The Proud Boys are back: How the far-right group is rebuilding to rally behind Trump By ARAM ROSTON

 The Proud Boys say recruitment is growing and they’re ready to serve again as Donald Trump's unofficial protection force.

 

A dark SUV cruised past former President Donald Trump’s supporters near his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey on a windy April afternoon. Billowing from the vehicle were three flags: one for the Trump campaign, two others with the initials “PB” – the insignia of the far-right Proud Boys movement.

Through the open windows, three Proud Boys flashed the “OK” sign with their hands, a gesture often associated with white supremacy and the far right. Trump’s fans cheered. Four men dressed in the signature black-and-yellow shirts of the Proud Boys spilled out of the SUV and began glad-handing the crowd like homecoming heroes.

The Proud Boys are back. Four years after the failed effort to overturn Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat, the violent all-male extremist group that led the storming of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, is rebuilding and regaining strength as Trump campaigns to return to the White House, according to interviews with eight Proud Boys, two U.S. law enforcement officials and four experts who track the group’s online activity.

Since the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, four former Proud Boys leaders have been convicted in federal court of seditious conspiracy, each sentenced to 15 or more years in prison. At least another 70 members were charged with participating in the violence. But that crackdown hasn’t stopped the Proud Boys.

Some Proud Boys say they are preparing to emerge once again as a physical force for Trump, drawn to his hardline nationalism and convinced their leaders will be pardoned if he wins. Trump himself promises to pardon convicted Jan. 6 rioters if he’s elected.

After last Thursday’s historic guilty verdict against Trump, an Ohio Proud Boys chapter vowed “war” and posted a video of Proud Boy street brawls that ended with the message, “Fighting solves everything.” A Miami chapter said, “Now, more than ever, we are recruiting!” Some posted images of the upside-down American flag symbolizing the “Stop the Steal” movement that falsely claims Trump won the 2020 election. One Proud Boy told Reuters that America is in a period of “calm before the storm.”

The group’s main Telegram channel, however, posted a message urging Proud Boys to stay calm and not get drawn into a trap and risk arrest. “Trump is, of course, getting railroaded but we will not be walking into any honey pots over this.”

In recent weeks, the group has become more prominent at pro-Trump events, highlighting the risk of renewed violence in this year’s presidential election.

Dozens of Proud Boys – some in body armor and helmets – marked the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection with a show of force at the statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. On April 20, nearly a dozen gathered at a rally for Trump’s Republican campaign in Wilmington, North Carolina.  More recently, groups of Proud Boys from two chapters mixed with tens of thousands of Trump supporters at a campaign rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, in May.

 

On a boardwalk near the entrance of the Wildwood rally, several Proud Boys identified themselves as members of the “New Jersey State” chapter. One said they were there to provide security and stop agitators from “disrespecting or assaulting everybody.” Inscribed on his wraparound sunglasses were the initials “POYB” – short for “Proud of Your Boy.” He wore a ring with the initials “PB” and a black shirt with the yellow laurel wreath of the Proud Boys. Three men from another chapter greeted them, their faces hidden by gaiter masks.

The re-emergence of the Proud Boys at Trump’s political rallies and events coincides with polls showing a majority of Americans fearing political violence will flare around November’s election. It also comes when Trump’s use of incendiary rhetoric is inspiring his supporters to target his opponents – including judges, prosecutors and political rivals – in a wave of threats that’s unprecedented in modern American politics.

Trump himself has not ruled out the possibility of political violence if he loses in November. “If we don’t win, you know, it depends,” he said when asked by Time magazine in April if he expected violence after the election. If he’s jailed or put under house arrest, “I’m not sure the public would stand for it,” he said in a Fox News interview that aired on Sunday. “At a certain point there’s a breaking point.”

Before the last election, Trump told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” Three months later, federal prosecutors say, the group’s leaders plotted and led the insurrection of the U.S. Capitol. Trump’s baseless, rigged-election claims inspired the gathering, and Trump himself urged the assembled crowd to march on the Capitol as Congress certified Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.

A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to questions for this story about his rhetoric, Jan. 6 and the Proud Boys.

As the Proud Boys regroup, they’ve made changes designed to make them less vulnerable to law enforcement scrutiny, including doing away with layers of top leadership, according to interviews with members. The Proud Boys now operate with self-governing chapters in more than 40 states, with little apparent central coordination, members said.

While the group’s structure has changed, its Canadian founder remains an inspirational figure to today’s Proud Boys. Gavin McInnes, a British-born far-right commentator who lives in New York, announced his resignation from the Proud Boys in 2018. But he remains deeply involved with the group, according to interviews with Proud Boys.

“When there are disputes, he mediates,” one Proud Boy said. J. Daniel Hull, a lawyer who has represented Proud Boys, agreed. “They’ll take a lot of cues from Gavin McInnes.”

Over three interviews with Reuters, McInnes said he is not seeking a leadership role but that he communicates regularly with members, makes an appearance at some events and tries to resolve infighting. Some Proud Boys affectionately refer to him as a “Godfather.”

 

After McInnes stepped down, his successor, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, raised the Proud Boys’ profile, pulling them from the fringe of the far-right toward the center of Trump-era Republican politics. Tarrio, a Floridian of Afro-Cuban descent, was sentenced last September to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy, defined as an effort by two or more people to overthrow the government or use force to hinder its operations, and other charges related to the Capitol riot. He has appealed.

Two criminal defense attorneys for Tarrio did not respond to emailed questions and phone calls.

In the past, McInnes, Tarrio and a group of leaders dubbed “Elders” spoke publicly on the group’s behalf, set the agenda and guided its confrontations with left-wing groups around the country. They sat atop a formal structure and could disband Proud Boy chapters or expel members. Now, members say, the chapters are largely independent of each other and ban communications with the media. Most members who spoke to Reuters for this report did so on condition of anonymity.

The group’s resilience has surprised some extremism experts. “The amazing thing is that so many people from the Proud Boys can be in jail and yet you have these active chapters,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the nonprofit Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. “Traditionally when the head of a neo-Nazi or white supremacist group goes to jail or dies, the organization will collapse, but that does not seem to be happening with the Proud Boys.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the group’s activities and whether authorities are monitoring the Proud Boys.

 

A previously unreported 2022 Department of Homeland Security intelligence report, reviewed by Reuters, refers to “Domestic Violent Extremists” identifying themselves as Proud Boys who are “primarily engaged in violence against law enforcement and ideological opponents.” It’s not against the law to be a member and most Proud Boys haven’t done anything illegal, it added.

“You can be as big a Proud Boy supporter as you want in this country as long as you’re not planning criminal activity,” said former FBI agent Mark Seyler, who investigated the Proud Boys before retiring at the end of 2021. But, he added, after the Capitol riots, “there would be no excuse this time not to take them seriously.”

