Rep. Clay Higgins posts cryptic Tweet after Trump indictment

U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Louisiana, shared a puzzling message with his followers on Twitter, cryptic not so much for its use of military shortcode but as to what signal it sends to the congressman’s fellow 2020 election deniers following Thursday’s news of the public indictment of Donald Trump.

The 37-count indictment against the 45th president in the Southern District of Florida, handed up by a grand jury there, was unsealed Friday. According to court records, Trump schemed with an aide to keep top secret and other sensitive national security documents from his presidency and concealed those documents even from his own lawyers, who had attempted to comply with a federal order to return them to the National Archives.

Higgins made the following post Thursday night on Twitter:

President Trump said he has “been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 PM.”

This is a perimeter probe from the oppressors. Hold. rPOTUS has this.

Buckle up. 1/50K know your bridges. Rock steady calm. That is all.

— Rep. Clay Higgins (@RepClayHiggins) June 9, 2023

There was no response Friday to a message left at Higgins’ office in Washington, D.C., about his Twitter post.

Higgins has long referred to Trump as “rPOTUS,” short for the real President of the United States, on social media. The congressman from Port Barre was among those who voted against confirming the results of the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost to Joe Biden.

Social media was replete Friday with interpretations of the military jargon used by Higgins, who is a U.S. Army veteran. 

It’s believed “1/50K” refers to the 1:50,000 scale maps the military uses, on which 1 centimeter equals 500 meters. Some have equated “know your bridges” as a message for followers to be ready to respond to what Higgins called “a perimeter probe from the oppressors.”

Higgins issued a follow-up Tweet Saturday morning  that seemed to dial back the tone from his original post. In it, he takes credit for using the mainstream media to convey his message.

Patriots, we’ve manipulated the MSM to establish deep commo, now copy this… do NOT trip the wire they’ve laid for you. Maintain your family. Live your life. Know your bridges. Hold.

Let Trump handle Trump, he’s got this. We use the Constitution as our only weapon. Peace. Hold.

— Rep. Clay Higgins (@RepClayHiggins) June 10, 2023

Although he refuses to accept the presidential election results from 2020, Higgins did make a plea for order as radical supporters of Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Violence and lawlessness are unacceptable. This must end now. This is not American,” Higgins said on Twitter.

Higgins has also come to the defense of those arrested for the attack on the Capitol. In January 2022, he and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, demanded the Federal Bureau of Prisoners ensure the “humane treatment” of Jan. 6 arrestees and prisoners.    

“…We will continue our investigation into the insidious conspiracies of the left and the deep-state that set the stage for J6,” Higgins said in a statement. “The big picture is that Representative Greene and I stand together with our Republican colleagues in the House Freedom Caucus in the war to preserve our Republic. The oppression Americans have confronted will end with the boot of freedom on the neck of injustice. So help me God.”

At a November 2022 congressional hearing, Higgins asked FBI Director Christopher Wray whether his agency had “confidential human sources embedded within the Jan. 6 protestors” or dressed up as Trump supporters inside the Capitol.

Wray refused to answer the question directly but called any suggestion that FBI employees instigated or orchestrated the attack on the Capitol “categorically false.”

This story was updated to include Higgins’ Twitter post from Saturday, June 10.