Trump Surrogates Wear Matching Ties To Hush Money Trial and Attempt to ‘Skirt the Line’ on Gag Order

It seems that former President Donald Trump is using his surrogates to speak for him as a new gag order loophole in his criminal hush money payment trial. In recent days, a large number of Trump supporters have flocked to the Manhattan courtroom where the president is being tried, voicing many of the allegations that the president is not allowed to voice due to the gag order, per Axios.

On May 14, several Republican officials were pictured outside the courtroom wearing dark blue suits and red ties—an ensemble that many social media users have referred to as "cultish." These officials included Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and Florida Rep. Cory Mills, per The Daily Beast.

"I do have a lot of surrogates and they are speaking very beautifully," Trump boasted. "They come from all over, and they're highly respected and they think this is the biggest scam they've ever seen ... Election Day cannot get here soon enough." Johnson referred to the trial as a "sham" and a "disgrace," asserted that Cohen was a seasoned liar "with a personal vendetta"—attacking the witness because Trump is incapable of doing so—and stated that Trump was being singled out by his rivals in politics to keep him off the presidential campaign path.

Ramaswamy, a huge Trump cheerleader, called the trial a "politicized persecution" and claimed "it's straight out of a Kafka novel." Ramaswamy said, "This is a sham. This is not the United States of America. This is some third-rate banana republic." Donalds also used similarly disallowed rhetoric, characterizing the judge and his family as corrupt. He said, "The only thing that's being done wrong is by this judge. His daughter is making money, raising money for Democrats, and all of the fundraising emails, and all the fundraising things are about this trial that his daughter is using."

Burgum referred to the trial as "election interference" that is "tying up the president [from] being out on the campaign trail," while Mills denounced it as "the weaponization of what was the Department of Justice."

The Democratic National Committee slammed Trump and his band of loyalists in a scathing statement. “Donald Trump is convening the saddest posse of MAGA loyalists in Lower Manhattan today, desperate for emotional support and political cover as he spends another week tending to his personal affairs rather than talking to actual voters,” DNC spokesperson Alex Floyd said.

“Trump’s pathetic band of MAGA extremists seemingly have nothing better to do than echo Trump’s lies and nod approvingly in the background – because they certainly aren’t doing their day jobs of serving their constituents or running a functional political operation. If deploying this motley crew of cranks and conspiracy theorists was the Trump campaign’s ham-handed attempt to divert attention from their candidate’s disappearance from the campaign trail, they’re in for a stormy six months ahead.”