Trump Says Latest Indictment ‘Has Awoken the World,’ Generated Unprecedented Support

Former President Donald Trump enters Erie Insurance Arena for a rally while campaigning for the GOP nomination in the 2024 election, in Erie, Pa., on July 29, 2023. Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump says he is seeing an unprecedented outpouring of support in the wake of his third criminal indictment.

“Thank you to everyone!!!” the former president wrote in a Truth Social post on Aug. 2, a day after being indicted on charges related to his 2020 election dispute. “I have never had so much support on anything before.”

Mr. Trump said the indictment “has awoken the world to the corruption, scandal, & failure that has taken place in the United States for the past three years.” He notes the charges were filed against a former “highly successful” president and “the leading candidate” for the 2024 election.

“America is a nation in decline,” he wrote, repeating a refrain from his recent campaign-trail speeches. “But we will Make America Great Again, greater than ever before. I love you all!!!”

Mr. Trump’s second federal indictment accuses him of four charges. The indictment alleges that he conspired to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021, which would deprive U.S. citizens of their right to have their votes count. He is scheduled for a court appearance in the nation’s capital on Aug. 3.

The other federal indictment, filed in June, accuses him of improper handling of classified documents after he left the White House in 2021. Earlier this year, he was indicted in his first set of charges in New York. That case accuses him of manipulating business records to hide a “hush money” payment to an adult film actress. Both of those cases include dozens of charges.

The offenses carry penalties that would put Mr. Trump in prison for the equivalent of several life sentences, Stephen Miller, a longtime adviser of Mr. Trump, pointed out during an Aug. 1 Fox News interview.

“They are criminalizing free speech. They are criminalizing resistance of the Deep State. They are criminalizing questioning of an election result,” Mr. Miller said shortly after the charges were announced. “Free speech will not survive if this indictment succeeds.”

Democrats Have Often Challenged Elections

In the indictment, special counsel Jack Smith acknowledges that all American citizens have free speech rights. But he said Mr. Trump’s election challenge went too far because it interfered with the government’s “bedrock” responsibility to finalize election results.

Mr. Trump points out that other prominent politicians have disputed election results, including his 2016 presidential win. A video posted to his Truth Social account on Aug. 1, titled “10 Minutes of Democrats Denying Election Results,” includes clips of many prominent Democrats calling him an “illegitimate president.”

Those politicians include leaders of the current administration, such as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The video clips date to 2000, when Democrats took various actions, including official acts in Congress, to contest Republican President George W. Bush’s victory over Democrat Al Gore. Also quoted in the video was former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. She has been one of Mr. Trump’s most vociferous opponents.

Ms. Pelosi led two failed impeachment efforts against him.

Just as Mr. Trump and his allies have alleged the 2020 election was “stolen” and that there were “irregularities,” Democrats used those same words to describe the presidential elections in 2000 and 2004, according to the video.