“Tip of the spear”

At Tarrio’s criminal trial, one Proud Boy described the group as ’’foot soldiers of the right.” Today, glorification of violence remains a core feature of the Proud Boys – as does unwavering support of Trump, according to interviews with current members.

The Proud Boys describe their ideology as “Western chauvinism,” which they say is a deep embrace of Western civilization and traditions. Critics say the group uses the term “Western” rather than “white” to veil its racism – a charge the Proud Boys’ defenders deny. While the Proud Boys claim the group is a fraternal organization, in practice it promotes street violence against the left and trolls liberals, Democrats, feminists, transgender activists and others they oppose.

A handbook outlining Proud Boys rituals was revealed by prosecutors in 2023 as evidence in Tarrio’s trial. The manual says that becoming a high-ranking Proud Boy requires “engaging in a major conflict,” including “serious physical fights” or “getting arrested.” A defense lawyer in the case argued that some of the document was merely sarcastic and politically incorrect.

 

A “Proud Boy Prayer” on an active website promoting a New Jersey chapter of the group puts it this way: “Strengthen us Brothers with power and hard fists to help us defend the right and defeat the wrong.” The same site says the Proud Boys don’t support acts that violate criminal law.

Federal prosecutors and a U.S. congressional investigation both named the Proud Boys as crucial plotters and leaders of the Jan. 6 attack. The Proud Boys “lined up behind Donald Trump” and were “ready to commit violence on his behalf,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Conor Mulroe said in court. “These defendants saw themselves as Donald Trump’s army, fighting to keep their preferred leader in power no matter what the law or the courts had to say about it.”

Publicly, members of the group deny the Proud Boys orchestrated the Jan. 6 violence. Instead, they characterize the riot as spontaneous and their leaders as innocent. Privately, however, some Proud Boys acknowledge that the group drove the events of that day.

“Without the Proud Boys, Jan. 6 didn’t happen,” one longtime member of the group told Reuters. “The Proud Boys were the tip of the spear.”

 

During the Trump administration, the Proud Boys engaged in large-scale street brawls with antifa – antifascists – and other leftist groups across the country, typically by taunting demonstrators to instigate a fight. They adopted the slogan “Fuck Around And Find Out,” and emblazoned the letters “FAFO” on hats and t-shirts.

Some historians compare the Proud Boys to fascist European militias of the 1920s and 1930s such as the Brownshirts, a Nazi paramilitary group that helped bring Hitler to power in Germany. Proud Boys say they’re nothing like the Brownshirts and bear no resemblance to fascists. But street violence and extreme nationalism are features of both groups. In the weeks before the Capitol riots, some wore a patch inscribed with “RWDS,” short for “Right Wing Death Squad,” a term used to describe Central and South American paramilitaries who supported right-wing governments and dictatorships.

 

“Splintering and infighting”

After Trump left the White House, the Proud Boys turned to America’s culture wars. They clashed with supporters of abortion rights and vaccine mandates, and harassed organizers of Drag Queen Story Hours, where female impersonators read at libraries or bookstores to children. Fights often ensued.

Since the 2021 Capitol attack, Reuters identified 29 incidents of political violence involving the Proud Boys, almost all of them centered around social issues. All but one of the eight cases in 2023 involved clashes between Proud Boys and left-wing activists at demonstrations supporting LGBTQ+ rights. The tally was based largely on news reports and court records of fights, assaults and other physical confrontations.

This year, the Proud Boys have returned to politics.

In the first three months of 2024, there have been far fewer Proud Boys public events than in the same period last year. But half of them have been pro-Trump and the rest have been political in nature, related to guns or immigration, said Kieran Doyle of the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit that monitors political violence.

On April 24, Proud Boys founder McInnes appeared at Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protests. He told Reuters that the Proud Boys were not getting involved in the anti-Israel unrest, saying he was there to “ridicule” liberals by pretending to be a left-wing journalist. It didn’t work, he said, because people saw him and posted alerts on social media. “They recognized me and were scared.”

There’s no authoritative count of Proud Boy members. McInnes claims there are about 5,000, down from 8,000 during Trump’s presidency but up from lows after the Capitol riot arrests. Official estimates of the Proud Boys’ strength vary widely, from 300 to 3,000 members, said a law enforcement source who has monitored the group. Reuters could not independently corroborate its numbers.

 

Some former Proud Boys have abandoned the group for other, more overtly racist and violent groups, including the neo-Nazi Blood Tribe and the underground “Active Club” scene, a white supremacist male movement, one Proud Boy told Reuters.

Julie Farnam, a former U.S. Capitol Police assistant director of intelligence who now runs a private investigative agency, said there are 154 Proud Boy chapters in 48 U.S. states. Farnam also said the Proud Boys appear to be growing overseas and have 18 international chapters in nine countries, based on her monitoring of the group’s social media activity, although their size is unclear. “It has grown and I don’t see any evidence it’s slowing down,” she said. Canada and New Zealand have designated the Proud Boys a terrorist group.

As they regroup in the United States, the Proud Boys face infighting between what insiders refer to as a “Standard” or “Rogue” wing and a “National” or “Traditional” wing. The dispute began after one leader accused another of publishing identifying information about him, forcing others to take sides, said McInnes. Rival members brawled at an autumn gathering in Las Vegas, and some of the most extreme white nationalist Proud Boys have gravitated to the Standard faction, one Proud Boy told Reuters

 

McInnes said he couldn’t resolve the split and dismissed it as growing pains. “Every club, when they start getting big, they start splintering and infighting,” he said, adding that recruitment is still growing.

Born in England and raised in Canada, McInnes co-founded Vice magazine in 1994 and remains a vocal force in far-right circles. With his groomed beard and retro horn-rimmed glasses, he resembles a hipster from Brooklyn, where he lived in a luxury penthouse apartment before moving to the New York suburbs. He runs a show on his own website, Censored TV, which streams right-wing podcasts. The show’s backdrop features the Proud Boys insignia next to an American flag with “PB” where the stars ought to be.

He founded the Proud Boys during the 2016 presidential election. Two years later, after a brawl in New York City where Proud Boys were arrested, he distanced himself from the group.

McInnes told Reuters that he resigned to make it more difficult for prosecutors to allege that the group operated like a gang with top-down leadership and thus prevent arrested Proud Boys from receiving lengthier sentences.

He evoked a parallel with the Hells Angels, a hard-charging motorcycle club that revels in violence, including attacks on anti-war protesters in the 1960s. The Justice Department describes the Hells Angels as “a serious national domestic threat” and blames it for a host of criminal activity, including drug-trafficking and violent crimes. The group has no formal overall leader.

