Former President Donald Trump issued a statement on Friday praising the Freedom Convoy peacefully protesting COVID-19 mandates and restrictions in Canada, and said that a convoy of American truckers is “thankfully” planning to travel to Washington, D.C., to protest President Joe Biden’s coronavirus restrictions too.
“Facebook and Big Tech are seeking to destroy the Freedom Convoy of Truckers. The Freedom Convoy is peacefully protesting the harsh policies of far left lunatic Justin Trudeau who has destroyed Canada with insane Covid mandates,” Trump said in a statement emailed to American Military News. “Now, thankfully, the Freedom Convoy could be coming to DC with American Truckers who want to protest Biden’s ridiculous Covid policies.”
“Facebook is canceling the accounts of Freedom Convoy USA, and GoFundMe is denying access to funds that belong to the Freedom Convoy. This is unacceptable and extremely dangerous in any country that values free expression,” Trump wrote.
A group of American truckers is planning a “Convoy to D.C. 2022” protest convoy traveling from California to Washington, D.C. to take place on or before March 1. Organizer Jeremy Johnson told Fox News this week that Facebook removed the group’s page and his personal account.
“They like to silence people that speak the truth,” Johnson said of Facebook.
In addition to praising the truckers, Trump’s statement also promoted his upcoming social media platform TruthSocial, which he said would welcome the Freedom Convoy “with open arms.”
“TruthSocial is announcing today that we are welcoming the Freedom Convoy with open arms to communicate freely on TruthSocial when we launch – coming very soon! TruthSocial will fight back against Big Tech so we can protect our rights to free expression,” Trump’s statement continued. “Also, on top of everything, it is big news that Facebook daily users went down for the first time ever, people are tired of biased social media like Twitter and Facebook, and it’s showing in their numbers!”
After the Freedom Convoy reached Ottawa, Canada, over the weekend, the city’s chief of police threatened to call for the Canadian Armed Forces to control peaceful demonstrators who remained in the area on Monday.
Ottawa police Chief Peter Sloly called the protest “a national issue” during a briefing with city councilors. “I am increasingly concerned there is no policing solution to this,” he added.
Sloly said removing demonstrators from the city involves risks, and that he would need a force of 50,000 law enforcement officers to block access to the capital.
“There is no lawful authority to seal a city. There’s no practical capability to seal a city of this size,” Sloly said.
The chief said authorities are considering “every potential option available to us within the legal bounds from negotiation through to court injunction through to an enforced removal.”
“Increasingly, as we see demonstrations, not just here, but elsewhere in the country, where there are efforts by strictly a policing action, we are not as confident as we have been that police alone will resolve this situation substantially, never mind in totality,” he continued. “It is a local [demonstration], a provincial demonstration, a national demonstration, and one that has international elements associated to it.”