In Miami, the Only Violence From Trump Supporters Was Rhetorical

In Georgia, at the Republican state convention, Kari Lake, who refused to concede the Arizona election for governor in 2022 and who is an ardent defender of Mr. Trump, emphasized that many of Mr. Trump’s supporters owned guns.

Roger J. Stone Jr., Mr. Trump’s longtime political adviser, called for protests — though he cautioned that they should be peaceful. A Miami chapter of the Proud Boys long associated with Mr. Stone echoed the invitation, posting a flier on its Telegram page last week advertising an event at the federal courthouse on Tuesday morning.

But in the end, like many others, the Proud Boys did not show up, suggesting that Mr. Trump’s grip on the organization may have loosened.

After the violence at the Capitol, some high-ranking Proud Boys disavowed Mr. Trump altogether, expressing bitterness at him for having left them standing on a limb. After all, scores of Proud Boys were ultimately charged or questioned in the Justice Department’s vast investigation of the Capitol attack. And just last month, four of the group’s top leaders — including its former chairman, Enrique Tarrio — were convicted of seditious conspiracy.

While it is possible the Proud Boys, who love to troll the media, never intended to take part in a protest in Miami, it is also possible the group has simply had enough of supporting Mr. Trump and suffering the consequences.

Robert Pape, a professor at the University of Chicago who specializes in political violence, offered another reason that the Miami protests seemed to fizzle: Mr. Trump’s own actions before his arraignment were far less incendiary than those he took before Jan. 6.

While Mr. Trump posted the date and location of his court appearance on Tuesday on social media, he did not explicitly summon his supporters to a “wild” protest in Washington as he did before Jan. 6. Nor did he appear before his arraignment in Miami and urge his followers to “fight like hell” or undertake anything resembling the march on the Capitol he called for just before the building was attacked.