Trump’s massive monetary verdict in Carroll trial sets MAGA on fire

Supporters of former President Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement took to social media to express their outrage over Friday’s verdict ordering Trump to pay $83.3 million in damages to E. Jean Carroll.

“Pres Trump was denied a fair trial in NY where judges are now political activist [sic] instead of delivering justice!” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and vocal ally of Trump, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, after the verdict.

Greene’s sentiment was echoed by many members of the MAGA community following the jury’s decision that Trump must pay the hefty sum to Carroll, who accused the former president of defaming her reputation as a journalist by denying he raped her in the mid-1990s.

Carroll claims Trump forcibly groped and then raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan nearly three decades ago. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has claimed that he had never heard of Carroll prior to her legal action against him.

“Absolutely ridiculous! I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party,” Trump said in a statement after the verdict was announced. “Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon. They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!”

“The court ruled that Donald Trump is not guilty of rape in the case of E. Jean Carroll. Yet, the same court still ordered Trump to pay the lunatic woman $83.3 million,” conservative commentator Benny Johnson said on X. “Another example of how the government has been weaponized against Donald Trump in attempt to ruin the man.”

As Johnson referenced, a different jury in May found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and awarded her $5 million but rejected her claim that she was raped.

“She has no evidence he assaulted her. He never even met her. But when he proclaimed his innocence, she sued him & won $80+ million dollars. The machine is trying to stop Trump at all costs. But it won’t work,” right-wing social media personality Rogan O’Handley, also known as “DC Draino,” posted on X.

Conservative activist Laura Loomer called the verdict “insanely unjust,” while other MAGA supporters shared clips of Trump attorney Alina Habba‘s fiery denunciation of the jury’s verdict.

Trump’s verdict was also criticized by at least one public figure not widely associated with MAGA, former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Although Blagojevich still identified as a Democrat as recently as 2022, he has previously spoken fondly of Trump, who commuted the former governor’s federal prison sentence. (Blagojevich was convicted of 17 charges, including wire fraud and conspiracy to solicit bribes, and impeached by his state’s legislature.)

“I learned the hard way you can’t trust the courts. Today’s verdict against Trump for exercising free speech shows how political & broken our courts have become,” Blagojevich wrote on X. “To quote Taylor Swift, ‘the liars and the dirty, dirty cheats of the world’ continue to be unjustly rewarded.”