Politics & Stuff

[Fulham Broadway 16,920]

12 minutes ago, cosmicway said:

Not so. 
It's a song against Turkish genocides.
Those were true genocides.
The present day Turks like to say "massacres" because they thing genocide is too heavy.
But those were committed against civilians in towns, not during fighting.
In Smyrna it was Karatheodory, the famous scientist, who escaped the last minute by pretending he was German.

The Israeli "genocide" talked about by the friends of Hamash is not genocide, or even the less terrible (?) massacres.
It's bilateral losses for which Hamas is responsible.
It is Hamas who decided to fight inside an inhabited area, use civilians as human shields.

The Turks are right though, the Greeks were crying 'genocide' when they were using Human Shields

[cosmicway 1,333]

11 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

The Turks are right though, the Greeks were crying 'genocide' when they were using Human Shields

No.
Smyrna was undefended.
When it was taken by the Turks and no more fighting they killed the Christian population and set fire to the city.
Very much after the style of their "Palestinian" cousins.

You don't have an encyclopaedia Britannica in your house ?
What kind of house is it ? A shoebox ?

Edited October 25 by cosmicway

[Fulham Broadway 16,920]

3 minutes ago, cosmicway said:

No.
Smyrna was undefended.
When it was taken by the Turks and no more fighting they killed the Christian population and set fire to the city.
Very much after the style of their "Palestinian" cousins.

But surely the Greek terrorists were hiding behind civilians, using Human Shields ? 

[Fulham Broadway 16,920]

 

[cosmicway 1,333]

13 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

But surely the Greek terrorists were hiding behind civilians, using Human Shields ? 

If you were not living in a shoebox you would know this tactic was never used by Greeks, the other allies.
It was used by the Germans in occupied France.
By Saddam in the first gulf war in 1991, but eventually he agreed to release his prisoners.
And finally by Hamash in Gaza.

[Fulham Broadway 16,920]

5 minutes ago, cosmicway said:

If you were not living in a shoebox you would know this tactic was never used by Greeks, the other allies.
It was used by the Germans in occupied France.
By Saddam in the first gulf war in 1991, but eventually he agreed to release his prisoners.
And finally by Hamash in Gaza.

Same as the Greeks...

The Israeli military has used Palestinians as human shields in Gaza, Israeli soldiers admit

The Israeli military has forced Palestinian children to enter potentially booby-trapped houses and tunnels in Gaza to avoid putting its troops in harm’s way, according to an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and five former detainees who said they were victims of the practice.

One soldier, who said his unit held two Palestinian prisoners for the explicit purpose of using them as human shields to probe dangerous places, said the practice was prevalent among Israeli units in Gaza.

[Vesper 29,019]

'Washington Post' won't endorse in White House race for first time since 1980s

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/25/nx-s1-5165353/washington-post-presidential-endorsement-trump-harris

Even though the presidential race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is neck and neck, The Washington Post has decided not to make a presidential endorsement for the first time in 36 years, the publisher and CEO announced Friday.

"We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates," Will Lewis wrote in an opinion piece published on the paper's website. He referenced the paper's policy in the decades prior to 1976, when, following the Watergate scandal that the Post broke, it endorsed Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter. The last time the Post did not endorse a presidential candidate in the general election was 1988, according to a search of its archives.

Colleagues learned the news from the editorial page editor, David Shipley, at a tense meeting shortly before Lewis' announcement. The meeting was characterized by two people with direct knowledge of discussions on condition of anonymity to speak about internal matters.

Shipley had approved an editorial endorsement for Harris that was being drafted earlier this month, according to three people with direct knowledge. He told colleagues the decision was to endorse was being reviewed by the paper's billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos. That's the owner's prerogative and is a common practice.

On Friday, Shipley said that he told other editorial board leaders on Thursday that management had decided there would be no endorsement, though Shipley had known about the decision for awhile. He added that he "owns" this outcome. The reason he cited was to create "independent space" where the newspaper does not tell people for whom to vote.

Colleagues were said to be "shocked" and uniformly negative. Editor-at-large Robert Kagan, who has been highly critical of Trump as autocratic, told NPR he had resigned from the editorial board as a consequence.

Former Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron, who led the newsroom to acclaim during Trump's presidency, denounced the decision starkly.

"This is cowardice, a moment of darkness that will leave democracy as a casualty," Baron said in a statement to NPR. "Donald Trump will celebrate this as an invitation to further intimidate The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos (and other media owners). History will mark a disturbing chapter of spinelessness at an institution famed for courage."

Post corporate spokespeople declined to comment beyond Lewis' statement to readers.

A similar decision by Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong led this week to the resignations of the paper's editorials editor and two editorial board members. Soon-Shiong said that he had asked the editorial board to draft a "factual analysis" of Trump and Harris' policies and plans. In her resignation letter, editorials editor Mariel Garza said the decision made the paper look “craven and hypocritical,” given its past reporting and editorials on Trump.

The Post's investigative team has routinely reported on wrongdoing and allegations of illegality by former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, and his associates. The editorial board, which is operated apart from the newsroom, has repeatedly declared that Trump's actions in office and his rhetoric as a candidate have rendered him unfit for office.

It has especially focused on what he did in January 2021 to encourage his supporters to deny the formal certification of President Biden's election.

On the campaign trail, Trump has threatened to exact vengeance on journalists and media outlets should he win the presidency once more.

In particular, he has promised to jail reporters who won't identify the source of government leaks and to strip three big television networks of their licenses to broadcast. (Only local TV stations are actually licensed by federal regulators, not the networks themselves. But the three networks own 80 local television stations between them.)

The possibility that the Post might withhold an endorsement was first reported by Oliver Darcy's newsletter Status. Even before Friday's announcement, the potential lack of an editorial drew consternation from journalists within the Post, who see it as a major American publication that needs to weigh in on the most pressing issue of the day.

