Freedom Corner, the Loneliest Spot in DC

Trump hypes Freedom Corner, the nightly pro-J6 vigil outside the DC Jail

Despite being endorsed by Donald Trump, Freedom Corner can’t draw a crowd.

Why?

The insurrectionist vigil recently marked 600 nights of fruitlessly chanting Ashli Babbitt’s name on a dead-end street outside the DC Jail. Due to their efforts, no J6 prisoners have been released. In fact, the vigil has acted as a honeypot for traitors, leading to pre-release violations and longer sentences for prisoners who call in to unrepentantly express their grievances.

It’s such a joke in the treason community that some call it “Fed Corner.”

Why can’t they get more than six people to show up?

DC is a city of joiners. With 700,000 within city limits, and millions more in the suburbs, there’s something for everyone. I see running groups with dozens jogging in the pre-dawn darkness. Knitting meetups in bookstores. Bar crawls of every variety.

For all the talk of post-covid urban decline, try getting lunch downtown on a Tuesday. Or getting dinner reservations on a Friday night. Or finding a free tennis court in Adams Morgan on a sunny Saturday.

It annoys me, when I’m at Peet’s with a cup of coffee and there’s no place to sit. Or when there’s a dozen people in line at Tatte. Or when I’m stuck behind a crowd of loud brunchgoers on 14th St.

People everywhere, except at Freedom Corner, the loneliest spot in DC.

What if Trump promoted your protest and no one showed up? A lonely night on Freedom Corner.
Night 600 and almost no one is there, despite Trump hyping the Freedom Corner vigil.

Even if you compare it to to other chud groups, Freedom Corner is a failure. The trucker convoy of 2022 had hundreds of people criss-crossing the country. The 1776 Restoration Movement, a convoy spinoff, had dozens sleeping in their cars on the National Mall. The Take Our Border Back Convoy, a literal rolling scam, ended up with more than 100 people. Meanwhile, Freedom Corner strains to get into the double-digits.

You could say it’s because DC is liberal. But it’s not 100% Democratic. There are thousands of Republicans within the city that can’t be bothered with Freedom Corner and millions more in the outlying suburbs and West Virginia; a vast market that has ignored Trump’s call to support J6 “hostages” in the DC Jail.

The polls say that Donald Trump is running even with Joe Biden.

I don’t see it. Pro-Trump groups like Freedom Corner can’t get anyone to show up. J6 prisoners call in and ask if there’s a big crowd; the answer is always no.

Trump promoting Freedom Corner on Truth Social didn’t make a difference.    Out of the millions of people who heard his message (allegedly), not a single one went to Freedom Corner.

In 2020/21, Trump could get tens of thousands to show up in DC. Now, he can’t get more than a dozen. Even at his court appearance last summer, the only people that he could attract were misfits from Freedom Corner and other professional protestors.

The MAGA movement is far, far weaker than it appears. When the history of this year is written, that will be the surprise: how quickly the Trump cult fell apart.

You can see it in Freedom Corner and their inability get more than six people to show up at their nightly jailside vigil. This is a movement that is over.


red bike guy cover

If you want to know more about the entertaining dysfunction of chuds and Freedom Corner, check out my new memoir, How I Became Red Bike Guy. It’s a funny read about life in DC during the Trump years and beyond.

Author: Joe Flood

Joe Flood is a writer, photographer and web person from Washington, DC. The author of several novels, Joe won the City Paper Fiction Competition in 2020. In his free time, he enjoys wandering about the city taking photos.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *