Surprise! Trump is lying about protest chaos at DNC

On Wednesday, Donald Trump took to his Truth Social site to express his disgust about protests taking place at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. To no one’s surprise, the Republican candidate for president was exaggerating and outright lying.

For months leading up to the convention, both Republicans and the media were looking forward to some good old 1968-style violence at the DNC. Unfortunately for them, protests have fizzled. DNC chaos will just have to be relegated to the long list of imaginary violence that so frightens Republicans.

There did seem to be a chance that things would become serious. Protest groups had called for the convention to be “shut down” and tens of thousands of protesters were predicted. 

But as The Washington Post reports, protests near the convention center have disintegrated into “farce.” Barely one-tenth of the predicted number of protesters appeared and the park across the street from the convention is filled with stacks of pre-printed protest signs that no one showed up to carry.

“There are more reporters than protesters,” said one man selling buttons near the convention hall.

But reports from the ground didn’t stop Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, from following Trump campaign tradition and making up some alternative facts of his own. At his sparsely attended appearance in Wisconsin, he called Chicago “the murder capital of the United States of America” and said that going to the DNC location at the United Center qualified Gov. Tim Walz to “actually, accurately say that he visited a combat zone.”

NBC News may still claim that there are far more protesters at the DNC than were present at July’s Republican National Convention, but if police estimates of 3,500 protesters in Chicago are accurate, that puts them almost exactly on par with the number of protesters at the RNC in Milwaukee. 

As the Christian Science Monitor puts it, “Forget 1968.” So far, protests have been much smaller than expected. In fact, according to The Washington Post, delegates and attendees going in and out of the United Center may not even have noticed that protests were happening. 

And it’s not just protests on one topic that failed to develop.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein announced that there would be a march of the “Poor People’s Army” to intercept Democrats on their way to the convention and make “citizen’s arrests” for “crimes against humanity.” But barely 100 people showed up, even after Stein delayed the start in hopes that her army would swell. There was no march, and no citizens were arrested.

A small group of protesters took down a section of fencing a few blocks away from the arena and threw water bottles at police. Police arrested them and put the fence back up. No tear gas was used. No one was injured. But they did get a write-up in the Chicago Tribune. 

Larger protests that involved clashes with police happened on Tuesday night, but they weren’t near the DNC. They took place in the area around Chicago’s Israeli consulate, and 72 people were reportedly arrested. No injuries were reported.

It’s still possible that there could be more serious protests, but as of Wednesday afternoon, no one has died, and there’s been no significant clash with police. The situation around the DNC has been at least as peaceful as that outside the RNC and claims that the convention is taking place in some nexus of violence are ludicrous.

Meanwhile, both Trump and Vance are simply lying. No one has died in protests at the DNC. Democrats are not stepping over burning flags. And Chicago is far from the “murder capital” of America.

In fact, the murder rate in Chicago is far lower than Cleveland, Ohio’s, and almost equal to that in Cincinnati, Ohio. It seems that whoever is the senator from that state should worry about things back home.

But facts won’t bother Trump or Vance. They never do.

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