Post owner Bezos, the Amazon founder and one of the world's richest people, has major contracts before the federal government in his other business operations, with billion-dollar implications affecting Amazon's shipping business and cloud computing services as well as his Blue Origin space company.

Bezos brought in Lewis, who has significant conservative bonafides, as publisher and CEO in January. Lewis held the same role at Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal; served as the editor of the London-based Telegraph, which is closely allied with the Tory party; and was a consultant to Conservative Boris Johnson when Johnson was U.K. prime minister.

Colleagues have told NPR that Bezos selected Lewis in part for his ability to get along with powerful conservative figures, including Murdoch.

In his memoir, Collision of Power, Baron wrote that then-Publisher Fred Ryan did not want to make an endorsement in the 2016 race pitting Trump against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Then-Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt considered resigning. Bezos's reply at the time: "Why wouldn't we make an endorsement?"

[Vesper 29,019]

Trump has made more than 100 threats to prosecute or punish perceived enemies

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/21/nx-s1-5134924/trump-election-2024-kamala-harris-elizabeth-cheney-threat-civil-liberties

With just two weeks remaining until the presidential election, former President Donald Trump has used his most recent appearances on podcast and cable interviews to escalate attacks on fellow Americans whom he calls “the enemy from within.”

In one recent interview, Trump said that if “radical left lunatics” disrupt the election, “it should be very easily handled by — if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”

That statement, on Fox News, was not the first time Trump has expressed support for using government force against domestic political rivals. Since 2022, when he began preparing for the presidential campaign, Trump has issued more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived opponents, NPR has found.

A review of Trump’s rally speeches, press conferences, interviews and social media posts shows that the former president has repeatedly indicated that he would use federal law enforcement as part of a campaign to exact “retribution.”

Vice President Kamala Harris “should be impeached and prosecuted,” Trump said at a rally last month.

“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family,” Trump said last year.

“ELIZABETH LYNNE CHENEY IS GUILTY OF TREASON,” reads one post Trump reposted on his social media site, Truth Social, regarding the former Republican congresswoman. “RETRUTH IF YOU WANT TELEVISED MILITARY TRIBUNALS.”

Journalists who decline to identify the sources of leaked information would also face imprisonment, Trump said.

“If the reporter doesn't want to tell you, it's ‘bye-bye,’ the reporter goes to jail,” Trump said in 2022. He appeared to suggest that the reporter could also face sexual assault while in custody.

Trump and his allies have either downplayed these threats, or said that these actions would be justified, in part, because of the four criminal prosecutions brought against Trump since he left office. In one of those cases, a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts in connection with hush money he paid to keep an alleged affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels secret. He is appealing that verdict.

When right-wing radio host Glenn Beck asked Trump if he would lock up his opponents in a second term, Trump responded, “The answer is you have no choice because they’re doing it to us.”

Legal experts said that there are few guardrails preventing Trump from pursuing his plans to prosecute opponents and noted that Trump pressured the Department of Justice to investigate rivals during his first term. In about a dozen cases, the Justice Department followed through and initiated investigations, according to one analysis.

If Trump follows through on his stated plans in a second term, these experts said, his actions could endanger Americans’ civil liberties and cause a chilling effect on criticism of the president. The threats he’s made have already led some of his targets to prepare for the worst by saving money and considering whether to leave the country if Trump wins the election.

“This is how autocrats cement their permanent grip on power,” said Ian Bassin, the executive director of the nonprofit group Protect Democracy, which advocates for protections against authoritarianism.

Many of Trump’s threats relate to his persistent false claims about election fraud and the lie that he won the 2020 election.

“START ARRESTING THE POLL WORKERS AND WATCH HOW FAST THEY TELL YOU WHO TOLD THEM TO CHEAT,” reads a message Trump reposted on social media in 2023.

He has also repeatedly targeted the prosecutors, judges and even courtroom staff connected to the prosecutions against him for alleged election interference, improperly holding classified documents and business fraud.

New York Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron “should be arrested and punished accordingly,” Trump said at a rally in January. James successfully brought a civil fraud case against Trump, which Engoron presided over. Trump is appealing the judgment against him. He also reposted a message attacking a member of the Georgia grand jury that indicted him.

Among the other targets of Trump’s threats are former President Barack Obama (“RETRUTH IF YOU WANT PUBLIC MILITARY TRIBUNALS”), members of the U.S. Capitol Police who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot (“The cops should be charged and the protesters should be freed”), members of the Jan. 6 Select Committee in Congress (“They should be prosecuted for their lies and, quite frankly, TREASON!”), Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (“We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison”), people who criticize the Supreme Court (“These people should be put in jail, the way they talk about our judges and our justices”) and protesters who burn the American flag (“You should get a one-year jail sentence if you desecrate the American flag”).

In one instance, Trump suggested that Gen. Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in his administration, could face execution for calling officials in China to try and defuse tensions in the chaotic aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack.

“This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Milley, who retired in 2023, has since told journalist Bob Woodward that Trump is “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.”

In addition to using the powers under criminal law, Trump has also promised to take greater control of agencies like the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates broadcast television and radio, including NPR’s network of member stations.

After his presidential debate against Harris on ABC News, Trump called for the FCC to revoke ABC’s broadcast license, due to his perception of the moderators’ bias. He also called for an investigation of CBS News for campaign finance violations after it aired an interview with Vice President Harris. He’s previously floated pulling the license for NBC, as well, over criticisms of its news coverage.

“I absolutely think he will follow up on those threats,” said Stephanie Grisham, who worked for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and served as his White House press secretary. Grisham resigned in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and has since become a vocal critic of her former boss.

“I just know that once he's in office with no guardrails, no reason to worry about reelection, and only the most fervent, loyal people surrounding him,” Grisham said, “he will absolutely make sure his enemies pay for what he perceives to be their crimes.”