 

“These defendants saw themselves as Donald Trump’s army, fighting to keep their preferred leader in power no matter what the law or the courts had to say about it.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Conor Mulroe

McInnes said the Proud Boys adopted a loose organizational structure similar to the Hells Angels partly to avoid federal charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO. That law was originally passed in 1970 to help tie Mafia bosses to the crimes of their underlings by allowing prosecutors to argue they conspired together in a criminal enterprise.

“You know, the way Hells Angels can avoid RICO charges is they have their autonomous constitution, and there’s no top-down leadership. But if you have top-down leadership,” McInnes added, “you’re going to get gang charges.”

San Francisco lawyer Jai Gohel, who has represented the Hells Angels in state and federal cases for more than 20 years, said the structure of the Hells Angels wasn’t designed specifically to avoid RICO prosecutions and that individual local chapters sometimes face such charges.

If the Proud Boys ever faced a nationwide RICO prosecution, the new structure could “lessen the damage to uninvolved chapters or uninvolved leaders,” said Columbia Law School professor Daniel Richman. But the Proud Boys still remain vulnerable to prosecution, he said, noting that Hells Angels members and leaders are often charged with crimes regardless of the group’s structure.

McInnes won’t say specifically whether or not he’s still a Proud Boy. “For legal reasons,” he said, “I have to remain ambiguous about it.” He also doesn’t like the idea of leading, he added. “That’s for megalomaniac cult leaders.”

“Bad things are going to happen”

McInnes was succeeded by Tarrio, an avid Trump supporter who served as the Florida director of “Latinos for Trump,” a political action committee. Tarrio propelled the Proud Boys into politics and, with his immigrant background, was seen by some members as helpful in deflecting charges of racism. One Proud Boy told Reuters the group considered Tarrio’s ethnicity a public relations advantage.

Tarrio built a bridge between the far-right and Trump-era Washington. He was photographed inside the gates of the White House and was an associate of Trump adviser Roger Stone, who had “a longstanding, close relationship with the Proud Boys,” according to congressional investigators. When contacted by Reuters, Stone declined to answer questions about Tarrio. He said he knows members of the Proud Boys but has “no formal nor informal relationship with the organization.”

In November and December 2020, Tarrio led the Proud Boys through the streets of D.C. after Trump’s loss and burned a Black Lives Matter banner during a demonstration by Trump supporters.

He is now held at a medium-security federal prison in Kentucky. Freeing him and dozens of other Proud Boys jailed for the Capitol riots is the group’s new call to action. In at least three rallies this year, Proud Boys have held up signs calling for their freedom.

A Proud Boy holding one such sign at Trump’s Bedminster rally said the sentences were too severe, echoing comments by many members. Asked if Trump will free the Proud Boys if elected, the member replied: “I would hope so. He said he will.”

Trump said in March that if he wins the election, one of his first acts would be to “free” those charged of crimes related to the Capitol siege – a group numbering more than 1,400, whom Trump has described as “patriots” and “hostages.” They include violent offenders caught on video brandishing stun guns, flagpoles, firearms and other weapons in the attack that injured about 140 police officers. Trump himself is facing felony criminal charges in connection with the Jan. 6 riot.

 

At a May 2023 town hall, Trump didn’t rule out pardoning the Proud Boys. “I’d have to look at their case,” he said. Trump’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, did not respond to an email asking if Trump planned to pardon the Proud Boys or had been in communication with them.

Farnam, the former U.S. Capitol Police assistant director, said the possibility of pardons is a powerful motivator for the Proud Boys to re-emerge as street soldiers for Trump in the upcoming election.

McInnes scoffs at that idea. Trump doesn’t control them, he said. “Give me a scenario where Trump calls Proud Boys … and he says, ‘I need you guys. I need you here on this date.’ Like, is that what leftists really believe?”

But Trump doesn’t need a phone call to mobilize them, said some members of the group and experts who study it.

While there’s no evidence that Trump directly contacted the Proud Boys to engage in violence on Jan. 6, 2021, congressional investigators said he sent them strong signals, including a Dec. 19, 2020, tweet where he called for his supporters to mass in Washington: “Be there, will be wild!”

“For the Proud Boys,” the congressional investigators wrote, “President Trump’s tweet set in motion a chain of events that led directly to the attack on the Capitol.” After that tweet, Tarrio created a new encrypted chat to organize the Proud Boys for Jan. 6, prosecutors told a federal jury last year.

The Proud Boys also seized on Trump’s comment to “stand back and stand by” a few months earlier in September 2020. Tarrio quickly replied, “standing by,” in a post on the now-defunct site Parler. Some Proud Boys incorporated the phrase into the group’s logo. McInnes uses audio of Trump’s comment over graphics of the Proud Boys insignia on his online TV show.

A Trump attorney has said in federal court that Trump’s speeches and tweets did not incite violence.

Today, many Proud Boys want Trump back in power, not just because of the prospect of pardons. For some, his appeal reflects a deeper cultural shift in America – from unease at changing racial and ethnic demographics to anger over immigration and a perception on the right that liberals are destroying the country. Trump frequently exploits those grievances on the campaign trail in apocalyptic language that’s echoed by some Proud Boys.

 

“If Trump loses, our republic, the country goes away. Bad things are going to happen,” said Michale Graves, a Proud Boy and former lead singer of the Misfits punk band.

Graves is an unusual figure in the movement. He doesn’t wear the Fred Perry polo shirts with a laurel wreath logo favored by the group and says he joined mainly to be contrarian. In March, he performed at Cactus Jack’s Bar & Grill in Phoenix, Arizona, to an enthusiastic crowd that included a few Proud Boys. He wore a ball cap on his shaved head and a black button-down shirt, as he sang the Misfits classic “Saturday Night,” a horror-punk ballad about murder.

Many of the Proud Boys that show up at his gigs expect mass uprisings in the coming election, Graves said. “People who come to the shows are talking about this giant confrontation.”

As he played, three men sat on bar stools near the door, their shirts embroidered with the distinctive wreath of a Proud Boys Arizona chapter: a skull in a cowboy hat, set between two revolvers.

One shunted off questions from this reporter with a warning look. “We’re just music fans,” he said.

Another had the words “Proud Boy” tattooed on his forearm and claimed he was an “Elder” in the organization. He said no one in his chapter would ever talk to the media. Reminded that Tarrio, the jailed past chairman, used to talk incessantly to reporters, he chuckled.

“We’re still here. But we’ve changed.”

