Former President Donald Trump likened himself to late South African leader Nelson Mandela as he ranted on social media about his various court cases on Saturday.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee took aim at Judge Juan Merchan, writing that it’d be a “GREAT HONOR” to go to jail for violating a gag order against him in his upcoming New York hush money trial.
“If this Partisan Hack wants to put me in the ‘clink’ for speaking the open and obvious TRUTH, I will gladly become a Modern Day Nelson Mandela – It will be my GREAT HONOR,” wrote Trump on his Truth Social platform.
He continued, “We have to Save our Country from these Political Operatives masquerading as Prosecutors and Judges, and I am willing to sacrifice my Freedom for that worthy cause.”
The former president has previously compared himself to Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison over his anti-apartheid activism.
Trump told a New Hampshire crowd in October that he wouldn’t “mind being Nelson Mandela” while declaring himself to be a victim of political persecution.
The former president attacked Merchan and his daughter via his platform before the judge expanded the limited gag order imposed on Trump last week.
Former US attorney Barbara McQuade told MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart that Trump’s posts on Saturday could lead to a stricter gag order but it’s the “kind of stuff” the judge is allowing him to say.
“If it is simply sort’ve political speech that isn’t targeting anybody in particular, I think the judge is gonna give him a lot of leeway to say this,” said McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan.
“What the gag order specifically tries to proclude is doing anything that might intimidate witnesses, threaten witnesses or call into question the motives of the parties here. I think this kind of thing is probably going to be allowed to pass.”