John Bolton, who served as national security adviser in the Trump White House, said at an event earlier this year that he believed Trump would use the Department of Justice to enact a “retribution presidency.”

In response to NPR’s reporting, the Republican National Committee issued a statement.

“Kamala Harris is the threat to democracy,” said RNC spokesperson Anna Kelly. “She and Joe Biden weaponized our justice system in order to sway an election.”

Trump has made at least 109 threats since 2022

 

 

Current and former government officialsDemocratic district attorneysElection workers and administratorsJournalists and media organizationsParticipants in Trump's court casesPolitical opponentsPrivate citizensTech companies and executivesU.S. Capitol PoliceOther

Target: Hillary Clinton
Political opponents

"LOCK HER UP"

–– May 22, 2022, Video posted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Democratic district attorneys
Democratic district attorneys

"I will direct a completely overhauled DOJ to investigate every radical out-of-control prosecutor in America for their illegal racist enforcement of the law."

–– Jan. 5, 2024, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Alvin Bragg
Participants in Trump's court cases

"There is a case to be a made, because five people have stated it very professionally, that the prosecutor should be prosecuted. The District Attorney, Soros-backed Bragg, should be prosecuted, because he knew when he submitted his case all about the lies. And therefore he's committed a crime. Many people have said that."

–– May 20, 2024, Trump statement to the press (source)

Target: Immigrant aid groups
Other

"For any radical left charity, non-profit, or so called aid organizations supporting these caravans and illegal aliens, we will prosecute them for their participation in human trafficking, child smuggling, and every other crime we can find..."

–– Nov. 4, 2023, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Emily Kohrs
Participants in Trump's court cases

"Thats literally a felony, will she be prosecuted?"

–– Feb. 22, 2023, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: CBS News, all broadcasters
Journalists and media organizations

"60 Minutes is a major part of the News Organization of CBS, which has just created the Greatest Fraud in Broadcast History. CBS should lose its license, and it should be bid out to the Highest Bidder, as should all other Broadcast Licenses, because they are just as corrupt as CBS — and maybe even WORSE!"

–– Oct. 10, 2024, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Joe Biden, Joe Biden's family
Political opponents

"From the first day in office I will appoint a special prosecutor to study each and every one of the many claims being brought forth by Congress concerning all of the crooked acts, including bribes from China and many other foreign countries, that go into the coffers — and go straight into the coffers — of the Biden crime family. It is a crime family."

–– Aug. 4, 2023, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: CBS News
Journalists and media organizations

"CBS gets a license. And the license is based on honesty. I think they have to take their license away. I do."

–– Oct. 11, 2024, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Michael Cohen
Participants in Trump's court cases

"Cohen should be prosecuted for lying and all of the tumult and cost he put the D.A.’s Office through. Also, the case against 'Trump' should be dropped immediately, prior to a finding of Prosecutorial Misconduct."

–– March 22, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Joe Biden, Joe Biden's family
Political opponents

"And from my first day in office, I will appoint a special prosecutor to study each and every one of the many claims being brought forth by Congress — and they're doing a good job, Jamie Comer, Jim Jordan, all of them — concerning all of the crooked acts, including bribes from China and many other countries, all these foreign countries sending money into the coffers of the Biden crime family. We will have a special prosecutor."

–– Aug. 8, 2023, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Election workers
Election workers and administrators

"START ARRESTING THE POLL WORKERS AND WATCH HOW FAST THEY TELL YOU WHO TOLD THEM TO CHEAT"

–– Oct. 22, 2023, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Michael Cohen, Mark Pomerantz
Participants in Trump's court cases

"Can you imagine? I am leading the opposition within the Republican Party by 30 plus, and Biden by 6 plus, and everyone is waiting to hear from a local George Soros backed D.A., who has watched Violent Crime in Manhattan soar to Record Highs, as to whether or not he is going to 'criminally indict' me for NO CRIME. Every Prosecutor, and the FEC, who looked at it, took a pass. One year ago he, Alvin Bragg, said 'NO WAY.' Now he’s looking at it again? He should prosecute Mark Pomerantz & Cohen!"

–– March 27, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Arthur Engoron, Letitia James
Participants in Trump's court cases

“The judge and the AG should be arrested and punished accordingly.”

–– Jan. 5, 2024, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Unspecified
Election workers and administrators

"ANYBODY THAT CHEATS ON THE ELECTION IS GOING TO JAIL!!!"

–– Oct. 8, 2024, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: U.S. Capitol Police
U.S. Capitol Police

“The cops should be charged and the protesters should be freed”

–– Nov. 30, 2023, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Jan. 6 Select Committee
Political opponents

“These are very dangerous people. They’re the ones that should be investigated.”

–– June 20, 2022, Trump interview with Newsmax (source)

Target: FBI
Participants in Trump's court cases

"Just think of it??? All these failed criminal acts against me, and then I get indicted on phony 'Trumped Up' charges where they refuse to use the Presidential Records Act, and the Clinton Socks Case, under which I am totally innocent and a charge could not even be brought. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!! These thugs and criminals must be punished!"

–– June 21, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: People who criticize the Supreme Court
Private citizens

“These people should be put in jail, the way they talk about our judges and our justices, trying to get them to sway their vote, sway their decision.”

–– Sept. 23, 2024, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Unspecified
Election workers and administrators

"They are taking away President Trump’s First Amendment right to free speech, and the right to challenge a rigged and stolen election that the Democrats do all the time. The ones who should be prosecuted are the ones who created the corruption."

–– Aug. 14, 2023, Trump campaign statement (source)

Target: Jan. 6 Select Committee
Political opponents

“Tucker Carlson a MUST WATCH tonight. Releasing more VIDEO which was 'HIDDEN BY THE CROOKED J 6 UNSELECT COMMITTEE.' They should be prosecuted for their lies and, quite frankly, TREASON!”

