MAGA’s Reaction to Daniel Penny Verdict Reveals Its Sick Nature

The far right is rejoicing at Daniel Penny being found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the May 2023 New York City subway strangling death of Jordan Neely.

Penny, who is white, put Neely, a Black man, in a chokehold for six minutes while other train passengers captured the incident on film. Penny’s lawyers argued that he believed Neely was a volatile, mentally ill man who posed a threat to the public. Neely was unarmed and had a muffin in his pocket, but Penny quickly became a hero to the right wing. 

Right-wing figures, including one Donald Trump staffer, immediately took to social media and rejoiced at the verdict on Monday.

Some took aim at the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, for bringing charges against Penny in the first place. Bragg is also hated by MAGA for successfully prosecuting Donald Trump for paying off an adult film star to hide their affair before the 2016 election.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Penny’s acquittal was “clearly the just and correct verdict.

“I must admit I was skeptical that a jury in New York City would reach a unanimous not guilty verdict, and the jury deserves credit for doing the right thing,” DeSantis said. “Meanwhile, is there a worse prosecutor in America than Alvin Bragg?”

The right-wing reaction to Penny’s acquittal seems to echo the rulings exonerating Kyle Rittenhouse for shooting demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2020, and George Zimmerman for shooting unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, in 2012. In all three cases, the perpetrator was lionized by the far right as making justified killings against criminals, rather than enacting vigilante justice fueled by racism. 

Donald Trump’s criminal cases may be behind him, but that doesn’t mean his legal woes are over.

The president-elect is still on the hook for eight civil cases relating to his involvement in the January 6 attack. The cases, which come from congressmembers and injured police officers, could be the last bastion in holding Trump to account for failing to intervene as his supporters ransacked the U.S. Capitol.

“These cases, unlike the criminal case, will not be affected by the election,” Joseph Sellers, a lawyer representing 10 current and former Democratic House members suing Trump and the far-right groups that led the January 6 riot, told Politico. “Our clients suffered real injuries that entitle them to relief, but also I think are seeking some measure of accountability given President Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 events and the events leading up to it.”

The criminal cases against Trump died overnight after the MAGA leader won the presidential election, effectively allowing him to skirt all responsibility by resuming an office that cannot be criminally prosecuted. Trump faced 91 criminal charges across four cases that prosecutors waited years to take to court. Separately, he was convicted on 34 criminal counts relating to covert hush-money payments made to porn actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election—but that sentencing dissolved just days after Trump won the election.

Some of those near-election trial delays were thanks to a game-changing Supreme Court decision in July, in which the nation’s highest court ruled 6–3 to expand a president’s immunity and redefine what constitutes an “official act,” nearly allowing Trump to get off scot-free.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor feared for the future of a country that legally permits the executive branch authority to commit crimes under the cloak of the office, arguing that the court’s decision made a “mockery” of the constitutional principle that “no man is above the law.” She warned that the court’s “own misguided wisdom” gave Trump “all the immunity he asked for and more.”

The Supreme Court has once again declined to remove the gag order placed on President-elect Donald Trump in his hush-money case. Conservative Justice Samuel Alito rejected the request on the court’s behalf on Monday.

“The application for stay addressed to Justice Alito and referred to the Court is denied,” the orders list read, with no additional comments or explanation.

Trump was found guilty in New York on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records regarding hush-money payments he made during his first campaign in 2016 to adult film actor Stormy Daniels, with whom he had an affair.

New York Judge Juan Merchan imposed a gag order at the start of Trump’s trial that banned him from talking about witnesses, jury members, and courtroom staff during the trial. Trump nonetheless violated the order countless times and was fined $9,000 for doing so. He is still fighting to get the felony convictions overturned, claiming his guilty verdict would lead to “disruptions to the institution of the Presidency.” Merchan has so far refused to toss out the case entirely, instead indefinitely delaying sentencing.

The vast majority of Americans don’t agree with Donald Trump’s priorities for his first days in office—particularly his recently advertised plan to mass-pardon his supporters who ransacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

A November Scripps News/Ipsos survey found that few Americans—just 30 percent—actually support a legal reprieve for the rioters, versus an overwhelming 64 percent of the country that is against it. Just 1 percent of respondents believed that the pardons should be Trump’s first priority.

Another poll found that the majority of Americans associated negative words with the MAGA protest. Approximately 53 percent described the events of the day as an “insurrection,” whereas 33 percent of surveyed respondents likened the actions of Trump’s supporters on January 6 to “patriotism,” according to a CBS News/YouGov poll from January 2024.

Trump has long promised that he would free the men and women who rioted through Congress in 2021, forcing the legislature to delay the certification of the presidential election results. In an interview with NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday, the MAGA leader said he would act “very quickly” to release the January 6 defendants—as soon as his “first day” in office.

“They’ve been in there for years, and they’re in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be allowed to be open,” Trump said.

Several January 6 defendants have attempted to throw their cases out in light of special counsel Jack Smith’s stalled January 6 case against Trump, noting inconsistencies in the legal system’s handling of Trump’s case compared to his followers.

Other Trump supporters who participated in the riot have tried to delay their sentencing until after Trump takes office, assuming that the president-elect will make good on his promises to free some of his most violent and ardent supporters.

Lara Trump seems to be going all in in her quest for the Florida Senate seat being vacated by secretary of state nominee Marco Rubio.

Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law resigned from her position as co-chair of the Republican National Committee Sunday, fueling speculation that she is in line for the post. If Rubio is confirmed, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis would be in charge of appointing a replacement to fill the rest of Rubio’s term, which ends in 2026.

“It is something I would seriously consider,” Lara Trump told the Associated Press. “If I’m being completely transparent, I don’t know exactly what that would look like. And I certainly want to get all of the information possible if that is something that’s real for me. But yeah, I would 100% consider it.”

Trump was appointed as co-chair of the RNC in March in a sign of the president-elect’s full takeover of the GOP. During her tenure, her father-in-law won the presidential election and the popular vote and Republicans also managed to win both the Senate and the House.

Her bid for the Florida Senate seat has received backing from MAGA personalities as well as the Republican base. For example, Maye Musk, the mother of billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk, posted her support for the president-elect’s daughter on X last month, and her son also posted, “Lara Trump is genuinely great.” Trump returned the favor, praising Musk’s so-called plan to improve government efficiency along with fellow Republican executive Vivek Ramaswamy.

“I really don’t think we’ve seen movement like this in our federal government since our country’s founding in many ways,” Trump said. “And I think if they are successful in what they plan to do, I think it is going to be transformative to America in a great way.”

DeSantis will be under a lot of pressure to appoint a member of the Trump family to the Senate seat, especially after the endorsement from the world’s richest man. Musk spent over $250 million on the election in order to get Donald Trump reelected and now wields tremendous influence in the Republican Party. DeSantis has bigger ambitions than governor of Florida and knows that keeping Musk and the president-elect happy can only help his prospects.