News / 'Truckers for Trump' threaten to boycott New York after fraud case verdict

© Rebekah Zemansky

A bid by pro-Trump truck drivers to boycott New York City got off to a faltering start on Friday.

Calls emerged on social media over the weekend for truckers to refuse loads bound for New York, following the fraud verdict on Friday when presidential hopeful Donald Trump was ordered by Judge Arthur Engoron to pay $355m in damages.

Under the terms of the ruling, Mr Trump has also been banned from serving as an officer or director of any business in New York state.

Pro-Trump trucker and social media influencer ‘Chicago Ray’ has called on his peers to boycott  the city since Friday.

“I don’t know how far across the country this is, or how many truckers are going to start denying loads going to New York City, but I’ll tell you what — you fuck around and find out,” he said in a X/Twitter video over the weekend.

Subsequently, however, he appeared to take back his comments in the now-deleted post, claiming he had not called on truckers to refuse loads.

He tweeted: “I’m not leading, nor have I encouraged, or am I encouraging, anyone to do anything other than what they were doing prior to the ruling on Friday…let’s keep goods and services flowing as scheduled, and our voices will be heard loud and clear this November.”

And then he appeared to have had another change of heart.

“I’m in Wisconsin and I’m hearing guys refusing loads….. this could take longer than a week,” he tweeted yesterday morning. “My advice to New Yorkers is start stocking up… there’s millions of ‘Truckers for Trump’.”

However, of the 3.5 million truck drivers in the US, only 16% – around 400,000 – are owner-operators and eligible to participate in a boycott.

Though its organisational status and membership are unclear, mentions of ‘Truckers for Trump’ in news and on social media go back as far as 2020.