–– March 7, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: CBS News
Journalists and media organizations

"I’ve never seen this before, but the producers of 60 Minutes sliced and diced ('cut and pasted') Lyin’ Kamala’s answers to questions, which were virtually incoherent, over and over again, some by as many as four times in a single sentence or thought, all in an effort, possibly illegal as part of the 'News Division,' which must be licensed, to make her look 'more Presidential,' or a least, better. It may also be a major Campaign Finance Violation. This is a stain on the reputation of 60 Minutes that is not recoverable - It will always remain with this once storied brand. I have never heard of such a thing being done in 'News.' It is the very definition of FAKE NEWS! The public is owed a MAJOR AND IMMEDIATE APOLOGY! This is an open and shut case, and must be investigated, starting today!"

–– Oct. 9, 2024, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Democratic district attorneys
Democratic district attorneys

"I will direct the DOJ to investigate every radical district attorney and attorney general in America for their illegal racist-in-reverse enforcement of the law."

–– April 27, 2023, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Alvin Bragg, Department of Justice
Participants in Trump's court cases

“I think that Bragg needs to be investigated. I think the Justice Department needs to be investigated.”

–– June 9, 2023, Video reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Unspecified
Election workers and administrators

"I UNDERSTAND THROUGH ILLEGAL LEAKS TO THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA THAT PHONEY FANI WILLIS, THE D.A. OF FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA, WANTS DESPERATELY TO INDICT ME ON THE RIDICULOUS GROUNDS OF TAMPERING WITH THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. NO, I DIDN’T TAMPER WITH THE ELECTION! THOSE WHO RIGGED & STOLE THE ELECTION WERE THE ONES DOING THE TAMPERING, & THEY ARE THE SLIME THAT SHOULD BE PROSECUTED. I MADE A PERFECT PHONE CALL OF PROTEST. WHY WASN’T THIS FAKE CASE BROUGHT 2.5 YEARS AGO? ELECTION INTERFERENCE!"

–– Aug. 14, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Alvin Bragg
Participants in Trump's court cases

“A Trump indictment would be a disgusting abuse of power. The DA should be put in jail.”

–– March 21, 2023, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Michael Byrd
U.S. Capitol Police

“THIS NEEDS TO BE POSTED DAILY UNTIL THAT SOB IS ARRESTED & STANDS TRIAL”

–– Jan. 13, 2023, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Democratic district attorneys
Democratic district attorneys

"I will direct the DOJ to open civil rights investigations into radical left prosecutor’s offices, such as those in Chicago, L.A., and San Francisco to determine whether they have illegally engaged in race-based enforcement of the law."

–– Feb. 20, 2023, Trump campaign statement (source)

Target: Jack Smith, Department of Justice
Participants in Trump's court cases

"#LockDemUp and throw away the key!"

–– July 9, 2023, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Jack Smith, FBI, Department of Justice
Participants in Trump's court cases

"Why did Deranged Jack Smith and the DOJ/FBI leak a tape to Fake News CNN, phony spin and all? Will they be prosecuted for this illegal act? Pure SCUM!"

–– June 27, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Nancy Pelosi
Political opponents

"She should be prosecuted. Nancy Pelosi should be prosecuted for that. And she should also be prosecuted for J6."

–– Sept. 26, 2024, Trump remarks at a press conference (source)

Target: Unspecified
Current and former government officials

"I will challenge California’s depraved new laws that strip parents of parental rights and that encourage minors to be transported across state lines for sexual mutilation and we will prosecute those involved in the sick California scheme for violating federal laws against kidnapping, sex trafficking, child abuse, and the deprivation of their civil rights."

–– Sept. 15, 2023, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Google
Tech companies and executives

"It has been determined that Google has illegally used a system of only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J. Trump, some made up for this purpose while, at the same time, only revealing good stories about Comrade Kamala Harris. This is an ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, and hopefully the Justice Department will criminally prosecute them for this blatant Interference of Elections. If not, and subject to the Laws of our Country, I will request their prosecution, at the maximum levels, when I win the Election, and become President of the United States!"

–– Sept. 27, 2024, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Hillary Clinton
Political opponents

"SHOULDN'T CROOKED HILLARY BE IN JAIL BY NOW?"

–– May 18, 2022, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Jack Smith, Department of Justice
Participants in Trump's court cases

“The Crooked Election Interference ‘Thugs’ from the DOJ, headed by the worst Thug of them all, Deranged Jack Smith, are now admitting that the Mar-a-Lago Security Tapes were NOT DELETED. That’s not what they were illegally leaking to the press. These guys should be prosecuted for MISCONDUCT. Also, whatever happened to Crooked Joe’s Documents? Where are the ones he sent and stored in Chinatown? Is Deranged Jack going to Indict him for this and, at the same time, receiving BRIBES FROM CHINA?”

–– July 30, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Democratic district attorneys
Democratic district attorneys

"I will direct a completely overhauled DOJ to investigate every radical DA in America for their illegal, racist-in-reverse enforcement of the law."

–– July 1, 2023, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Kamala Harris
Political opponents

"She should be impeached and prosecuted for her actions."

–– Sept. 29, 2024, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Unspecified
Participants in Trump's court cases

“I did NOTHING wrong in Georgia, but others did. They CHEATED in the 2020 Presidential Election, and those are the ones that should be investigated (and prosecuted)! Letter to follow.”