 

Atlanta’s water burst is the latest reminder of America’s mounting water bill by Joseph W. Kane

 

Following a string of water main bursts in Atlanta, the country is once again grappling with an age-old conundrum: how to stay ahead of an increasingly intractable list of water infrastructure challenges. Corroded pipes—some nearly a century old—failed near downtown and Midtown Atlanta, leading to shutoffs, boil-water advisories, and growing frustrations for thousands of households and businesses (the final tally is still unclear). Repair crews raced to fix the bursts and local leaders pledged financial relief for those affected, but ongoing concerns remain over the full extent of the water system’s needs.

Atlanta’s water needs are locally problematic, but they are also nationally emblematic of a broader water infrastructure challenge: America is failing to invest enough in its water systems.

From Flint, Mich., to Jackson, Miss., to a seemingly unending number of urban and rural communities, the country’s water infrastructure is aging and in need of repair. Contaminated drinking water, including lead pollution, is often the most glaring sign of an often-invisible challenge. But leaking pipes, combined sewer overflows, and other chronic issues persist too. An increasingly destructive climate, including more frequent floods and droughts, is not helping matters either. The ripple effects of these failures are also extensive across different systems, leading to network failures across neighborhoods and entire regions.

 

More than $600 billion in investment is estimated to be needed over the next 20 years to keep up with all the necessary improvements, according to the latest EPA national water assessments. Even with more federal funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), these estimates continue to escalate.

Water main bursts like those in Atlanta are the quintessential example of our investment backlog. An estimated 260,000 pipe failures happen each year, or about 11.1 breaks for every 100 miles of pipes, based on a survey conducted by Utah State researchers. Many of these pipes are older (53 years on average) and made of more susceptible materials such as cast iron. But more striking is that an estimated 20% of pipes in this survey are beyond their useful life and will require $452 billion to replace. This figure also does not account for all the utilities scattered across the country, but only captures a fraction of the full extent of the national cost.

While these various water infrastructure needs and costs are concerning in themselves, the bigger issue is the lack of financial capacity to address them. Local water utilities are the primary owners and operators of this infrastructure, responsible for upwards of 90% of all public spending each year on the country’s water needs. Yet, with more than 50,000 utilities in the U.S., they are often highly localized and fragmented in their operations and service areas, as well as limited in their ability to generate predictable and durable revenue from ratepayers. That’s especially the case in cities like Flint and Jackson that have endured population loss and economic disinvestment over many decades. The tension between balancing water investment and affordability is ever-present.

 

The financial pressure is immense on local utilities—and other state agencies—who are constantly trying to cobble together enough resources to stay ahead of these needs. Beyond increasing rates, utilities are implementing new fees (e.g. stormwater fees) to keep up with the pace of repairs and other regulatory pressures. They are appealing to voters and passing ballot referenda; Atlanta, in fact, recently approved a one-cent sales tax to cover needed water upgrades. Utilities are also investing in more cost-effective designs, technologies, and other upgrades to provide more reliable service; Atlanta has also invested in widespread pipe improvements and more resilient green infrastructure installations.

But even these steps are not enough, as Atlanta’s recent experience demonstrates. So where does the country go from here?

The first step is to establish increased, sustained federal water funding. While the IIJA pumped about $57 billion into a host of different water infrastructure improvements, this figure still pales in comparison to the price tags noted earlier. Even when including additional funding for watershed and resilience improvements from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), there is still an outstanding needs gap. Federal investment, ideally tuned to need and ability to pay, can ensure all communities gain the resources they need. Recent conversations in Washington have generally supported more investment, including reauthorization of funding for flood control and other waterway projects. But the reality is that federal funding lags behind the full scale of water needs nationally, and utilities are scrambling for predictable resources.

 

The second step is to support continued local and state experimentation. While many utilities are struggling to simply keep up with existing repairs, that should not be an excuse for failing to test more proactive and collaborative solutions. Considering alternative revenue sources, breaking down governance siloes, and creating new asset management strategies are among these possible solutions. Admittedly, larger urban water systems tend to have greater capital budgets, existing financial resources, and staffing levels to accelerate new types of projects and other repairs. Seattle, for instance, has established more comprehensive and community-led plans around different upgrades, as have utilities in Milwaukee, Washington, and other cities. But utilities in more resource-constrained cities like Camden, N.J., and Buffalo, N.Y., are also launching innovative plans and partnerships to accelerate improvements.

Atlanta’s water dilemma is not an isolated phenomenon. Expect more water disruptions in the months and years to come. At this point, it’s not a question of if, but when in many communities. As these challenges and their associated price tags mount, though, they will serve as continual reminders of the need for more sustained funding and proactive innovation.

Records of Pompeii’s survivors have been found – and archaeologists are starting to understand how they rebuilt their lives by Steven L. Tuck

 

On Aug. 24, in A.D. 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted, shooting over 3 cubic miles of debris up to 20 miles (32.1 kilometers) in the air. As the ash and rock fell to Earth, it buried the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

According to most modern accounts, the story pretty much ends there: Both cities were wiped out, their people frozen in time.

It only picks up with the rediscovery of the cities and the excavations that started in earnest in the 1740s.

But recent research has shifted the narrative. The story of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius is no longer one about annihilation; it also includes the stories of those who survived the eruption and went on to rebuild their lives.

 The search for survivors and their stories has dominated the past decade of my archaeological fieldwork, as I’ve tried to figure out who might have escaped the eruption. Some of my findings are featured in an episode of the new PBS documentary, “Pompeii: The New Dig.”

 

Making it out alive

Pompeii and Herculaneum were two wealthy cities on the coast of Italy just south of Naples. Pompeii was a community of about 30,000 people that hosted thriving industry and active political and financial networks. Herculaneum, with a population of about 5,000, had an active fishing fleet and a number of marble workshops. Both economies supported the villas of wealthy Romans in the surrounding countryside.

In popular culture, the eruption is usually depicted as an apocalyptic event with no survivors: In episodes of the TV series “Doctor Who” and “Loki,” everyone in Pompeii and Herculaneum dies.

But the evidence that people could have escaped was always there.

The eruption itself continued for over 18 hours. The human remains found in each city account for only a fraction of their populations, and many objects you might have expected to have remained and be preserved in ash are missing: Carts and horses are gone from stables, ships missing from docks, and strongboxes cleaned out of money and jewelry.

All of this suggests that many – if not most – of the people in the cities could have escaped if they fled early enough.

Some archaeologists have always assumed that some people escaped. But searching for them has never been a priority.

So I created a methodology to determine if survivors could be found. I took Roman names unique to Pompeii or Herculaneum – such as Numerius Popidius and Aulus Umbricius – and searched for people with those names who lived in surrounding communities in the period after the eruption. I also looked for additional evidence, such as improved infrastructure in neighboring communities to accommodate migrants.

