Did he ever tell the rioters to storm the capital?
He literally told them to be peaceful: "Stay peaceful!"
"I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!"
You can see the Tweets yourself on Jan 6 from Trump: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/tweets-january-6-2...
Or actual Tweet: https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1346912780700577792
Trump is very good at covering his own language and culpability. What were Trump's actions while the mob was storming the Capitol? How long did he wait to even put forth those tweets? In his speech before they stormed the Capitol, he said[2]
"We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore"
but he also said
"I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."
Does saying the latter negate the former in the minds of the mob that had been primed for nearly two months, without real evidence, to think the election had been stolen?
Does it matter that that there's evidence, presented in court, that Trump _knew_ he had lost the election and further knew that attempts to overturn the result were illegal? [3]
We all saw _with our own eyes_ what the mob did at the Capitol that day. There were people there with differing motivations and different understandings of what they were trying to accomplish by storming the Capitol. They've received differing levels of punishment as a result. But, I find it hard to not view the totality of the evidence presented to date and say that Trump wasn't trying to stay in power through unlawful means (i.e. "attempt a coup").
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_no_one_rid_me_of_this_tur... [2]: https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/966396848/read-trumps-jan-6-s... [3]: https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/jack-smith-makes-his-ca...