–– July 7, 2022, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Jan. 6 Select Committee
Political opponents

"INDICT THE UNSELECT J6 COMMITTEE SEDITION RETRUTH IF YOU WANT TO LOCK THEM UP”

–– Sept. 19, 2024, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Democrats
Political opponents

“CEASE & DESIST: I, together with many Attorneys and Legal Scholars, am watching the Sanctity of the 2024 Presidential Election very closely because I know, better than most, the rampant Cheating and Skullduggery that has taken place by the Democrats in the 2020 Presidential Election. It was a Disgrace to our Nation! Therefore, the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again. We cannot let our Country further devolve into a Third World Nation, AND WE WON’T! Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”

–– Sept. 17, 2024, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: CBS News
Journalists and media organizations

"60 MINUTES SHOULD BE IMMEDIATELY TAKEN OFF THE AIR - ELECTION INTERFERENCE. CBS SHOULD LOSE ITS LICENSE. THIS IS THE BIGGEST SCANDAL IN BROADCAST HISTORY. Kamala should be investigated and forced off the Campaign, and Joe Biden allowed to take back his rightful place (He got 14 Million Primary Votes, she got none!). THIS WHOLE SORDID AND FRAUDULENT EVENT IS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY!"

–– Oct. 17, 2024, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Protesters
Private citizens

"I think you should get a one-year jail sentence if you do anything to desecrate the American flag. Now, people will say, 'Oh, it's unconstitutional.' Those are stupid people."

–– July 25, 2024, Trump interview with Fox News (source)

Target: Alvin Bragg
Participants in Trump's court cases

"The criminal is the district attorney, because he illegally leaked massive amounts of grand jury information, for which he should be prosecuted, or at a minimum, he should resign."

–– April 4, 2023, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Mark Milley
Current and former government officials

"Mark Milley, who led perhaps the most embarrassing moment in American history with his grossly incompetent implementation of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, costing many lives, leaving behind hundreds of American citizens, and handing over BILLIONS of dollars of the finest military equipment ever made, will be leaving the military next week. This will be a time for all citizens of the USA to celebrate! This guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States. This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act. To be continued!!!"

–– Sept. 22, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Journalists
Journalists and media organizations

"You tell the reporter, 'Who is it?' And the reporter will either tell you or not. And if the reporter doesn't want to tell you, it's bye-bye, the reporter goes to jail. And when the reporter learns that he's going to be married in two days to a certain prisoner that's extremely strong, tough and mean, he will say, 'You know,' he or she, 'You know, I think I'm going to give you the information. Here's the leaker. Get me the hell out of here.'"

–– Nov. 7, 2022, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Unspecified
Election workers and administrators

"If we win, and when we win, we're gonna prosecute people that cheat on this election. And if we can, we'll go back to the last one, too."

–– Sept. 28, 2024, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Joe Biden, Joe Biden's family
Political opponents

"NOW THAT THE 'SEAL' IS BROKEN, IN ADDITION TO CLOSING THE BORDER & REMOVING ALL OF THE 'CRIMINAL' ELEMENTS THAT HAVE ILLEGALLY INVADED OUR COUNTRY, MAKING AMERICA ENERGY INDEPENDENT, & EVEN DOMINANT AGAIN, & IMMEDIATELY ENDING THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA & UKRAINE, I WILL APPOINT A REAL SPECIAL 'PROSECUTOR' TO GO AFTER THE MOST CORRUPT PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE USA, JOE BIDEN, THE ENTIRE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY, & ALL OTHERS INVOLVED WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR ELECTIONS, BORDERS, & COUNTRY ITSELF!"

–– June 16, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Arthur Engoron, Letitia James
Participants in Trump's court cases

"MY FANTASY 👇😁 I WOULD LIKE TO SEE LITITIA JAMES AND JUDGE ENGORON PLACED UNDER CITIZENS ARREST FOR BLATANT ELECTION INTERFERENCE AND HARASSMENT."

–– Nov. 13, 2023, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Jack Smith
Participants in Trump's court cases

"Speaking of LEAKS, Special 'Prosecutor' Jack Smith (What did his name used to be?) leaked massive amounts of information to The Washington ComPost. This is illegal, and I assume this Radical Left Lunatic, much to the chagrin of his Trump Hating wife and family, will be PROSECUTED? He is a totally biased Thug who should be let loose on the Biden Documents hidden in Chinatown, and the 1,850 BOXES secretly stored in Delaware, which Biden REFUSES to give up. Biden is guilty of Obstruction, I am not!"

–– April 3, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Barack Obama
Political opponents

"ALL ROADS LEAD TO OBAMA RETRUTH IF YOU WANT PUBLIC MILITARY TRIBUNALS”

–– Aug. 27, 2024, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Obama administration, U.S. intelligence agencies
Political opponents

“The naked collusion to commit treason, espionage, sedition, etc. against a POTUS and the American Republic is now apparent. The Obama administration recklessly conspired with the U.S. Intelligence Community, various British Intelligence agencies and other foreign agents to sabotage the 2016 U.S. presidential election and fabricated a fake 'Russian collusion' story to cover up their unparalleled crime spree."

–– Aug. 14, 2022, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Democratic district attorneys
Democratic district attorneys

"I will direct the DOJ to investigate every radical DA and attorney general and American for their illegal race-in-reverse based enforcement of the law."

–– April 14, 2023, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Robert Mueller, Chuck Schumer, Rod Rosenstein, Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin, James Clapper, James Brennan, Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Bill Clinton, James Comey, Loretta Lynch
Current and former government officials

"NOW THAT RUSSIA COLLUSION IS A PROVEN LIE, WHEN DO THE TRIALS FOR TREASON BEGIN?"

–– Jan. 30, 2023, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Jack Smith
Participants in Trump's court cases

"JACKAL SMITH IS A CAREER CRIMINAL, A POLITICAL WEAPON AGAINST AMERICA. HE SHOULD BE PROSECUTED FOR ELECTION INTERFERENCE & PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT."

–– Aug. 27, 2024, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Joe Biden
Political opponents

"CROOKED JOE BIDEN IS THE WORST AND MOST CORRUPT PRESIDENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY Re-Truth if you think he should be arrested for TREASON”

–– June 30, 2024, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Adam Schiff
Political opponents

“Schiff is a sleazebag and traitor, and should be prosecuted for the damage he has done to our Country!”

