Something you might have noticed over the last several years is that Donald Trump is a big fan of violence. Not directly getting involved in violence—he’d never dirty his hands in that way—but inciting people to engage in it on his behalf, the most famous example being the time he incited an insurrection at the US Capitol that left multiple people dead. Which is why it was more than a little disturbing when he warned on Thursday that there would be “big problems” if he were indicted for hoarding top secret government documents at his house.
In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump said that he didn’t believe “the people of the United States would stand for” charges against him from the Justice Department, adding that such charges would lead to “problems in this country, the likes of which perhaps we’ve never seen before.” Asked exactly what he meant by “problems,” Trump continued to use coded language that few would find difficult to parse. “I think they’d have big problems. Big problems,” he said. “I just don’t think they’d stand for it. They will not sit still and stand for this ultimate of hoaxes.”
Twitter content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
Obviously, at no point in the interview did Trump literally tell his supporters to engage in violent acts if he is prosecuted, but that’s probably because he knows he doesn’t have to. While Trump’s allies have insisted that he never explicitly told people to attack the Capitol on January 6, many of the rioters interpreted as much from his speech, as the ex-president encouraged his supporters to “fight like hell.” Asked by Hewitt how he would respond to “legacy media” calling him out for inciting violence this time around, Trump said: “That’s not inciting. I’m just saying what my opinion is. I don’t think the people of this country would stand for it.”
In the nearly month and a half since the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago residence for classified documents—ones that a Trump lawyer claimed had already been returned—the ex-president has spent most of his time attacking the government, baselessly accusing federal agents of planting evidence at his house, and otherwise whipping his supporters into a misinformed frenzy. Unsurprisingly, there has reportedly been, per Politico, an “uptick in threats against federal law enforcement in the aftermath of the Mar-a-Lago search,” which the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees were briefed on this week. “It was stunning, the number of threats that have been cataloged since the August 8 search of Mar-a-Lago,” Senate Judiciary chair Dick Durbin said, noting the armed man who showed up at an FBI field office in Ohio in the days following the raid. “It’s a much more dangerous environment because of the political statements made by some individuals since August 8—it’s alarming to me.” Specifically calling out Trump, he said: “Inviting a mob to return to the streets is exactly what happened here on January 6, 2021. This president knew what he was doing…and we saw the results. His careless, inflammatory rhetoric has its consequences.”
Last month Attorney General Merrick Garland condemned the broadsides that right-wing commentators, GOP lawmakers, and supporters of the ex-president had been leveling at FBI agents since the raid. “I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked,” Garland said during a press conference. “The men and women of the FBI and the Justice Department are dedicated, patriotic public servants. Every day they protect the American people from violent crime, terrorism, and other threats to their safety while safeguarding our civil rights. They do so at great personal sacrifice and risk to themselves. I am honored to work alongside them.”
Trump, of course, had a long history of inciting violence even before January 6. In addition to telling rallygoers to “knock the crap” out of anyone who showed up to one of his events holding a tomato, he’d also previously instructed police officers to let suspects’ heads knock against the side of their squad cars; told supporters, in reference to a protester who’d been ejected from an event, “I’d like to punch him in the face”; fantasized about “Second Amendment people” preventing the appointment of liberal judges; and endorsed the assault of reporters.
Discussion about this post