After eight years of scouring databases of tens of thousands of Roman inscriptions on places ranging from walls to tombstones, I found evidence of over 200 survivors in 12 cities. These municipalities are primarily in the general area of Pompeii. But they tended to be north of Mount Vesuvius, outside the zone of the greatest destruction.

It seems as though most survivors stayed as close as they could to Pompeii. They preferred to settle with other survivors, and they relied on social and economic networks from their original cities as they resettled.

Some migrants prosper

Some of the families that escaped apparently went on to thrive in their new communities.

The Caltilius family resettled in Ostia – what was then a major port city to the north of Pompeii, 18 miles from Rome. There, they founded a temple to the Egyptian deity Serapis. Serapis, who wore a basket of grain on his head to symbolize the bounty of the earth, was popular in harbor cities like Ostia dominated by the grain trade. Those cities also built a grand, expensive tomb complex decorated with inscriptions and large portraits of family members.

Members of the Caltilius family married into another family of escapees, the Munatiuses. Together, they created a wealthy, successful extended family. 

 

The second-busiest port city in Roman Italy, Puteoli – what’s known as Pozzuoli today – also welcomed survivors from Pompeii. The family of Aulus Umbricius, who was a merchant of garum, a popular fermented fish sauce, resettled there. After reviving the family garum business, Aulus and his wife named their first child born in their adopted city Puteolanus, or “the Puteolanean.”

Others fall on hard times

Not all the survivors of the eruption were wealthy or went on to find success in their new communities. Some had already been poor to begin with. Others seemed to have lost their family fortunes, perhaps in the eruption itself.

Fabia Secundina from Pompeii – apparently named for her grandfather, a wealthy wine merchant – also ended up in Puteoli. There, she married a gladiator, Aquarius the retiarius, who died at the age of 25, leaving her in dire financial straits.

Three other very poor families from Pompeii – the Avianii, Atilii and Masuri families – survived and settled in a small, poorer community called Nuceria, which goes by Nocera today and is about 10 miles (16.1 kilometers) east of Pompeii.

According to a tombstone that still exists, the Masuri family took in a boy named Avianius Felicio as a foster son. Notably, in the 160 years of Roman Pompeii, there was no evidence of any foster children, and extended families usually took in orphaned children. For this reason, it’s likely that Felicio didn’t have any surviving family members.

This small example illustrates the larger pattern of the generosity of migrants – even impoverished ones – toward other survivors and their new communities. They didn’t just take care of each other; they also donated to the religious and civic institutions of their new homes.

For example, the Vibidia family had lived in Herculaneum. Before it was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius, they had given lavishly to help fund various institutions, including a new temple of Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility.

One female family member who survived the eruption appears to have continued the family’s tradition: Once settled in her new community, Beneventum, she donated a very small, poorly made altar to Venus on public land given by the local city council.

How would survivors be treated today?

While the survivors resettled and built lives in their new communities, government played a role as well.

The emperors in Rome invested heavily in the region, rebuilding properties damaged by the eruption and building new infrastructure for displaced populations, including roads, water systems, amphitheaters and temples.

This model for post-disaster recovery can be a lesson for today. The costs of funding the recovery never seems to have been debated. Survivors were not isolated into camps, nor were they forced to live indefinitely in tent cities. There’s no evidence that they encountered discrimination in their new communities.

Instead, all signs indicate that communities welcomed the survivors. Many of them went on to open their own businesses and hold positions in local governments. And the government responded by ensuring that the new populations and their communities had the resources and infrastructure to rebuild their lives.

 

Beyoncé tickets, Bali trips and book deals: Here's how Supreme Court justices earned money this year by Ana Faguy, BBC News

 

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was gifted Beyoncé tickets from the singer and Justice Clarence Thomas disclosed two trips gifted from major GOP donor Harlan Crow — a news report about the gifted trips landed the justice in hot water earlier this year.

Four of the justices disclosed financials related to book deals.

The reports, which cover the 2023 year, were made public for eight of the nine justices with Justice Samuel Alito requesting a 90-day extension for his report.

Supreme Court justices are required to file disclosures of gifts annually.

Justice Brown Jackson received four tickets from Beyoncé valued at more than $3,700 (more than £2,900) to the singer's concert.

Justice Thomas, meanwhile, included in this year's report a disclosure that he took two trips with Mr Crow in 2019 — one to Bali and one to California. The trips were added as an amendment to a previous disclosure.

The California trip was to a "private club" according to the report, possibly alluding to Bohemian Grove, a California club for rich, powerful men. Justice Thomas reportedly has visited the club in the past.

• Clarence Thomas and Bohemian Grove: What goes on at the all-male club?
• Clarence Thomas: US Supreme Court judge acknowledges paid-for trips

Food and lodging for both trips were gifted to Justice Thomas, according to the disclosure, but he did not include the exact monetary value of the trips.

ProPublica reported last year that the 2019 trip to Bali may have cost as much as $500,000 (£403,000).

As part of its report, the non-profit news website found Justice Thomas accepted vacations from Mr Crow, a real estate mogul, nearly every year for two decades.

At the time the news story was released, Justice Thomas pushed back saying "this sort of personal hospitality" did not need to be part of the annual disclosure.

Scrutiny of the omission, led to similar criticism of other justices last year.

On Friday, Justices Neil Gorsuch, Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh and Brown Jackson listed book royalties as part of their financial disclosures.

Justice Brown Jackson made more than $893,000 (more than £702,000) for a book advance for a yet-to-be released memoir.

Justice Kavanaugh disclosed receiving $340,000 (£267,000) for a forthcoming "legal memoir". 

 

How to tell if a conspiracy theory is probably false by H. Colleen Sinclair

 

Conspiracy theories are everywhere, and they can involve just about anything.

People believe false conspiracy theories for a wide range of reasons – including the fact that there are real conspiracies, like efforts by the Sackler family to profit by concealing the addictiveness of oxycontin at the cost of countless American lives.

The extreme consequences of unfounded conspiratorial beliefs could be seen on the staircases of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and in the self-immolation of a protestor outside the courthouse holding the latest Trump trial.

But if hidden forces really are at work in the world, how is someone to know what’s really going on?

That’s where my research comes in; I’m a social psychologist who studies misleading narratives. Here are some ways to vet a claim you’ve seen or heard.

 

Step 1: Seek out the evidence

Real conspiracies have been confirmed because there was evidence. For instance, in the allegations dating back to the 1990s that tobacco companies knew cigarettes were dangerous and kept that information secret to make money, scientific studies showed problematic links between tobacco and cancer. Court cases unearthed corporate documents with internal memos showing what executives knew and when. Investigative journalists revealed efforts to hide that information. Doctors explained the effects on their patients. Internal whistleblowers sounded the alarm.