–– Jan. 8, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Joe Biden, Joe Biden's family
Political opponents

"As soon as I am reelected, I will appoint a real special counsel or maybe you'll call it a special prosecutor, whatever you want to call it you can, to look at all of these bribes, kickbacks, and other crimes as well as the shameless attempt at a cover-up. Justice will be done. The Biden Crime Family will be looked at."

–– Aug. 15, 2023, Trump campaign statement (source)

Target: Joe Biden, Biden family
Political opponents

"When I get back in office, I will appoint a real special prosecutor to investigate every detail of the Biden crime family of corruption."

–– July 1, 2023, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Barack Obama, Joe Biden
Political opponents

"#FJB #TrumpWon2020 #Trump2024Landslide #ArrestBiden #ArrestObama #DeathPenaltyForPedophiles #MilitaryTribunalsForTreason"

–– April 24, 2024, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Kamala Harris
Political opponents

"What Comrade Kamala Harris has done to our Country at the Border by allowing 13,099 murderers to roam openly, and be free to kill, is The Crime of the Century. They have already killed many people, and this is just the beginning. She should be IMPEACHED, PROSECUTED, or BOTH! But the incredible thing is that the Fake News Media does everything possible not to pick this story up. 13,099 MURDERERS are on the loose in our Country because of Kamala Harris, and they just don’t want to report it! The Fake News is helping Kamala to destroy our Country. They are TOTALLY CORRUPT - You just can’t find worse, or less patriotic people. We need an honest Media to guard our Country."

–– Sept. 29, 2024, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Jan. 6 Select Committee
Political opponents

"They should be indicted for that. They destroyed evidence."

–– July 31, 2024, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Democrats
Political opponents

“U.S. Citizens are allowed to vote, but Illegals are NOT! If I win the Election, anybody caught cheating, for any reason, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, and that includes Democrat Operatives and Sleazebags, who CHEAT at levels never seen before. NO MORE 'GAMES' FOR YOU!”

–– Aug. 20, 2024, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: North Carolina Board of Elections
Election workers and administrators

"Those who have engaged in these un-American acts must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and receive the harshest punishment possible so these injustices will never be repeated."

–– June 26, 2024, Trump campaign statement (source)

Target: Mark Zuckerberg
Tech companies and executives

“He cheated on the Election(s). The whole system is RIGGED. Why isn’t he being prosecuted? The Democrats only know how to cheat. America isn’t going to take it much longer!”

–– Feb. 26, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Letitia James
Participants in Trump's court cases

“Judge Engoron should end the ridiculous Political Witch Hunt against me. I have TOTALLY WON THIS CASE, which should never have been brought. The only Fraud was committed by A.G. Letitia James in convincing the Judge that Mar-a-Lago was only worth $18,000,000 (in order to make my “numbers” look bad), when it is worth 50 to 100 times that amount. She campaigned on 'getting Trump.' She should be prosecuted!”

–– Nov. 10, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Democratic district attorneys
Democratic district attorneys

"I will direct the DOJ to investigate every radical DA and attorney general in America for their illegal racist-in-reverse enforcement of the law."

–– April 21, 2023, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Liz Cheney
Political opponents

"SHE SHOULD BE PROSECUTED FOR WHAT SHE HAS DONE TO OUR COUNTRY! SHE ILLEGALLY DESTROYED THE EVIDENCE. UNREAL!!!"

–– March 17, 2024, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Jan. 6 Select Committee
Political opponents

"The 'unselect committee,' which is basically two horrible Republicans that are all gone now, out of office, and Democrats, all Democrats, they destroyed and deleted all of the information they found, because they found out we were right. We were right. And they deleted and destroyed all of the information. They should go to jail for that."

–– June 27, 2024, Trump presidential debate remarks (source)

Target: Liz Cheney, Jan. 6 Select Committee
Political opponents

"She should go to Jail along with the rest of the Unselect Committee!"

–– March 17, 2024, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Joe Biden
Political opponents

"The worst leaks of 'Intelligence' in U.S. history. Our Country has never been so embarrassed, and yet they come after 'Trump' on their old and tired Boxes Hoax. The Special 'Prosecutor' should investigate Biden, maybe he was the leaker? Nothing would surprise me about this group!"

–– April 12, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Hillary Clinton
Political opponents

"This disclosure marks the first evidence proving Clinton knew about the fake Russia-Collusion story long before the press began reporting on it a mere 8 days before the 2016 Election. Prison time!!!"

–– May 20, 2022, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Hillary Clinton
Political opponents

"Wouldn't it be terrible to throw the president's wife and the former secretary of state — think of it, the former secretary of state, but the president's wife — into jail? Wouldn't that be a terrible thing? But they wanna do it. So, you know, it's a terrible, terrible path that they're leading us to and it's very possible that it's going to have to happen to them."

–– June 5, 2024, Trump interview with Newsmax (source)

Target: ERIC, Mark Zuckerberg
Tech companies and executives

“They should all be ARRESTED for cheating and Election Fraud… But NO, they come after Republicans instead. GET TOUGH REPUBLICANS, THE FIGHT HAS JUST BEGUN!!!”

–– March 22, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Democratic district attorneys
Democratic district attorneys

"I will direct a completely overhauled DOJ to investigate every radical out-of-control prosecutor in America for their illegal, racist-in-reverse enforcement of the law."

–– Feb. 17, 2024, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Alvin Bragg
Participants in Trump's court cases

"Wow! District Attorney Bragg just illegally LEAKED the various points, and complete information, on the pathetic Indictment against me. I know the reporter and so, unfortunately, does he. This means that he MUST BE IMMEDIATELY INDICTED. Now, if he wants to really clean up his reputation, he will do the honorable thing and, as District Attorney, INDICT HIMSELF. He will go down in Judicial history, and his Trump Hating wife will be, I am sure, very proud of him!"

