trump and for truckers.

Beyer concluded by noting another far-right activist protest: “Late last month, a convoy of protesters calling itself “God’s Army” drove to the U.S. southern border, with organizers aiming to expose the Biden administration’s lax immigration policies.” In fact, the “army” invited armed militias to take part, included B-list conservative celebrities like Sarah Palin and Ted Nugent as well as Z-grade conspiracy theorists like Laura Loomer and Michael Yon and involved a couple hundred vehicles at most — as one writer noted, “Beyer concluded by noting another far-right activist protest: “Late last month, a convoy of protesters calling itself “God’s Army” drove to the U.S. southern border, with organizers aiming to expose the Biden administration’s lax immigration policies.” In fact, the “army” invited armed militias to take part, included B-list conservative celebrities like Sarah Palin and Ted Nugent as well as Z-grade conspiracy theorists like Laura Loomer and Michael Yon and involved a couple hundred vehicles at most — as one writer noted, “It wound up being maybe a couple hundred vehicles parked at a rural ranch in Quemado, Texas – basically a Trump rally without a Trump, but with plenty of hucksters selling MAGA merch and grifting the easily grifted.”

Of course, Beyer didn’t mention that the core complaint behind the abortive protest was that Trump was held accountable for his behavior under the law, like all Americans are supposed to be.