But unfounded conspiracy theories reveal their lack of evidence and substitute instead several elements that should be red flags for skeptics:

• Dismissing traditional sources of evidence, claiming they are in on the plot.
• Claiming that missing information is because someone is hiding it, even though it’s common that not all facts are known completely for some time after an event.
• Attacking apparent inconsistencies as evidence of lies.
• Overinterpreting ambiguity as evidence: A flying object may be unidentified – but that’s different from identifying it as an alien spaceship.
• Using anecdotes – especially vaguely attributed ones – in place of evidence, such as “people are saying” such-and-such or “my cousin’s friend experienced” something.
• Attributing knowledge to secret messages that only a select few can grasp – rather than evidence that’s plain and clear to all.

Step 2: Test the allegation

Often, a conspiracy theorist presents only evidence that confirms their idea. Rarely do they put their idea to the tests of logic, reasoning and critical thinking.

While they may say they do research, they typically do not apply the scientific method. Specifically, they don’t actually try to prove themselves wrong.

So a skeptic can follow the method scientists use when they do research: Think about what evidence would contradict the explanation – and then go looking for that evidence.

Sometimes that effort will yield confirmation that the explanation is correct. And sometimes not. Like a scientist, ask yourself: What would it take for you to believe your perception was wrong?

 

Step 3: Watch out for tangled webs

When theories claim large groups of people are perpetrating wide-ranging activities over a long period of time, that’s another red flag.

Confirmed conspiracies typically involve small, isolated groups, like the top echelon of a company or a single terrorist cell. Even the alliance among tobacco companies to hide their products’ danger was confined to those at the top, who made decisions and enlisted paid scientists and ad agencies to spread their messages.

False conspiracies tend to implicate wide swaths of people, such as world leaders, mainstream media outlets, the global scientific community, the Hollywood entertainment industry and interconnected government agencies.

The online manifesto of Max Azzarello – the man who self-immolated on the steps of a New York courthouse in April 2024 – railed against a conspiracy allegedly including every president since Bill Clinton, sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, even the writers of “The Simpsons.”

Remember that the more people who supposedly know a secret, the harder it is to keep.

Step 4: Look for a motive

Confirmed conspiracies tell stories about why a group of people acted as they did and what they hoped to gain. Dubious conspiracies involve a lot of accusations or just questions without examining what real benefit the conspiracy nets the conspirators, especially when factoring in the costs.

For instance, what purpose would NASA have to lie about the existence of Finland?

Be particularly suspicious when conspiracies allege an “agenda” being perpetrated by an entire sociodemographic, which is often a marginalized group, such as a “gay agenda” or “Muslim agenda.”

Also look to see whether those spreading the conspiracy theories have something to gain. For example, scholarly research has identified the 12 people who are the primary sources of false claims about vaccinations. The researchers also found that those people profit from making those claims.

Step 5: Seek the source of the allegations

If you can’t figure out who is at the root of a conspiracy allegation and thus how they came to know what they claim, that is another red flag. Some people say they have to remain anonymous because the conspiracists will take revenge for revealing information. But even so, a conspiracy can usually be tracked back to its source – maybe a social media account, even an anonymous one.

Over time, anonymous sources either come forward or are revealed. For instance, years after the Watergate scandal took down Richard Nixon’s presidency, a key inside source known as “Deep Throat” was revealed to be Mark Felt, who had been a high-level FBI official in the early 1970s.

Even the notorious “Q” at the heart of the QAnon conspiracy cult has been identified, and not by government investigators chasing leaks of national secrets. Surprise! Q is not the high-level official some people believed.

Reliable sources are transparent.

 

Step 6: Beware the supernatural

Some conspiracy theories – though none that have been proven – involve paranormal, alien, demonic or other supernatural forces. People alive in the 1980s and 1990s might remember the public fear that satanic cults were abusing and sacrificing children. That idea never disappeared entirely.

And around the same time, perhaps inspired by the TV series “V,” some Americans began to believe in lizard people. It may seem harmless to keep hoping for evidence of Bigfoot, but the person who detonated a bomb in downtown Nashville on Dec. 25, 2020, apparently believed lizard people ran the Earth.

The closer the conspiracy is to science fiction, the closer it is to just being fiction.

Step 7: Look for other warning signs

There are other red flags too, like the use of prejudicial tropes about the group allegedly behind the conspiracy, particularly antisemitic allegations.

But rather than doing the work to really examine their conspiratorial beliefs, believers often choose to write off the skeptics as fools or as also being in on it – whatever “it” may be.

Ultimately, that’s part of the allure of conspiracy theories. It is easier to dismiss criticism than to admit you might be wrong.

Seeking Sanctuary By Ed Finke

 

Public libraries establish themselves as book sanctuaries to counter bans

 Last year, when states were introducing a raft of legislation that would effectively take books off the shelves, librarians at Harris County (Tex.) Public Library (HCPL) knew they wanted to take a stand.

Texas House Bill 900, which would have restricted materials in school libraries and required vendors to assign book ratings based on so-called appropriateness before selling them to schools, had just been signed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in June and was set to go into effect September 1, 2023. (On September 19, the bill was temporarily blocked by US District Judge Alan D. Albright. In January, the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision to prohibit the Texas Education Agency from forcing vendors to rate books, but the library standards outlined in the bill—which prohibit school districts from possessing or purchasing books with “harmful material”—remain.)

“Because the mission of public libraries is so much different from the school libraries, we weren’t thinking about being targeted by legislation,” says Edward Melton, HCPL executive director. But staffers were anxious about the climate of censorship, and HCPL itself had seen an uptick in requests for reconsideration of materials—from three requests in 2021 to 24 requests in 2023—and complaints about displays and drag storytimes.

“We knew [the pushback] could potentially lead to something political,” Melton says. “So we said, ‘Let’s go ahead and be proactive about this.’”

The same day H.B. 900 was temporarily blocked, Harris County Commissioners Court (HCCC) passed a resolution declaring HCPL a book sanctuary. The resolution stated the county’s support for
the library, with the aim of combating censor­ship, defending intellectual freedom, and protecting the freedom to read.

“HCPL staff are dedicated to the principle of free and equitable access to information and knowledge and deserve to pursue their calling free from harassment and intimidation,” the resolution reads. “Harris County is committed to their protection.”

Though the resolution—written by the library and revised by HCCC policy writers—does not offer legal protection, the unanimous support of commissioners helped ease staffers’ worries, Melton says.

“If any staff doubted that the library and the county would support them, we wanted the resolution to allay those concerns,” he says. “With us being a book sanctuary, it relieves me—and I would speak for my staff—of that concern about retaliation or retribution or legislation that prevents us from doing what we do.”