–– April 3, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Michael Cohen
Participants in Trump's court cases

"Alina Habba - Cohen should be prosecuted for what he did in that courtroom"

–– Nov. 9, 2023, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Hillary Clinton, the FBI
Political opponents

“We want people thrown in jail. This is treason. And it started with Hillary. Lock her up. Lock her up. She and every single other crooked mofo needs to be locked the heck up.”

–– June 2, 2023, Video reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Joe Biden
Political opponents

"The only possible way to ensure Joe Biden has no more illegal documents from his vice-presidency is for the FBI to raid all of his residences and seize anything they want, including his passports. Our democracy is at stake, anything less and we could all die."

–– Jan. 9, 2023, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Joe Biden, Alvin Bragg, Merrick Garland, Fani Willis
Participants in Trump's court cases

"Abusing RICO enforcement could backfire on Dems: A 2nd Trump admin/ GOP admin could charge Willis, Bragg, Smith, Garland + Biden w/ conspiring to sideline Trump w/ vexatious prosecutions and other overt acts of racketeering. All their comms would be subject to subpoenas/warrants."

–– Aug. 17, 2023, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Jack Smith
Participants in Trump's court cases

"Jack Smith must go to prison for this."

–– June 27, 2023, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Andrew McCabe
Current and former government officials

"Onetime White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has warned former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe that he 'should be worried' about being targeted if Donald Trump wins the 2024 election."

–– June 18, 2024, Article reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: The FBI
Current and former government officials

"The FBI offered Christopher Steele One Million Dollars in order to FRAME me. Why aren’t all of the so called Special 'Prosecutors,' together with their bosses at the DOJ, doing something about this. Why aren’t people under arrest. They spied on my campaign, and bribed people all over the place, and then go after ME. The people of our once great Country won’t stand for it. How much more can they take, as the USA goes to HELL? MAGA!!!"

–– May 21, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Mark Zuckerberg
Tech companies and executives

"We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election."

–– Sept. 3, 2024, Trump comments in "Save America" book (source)

Target: Journalists
Journalists and media organizations

“You take the writer and/or the publisher of the paper … and you say, ‘Who is the leaker? National security.' And they say, ‘We’re not gonna tell you.’ They say, ‘That’s OK, you’re going to jail.’ And when this person realizes that he is going to be the bride of another prisoner very shortly, he will say, ‘I’d very much like to tell you exactly who that leaker is!'”

–– Oct. 22, 2022, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: John Brennan, Leon Panetta, Michael Hayden, John McLaughlin, Michael Morell, former U.S. intelligence officials
Current and former government officials

"Fifty-one intelligence agents. That phony story, 'Remember the laptop is from Russia,' they said. And they should be prosecuted for what they did."

–– June 9, 2024, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Joe Biden
Political opponents

“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to investigate the Biden bribery and crime ring.”

–– June 27, 2023, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Arthur Engoron, Letitia James
Participants in Trump's court cases

"The judge created a fraud. And the AG created a fraud. They're the ones that should be prosecuted."

–– Nov. 21, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Democrats
Political opponents

"This Animal Prosecutor that they stuck on me over the Boxes Hoax is trying to TORTURE my people into telling lies. It’s all for political reasons, and the fact that I’m leading, big, in all of the polls. He’s flying people from all over and throwing them in front of a D.C. Grand Jury. They are confused and scared - they’ve never done this before. These Democrat Marxist pigs should be the ones that are investigated. The nice guy prosecutor in the Biden documents case hasn’t even started yet!"

–– March 4, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Jan. 6 Select Committee
Political opponents

“NOW THAT THE ENTIRE JANUARY 6TH LIE HAS COMPLETELY FALLEN APART, WHEN DO THE TRIALS FOR TREASON BEGIN?”

–– Nov. 27, 2023, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Democratic district attorneys
Democratic district attorneys

"I will direct the Department of Justice to go after Marxist prosecutors' offices to make them pay for their illegal race-based enforcement of the law. Many racists are there."

–– March 13, 2023, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Letitia James
Participants in Trump's court cases

“New York Attorney General Letitia James Must Resign and Be Prosecuted for Abuse of Power — Her anti-Trump lawsuit is a staggering criminalization of politics”

–– Oct. 3, 2022, Statement quoted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Fomer U.S. intelligence officials
Political opponents

"When are the intelligence Officers That signed the 'Hunter Biden laptop is disinformation' letter going to JAIL?"

–– Dec. 5, 2022, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Comcast, NBC News, MSNBC
Journalists and media organizations

"They are almost all dishonest and corrupt, but Comcast, with its one-side and vicious coverage by NBC NEWS, and in particular MSNBC, often and correctly referred to as MSDNC (Democrat National Committee!), should be investigated for its 'Country Threatening Treason.' Their endless coverage of the now fully debunked SCAM known as Russia, Russia, Russia, and much else, is one big Campaign Contribution to the Radical Left Democrat Party. I say up front, openly, and proudly, that when I WIN the Presidency of the United States, they and others of the LameStream Media will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage of people, things, and events. Why should NBC, or any other of the corrupt & dishonest media companies, be entitled to use the very valuable Airwaves of the USA, FREE? They are a true threat to Democracy and are, in fact, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! The Fake News Media should pay a big price for what they have done to our once great Country!"

–– Sept. 24, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Politico journalists
Journalists and media organizations

"The Supreme Court has just announced it is not able to find out, even with the help of our 'crack' FBI, who the leaker was on the R v Wade scandal. They’ll never find out, & it’s important that they do. So, go to the reporter & ask him/her who it was. If not given the answer, put whoever in jail until the answer is given. You might add the publisher and editor to the list. Stop playing games, this leaking cannot be allowed to happen. It won’t take long before the name of this slime is revealed!"