In response to book banning attempts across the nation, libraries across the US and Canada are joining a larger social campaign to declare themselves book sanctuaries, or spaces that collect endangered books and protect the freedom to read. More than 3,300 book sanctuaries have been established so far, with most declarations  made by individuals. As of early May, 12 library systems—in both red states and blue states—have joined the movement, including Broward County (Fla.) Library, Dayton (Ohio) Metro Library, Hoboken (N.J.) Public Library, and Northbrook (Ill.) Public Library.

The three public libraries that American Libraries spoke with for this article issued their declarations with backing from, or in partnership with, their local governments. While these statements don’t guarantee formal protections, libraries say their sanctuary status and support from civic partners provide a sense of comfort when threats to intellectual freedom turn potentially dangerous.

What is a book sanctuary?

Libraries have seen a precipitous rise in book banning efforts and attempts to censor programs, displays, and nonbook materials over the past few years. In 2023, ALA tallied 1,249 of these attempts in the US, with a total of 4,241 unique titles challenged. (By comparison, ALA tracked 156 challenges to books and nonbook materials in 2020.)

The book sanctuary movement began in September 2022, when Chicago Public Library (CPL) and the city of Chicago partnered in response to increasing attempts to ban and censor books. CPL declared its 81 branches book sanctuaries.

Book sanctuaries are dedicated to making challenged books broadly accessible, hosting book talks and other events that feature diverse voices from communities that are often restricted (such as authors who are LGBTQ+, Black, Indigenous, and people of color), and educating others on the history of book bans. They can be created by anyone and can exist anywhere, physically or digitally.

When a person or entity establishes a book sanctuary, they are declaring a commitment to protecting intellectual freedom, according to a CPL announcement. The main website for the movement offers a free, downloadable toolkit with tips on hosting discussions about banned books, donating banned books, and calling on local government to protect intellectual freedom.

“Libraries view this work as central to who we are, to our mission, and I hope that more libraries stake a claim to that critical work we do,” says Chris Brown, CPL commissioner.

Making the decision

In Stamford, Connecticut, the Ferguson Library (FL) Board of Trustees, alongside Mayor Caroline Simmons, declared the library and city book sanctuaries in January 2023. FL CEO Alice Knapp says the library has an unusually close relationship with its city, including a stipulation in the library’s charter that the mayor appoints half the board and serves as an ex-officio member. The library director and the mayor also meet once a month.

Knapp recalls notifying Simmons of CPL’s decision to become a book sanctuary, and that FL was thinking of following its lead: “[Simmons’s positive] response was immediate, and she said, ‘Let me know as soon as the library board of trustees takes action.’”

With us being a book sanctuary, it relieves me of that concern about retaliation or retribution or legislation that prevents us from doing what we do.
—Edward Melton, Harris County (Tex.) Public Library executive director

Knapp says that while people may think of Connecticut as progressive, libraries in the state faced more than 100 censorship attempts in the first eight months of 2023. FL had not faced any as of March. “Our move was preemptive,” she says. “As we were watching the attempts at banning books in our surrounding communities in the suburbs, we felt, as an urban library and the second-largest city in Connecticut, that we could take a stand.”

Local government and law enforcement know to send any book challenges they receive to the library, Knapp says. When a community member went straight to a trustee with a complaint about a display, that trustee forwarded the complaint to her, along with the message: “Now, you do what you do.”

“If someone objects to a title and follows our procedures, they do so knowing that the governing body has already come out in strong defense against censorship and for titles to remain on the shelf,” Knapp says. “It won’t stop negative social media, but it sends a clear message.”

Acknowledging safety concerns

The book sanctuary distinction makes Knapp and FL staffers feel safer, she says, even if the resolution does not provide legal protection.

 

To date, the majority of complaints and threats at FL have been about drag storytime programs, which are held at the library only a couple times each year, Knapp says. Some of those complaints come from Stamford residents, but many are from those who live out of town. At a drag storytime held September 2022, protesters were outside the library, and some tried to come in to take photos of performers and attendees.

“It would be silly for me to say I don’t worry about [safety],” Knapp says. “When we had [threats] happen, I felt a wall of support by our police department, by our city, by the board, by the staff. In this day and age, you always have to be worried about it.”

Illinois is considered a leader in the anti–book ban movement. In June 2023, Gov. J. B. Pritzker signed a bill that would withhold state funds from public libraries that remove books for partisan reasons or refuse to adopt ALA’s Library Bill of Rights or similar language. (The state bill, the first of its kind, went into effect January 1.) But CPL’s Brown notes that having top-down support in his state hasn’t stopped regular challenges to inclusive storytimes and programming supportive of LGBTQ+ youth, even at a large urban system like the one in Chicago.

In late 2023, CPL and other Chicago-area libraries experienced a rash of bomb threats. Libraries in other states—such as Yolo County (Calif.) Library and Iowa City Public Library—have also faced them, along with the intimidation and threats of violence that have commonly accompanied this wave of unprecedented censorship attempts these past few years.

Brown says CPL is certainly aware of safety concerns: “It’s something we’re thinking deeply about, how we create safe and supportive spaces for our staff and our public.”

First and foremost, Brown hopes the book sanctuary declaration expresses CPL’s values and vision of every person having access to learning and reading at a time of nationwide challenges and bans. It’s too early to tell if the book sanctuary declaration will put a stop to pushback or threats, he says, but that was not the outcome they had in mind when starting the campaign.

“It was more about expressing where we stand,” he says, “and our commitment to a multiplicity of voices.”

 To further engage the public on the topic of book bans, CPL has worked with the city’s department of cultural affairs and local visual artist Theaster Gates to install a permanent art display at its downtown Harold Washington Library Center. Titled Altar for the Unbanned, the display showcases more than 500 frequently banned books and amplifies marginalized voices. CPL has also increased the number of book clubs it hosts around frequently challenged books.

 

“It’s incredible to not just have the library championing the freedom to read,” Brown says, “but also our city partners and all of these folks joining us in the book sanctuary movement.”

As part of being a book sanctuary, HCPL hosted a concert and panel themed around banned books in October 2023 that featured local classical music quartet Apollo Chamber Players. The event’s goal was to raise community awareness about the issue through discussion.

It won’t stop negative social media, but it sends a clear message.
—Alice Knapp, CEO of Ferguson Library in Stamford, Connecticut

HCPL also hosts read-aloud events during Banned Books Week, during which anyone can present an excerpt from their favorite frequently challenged book to a live audience. These events began in 2021 and have been continued after the book sanctuary declaration was made.

Back in Connecticut, FL has held its Teen Banned Book Discussions since becoming a book sanctuary. At one of its meetings in January, students in grades 6–12 discussed Ana on the Edge by A. J. Sass. The book, which features a 12-year-old figure skater who navigates gender identity in youth competitive sports, has been broadly challenged at schools and libraries across the US.

“We are providing a space, a home, a place of belonging for those who are marginalized,” Knapp says of the discussions.

Reframing the conversation

For libraries looking to partner with their local governments on a book sanctuary declaration, Melton suggests finding common values and taking time to build relationships.

“I wouldn’t recommend just cold calling and thinking that you’re going to be able to have a conversation with a politician and they’re going to just jump on the bandwagon,” Melton says. Instead, he advises meeting in person and educating potential stakeholders on what libraries do.

For Knapp, keeping local leaders in the loop of what’s going on at the library is key. Take opportunities to initiate conversations when you see them, she says, “so that when you hit into a crisis, it’s not the first time they’re hearing it from you.”

HCPL’s declaration was positively received by those inside and outside the community, Melton says. The library uploaded an announcement on Instagram featuring its popular Curbside Larry character, which has received nearly 77,000 likes and 1,900 comments. Shortly after, the video was reposted by actor and author Jamie Lee Curtis, receiving more than 90,000 likes.

“Patrons walking through our doors may not notice much of a difference—we’ve operated with this mission for many years,” Melton says. “But many have been met with a lib  rary for all banner as a friendly reminder that our library embraces diversity.”

While Knapp does not believe that her library in one corner of Connecticut is going to change the national conversation on its own, becoming part of the larger campaign with Chicago, Harris County, and other places is where the power lies, she says.

“There have been brave leaders who have suffered through social media attacks, who have lost their jobs,” Knapp says. “Anything we can do to support them, to counteract these challenges, is what, as library folks, we should be doing.”

'This is a bad day for America' - voters split on Trump verdict Sam Cabral and Ana Faguy,BBC News

 

Donald Trump is the first former or serving US president to be found guilty of a crime - but what will his conviction mean for the election?

Opinion polls have suggested it could change the minds of some voters, ahead of a tight race with President Joe Biden this November.

The BBC spoke to independent voters as well as some Republicans who told us they have doubts about backing Trump.

After Thursday's historic verdict, we asked them if his conviction will sway how they vote. We start with a voter clearly agonising over his choice.

 

This lifelong Republican cast hesitant votes for Mr Trump in 2016 and 2020, but Thursday's verdict was a defining moment...eventually.

I'm not a big Trump fan and I'm not a lawyer, but - based on what I was reading - this seemed like a very clumsy case. I feel like the jury was led to a foregone conclusion. And I do think this judge had a bias. What stood out to me was how they really hemmed in Donald Trump, keeping him under wraps with gag orders.

Being under a cloud of so much legal ambiguity, and now with his conviction, I don't see how [Trump] can go forward. But the alternative for the voters is Joe Biden, and that's just not an acceptable alternative for myself or for others.

I was leaning toward Trump and I'm probably going to end up supporting him once again. Seeing Biden’s policies and the way he's conducting himself, I don't think he's got the stamina or the ability to do the job for very much longer. The border has been blown wide open. The economy just stinks.

I do think Trump's going to be vindictive. This is a bad day for America. We've crossed the Rubicon. If he wins, I think he's going to go out and start punishing folks.

[Jim called back 10 minutes later]

There’s no way I can support a convicted felon as president. Trump will have to appeal and win for that to change. But I’m definitely not voting for Biden.

 

Deanna is an independent-minded Republican who does not support Mr Trump's false claims of election fraud.

This trial was politically motivated. I think it became evident when the charges were brought up against Trump. The timing felt obtrusive to the election and I believe the judge was biased throughout.

There was enough evidence there to convince the jury and certainly no one is above the law but we have a system that is biased. Looking at how [the investigations into how] confidential documents from the White House were handled by both Biden and Trump, it showed Americans that the arm of justice wraps around a shoulder as a friend for some.

Nothing about this case has swayed my vote for this November’s election. I’m Team Kennedy [independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr] in 2024 because I tire of voting for the lesser of two evils. Americans need to be compelled to vote for no evil at all until we get candidates that are worthy of our highest office.

 

This dual UK-US citizen voted for Mr Trump in 2016 to “shake things up a bit” but turned against him by 2020.

I'm pretty stunned it's happened. My wife's in New York, she said she went outside and everyone was cheering like in the World Cup.

I was surprised because, when Cohen was on the stand, it looked like he was getting torn apart. I thought that there wasn't enough evidence based on the fact that your key witness is a convicted liar. So I thought if it's beyond a shadow of a doubt, he would not get convicted.

I'm not saying he didn't get a fair trial, but where it was held massively impacted it. In other parts of the US, this wouldn’t have come to trial. It was a demonstration of the deep polarisation in this country between the Democrats and the Republicans. They're so far apart on everything.

Honestly, I still think Trump is going to win in November. I don't know if this verdict has made any difference. You’re caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. What a choice - between a president who is clearly too old to be in the most powerful job in the world, and a guy who's a convicted felon.

For me, I don’t know...I don't think I'll vote.

 

Cat left the Republican Party last year but remains strongly committed to its leader.

Trump, a man who runs a multi-billion-dollar business, was convicted because of how a payment was made to his private lawyer. This was enabled by testimony from such unreliable sources as Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels.

Cohen stole thousands of dollars from his employer, lied to Congress, and, in this case, I think he lied on the witness stand. Daniels changed her story, not once but multiple times.

Today marks another low point in the US. This trial has not just made a mockery of our judicial system, it has shown that we no longer have a fair election system, when we allow politicians to go after political opponents in a sham of a trial using a Democrat-leaning judge.

This verdict has made me want to vote for [Trump even more] in November, because if the elite left has gone to these lengths to try to thwart his run for president, and the elite Republican leadership barely supports him, then those two things tell me that he's probably the best candidate for us average people.

 

Paul calls himself a "common-sense centrist" and is still shopping around for the right candidate to support this November.

This verdict is a landmark in American history. It shows no one is above the law, regardless of their status or influence.

The trial followed due process. The jury reached a unanimous decision. The legal process was thorough and impartial. That is exactly how it should work.

But taking a step back, while accountability is crucial, the timing and nature of these charges seem to be aligned with broader political agendas. People who disagree with the verdict don't believe in the justice system. That’s a path a lot of Trump supporters are going to go down.

Trump is driving most of the divisions in America at this point. His support base is growing stronger, and it’s driving the left further left. So the divide is just growing and the country is becoming scarier to grow up in.

This verdict doesn’t change my vote, but strengthens my desire to vote. The importance of participating in the democratic process is underscored in moments like these.