–– Jan. 19, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Joe Biden, Democrats
Political opponents

"Perverted joe Biden is a treasonous traitor trying to overthrow the United States of America and our constitution.That makes him and democrats public enemy .They will pay for crimes against humanity and treason."

–– April 8, 2023, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Arthur Engoron, Letitia James, Allison Greenfield
Participants in Trump's court cases

"The Judge committed FRAUD in my Trial by valuing my assets at a tiny fraction of what they are really worth in order to make his FAKE CASE against me - And everyone, including his crooked and highly partisan Law Clerk, Allison Greenfield, and Racist A.G. Letitia James, knows it. The Judicial System in New York State is in chaos and disrepute over this horribly handled Persecution of a Political Opponent. The World is watching this illegal Witch Hunt. Engoron, James, and Greenfield should be sanctioned and prosecuted over this complete and very obvious MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE!!!"

–– Nov. 18, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Joe Biden, Joe Biden's family
Political opponents

"I will appoint a special prosecutor to study each and every one of the many claims being brought forth by Congress concerning all of the crooked acts, including the bribes from China and many other countries, that go into the coffers of the Biden crime family."

–– Aug. 5, 2023, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Manhattan District Attorney's Office
Participants in Trump's court cases

“CNN - Michael Moore: ‘Proof of Falsifying Records Has Not Been Accomplished.’ To put it mildly! I HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG!!! ‘Legal Expenses’ marked down in Ledgers as ‘Legal Expenses,’ not ‘construction costs,’ not ‘electrical contractor,’ not ‘concrete work.’ The Fake Prosecutors should be PROSECUTED — SO BAD FOR OUR COUNTRY!!!”

–– May 7, 2024, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Joe Biden, Joe Biden's family
Political opponents

"I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president of the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family — name a special prosecutor..." AUDIENCE: "Lock him up! Lock him up!" TRUMP: "And all others involved with the destruction of our elections, our borders, and our country itself."

–– June 13, 2023, Trump remarks at a political rally (source)

Target: Joe Biden, Merrick Garland
Political opponents

“These two corrupted thugs need to be impeached and prosecuted.”

–– July 30, 2023, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Joe Biden
Political opponents

"Joe Biden shouldn't just be impeached, he should be handcuffed and hauled out of the White House for his crimes."

–– June 9, 2023, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Unspecified
Political opponents

When asked by Glenn Beck if he would lock up political opponents if he wins the 2024 election, Trump responded, "The answer is you have no choice because they’re doing it to us."

–– Aug. 29, 2023, Trump interview with Glenn Beck (source)

Target: Jack Smith
Participants in Trump's court cases

"Jack Smith, the special counsel, should be indicted for stupidity. It's that bad!"

–– Aug. 1, 2023, Video reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: Jamaal Bowman
Political opponents

Trump posted "100% correct!" in response to a statement that Rep. Jamaal Bowman should be charged with a felony.

–– Oct. 26, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Cassidy Hutchinson, Jan. 6 Select Committee
Political opponents

"Our great Secret Service has totally CRUSHED Cassidy Hutchinson’s (who I barely knew) made up (FAKE!) stories about me roughing up Secret Service Agents from the back seat of the Beast (Limo). Has she now changed her testimony? Will she be prosecuted for what she did and said? What about the Unselect J6 Committee. They destroyed almost everything, including real evidence and findings. What’s going to happen with them - Serious crimes have been committed?"

–– March 18, 2024, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Jan. 6 Select Committee
Political opponents

"The Unselect Committee of political Hacks & Thugs has been totally discredited. They knowingly refused to show the Videos that mattered. They should be tried for Fraud and Treason, and those imprisoned and being persecuted should be exonerated and released, NOW!"

–– March 7, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Unspecified
Election workers and administrators

"THE PEOPLE THAT DID THIS MUST BE PROSECUTED SO THEY DON’T DO IT IN 2024, WHEN THEY WILL BE PROSECUTED. SUCH A SHAME. I WON BIG, BUT WILL WIN AGAIN!"

–– March 13, 2024, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Liz Cheney
Political opponents

“ELIZABETH LYNNE CHENEY IS GUILTY OF TREASON RETRUTH IF YOU WANT TELEVISED MILITARY TRIBUNALS”

–– June 30, 2024, Statement reposted by Trump on Truth Social (source)

Target: CBS News
Journalists and media organizations

"A giant Fake News Scam by CBS & 60 Minutes. Her REAL ANSWER WAS CRAZY, OR DUMB, so they actually REPLACED it with another answer in order to save her or, at least, make her look better. A FAKE NEWS SCAM, which is totally illegal. TAKE AWAY THE CBS LICENSE. Election Interference. She is a Moron, and the Fake News Media wants to hide that fact. An UNPRECEDENTED SCANDAL!!! The Dems got them to do this and should be forced to concede the Election? WOW!"

–– Oct. 10, 2024, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Target: Jamaal Bowman
Political opponents

"Will Congressman Jamal Bowman be prosecuted and imprisoned for very dangerously pulling and setting off the main fire alarm system in order to stop a Congressional vote that was going on in D.C. His egregious act is covered on tape, a horrible display of nerve and criminality. It was a very dangerous 'Obstruction of an Official Proceeding,' the same as used against our J-6 prisoners. Actually, his act may have been worse. HE MUST SUFFER THEIR SAME FATE. WHEN WILL HIS TRIAL BEGIN???"

–– Oct. 1, 2023, Trump post on Truth Social (source)

Trump’s claims of a “witch hunt”

Amid this flood of threats against his opponents, Trump has repeatedly accused the Biden administration of “weaponizing” the Justice Department and subjecting him to “political persecution” and a “witch hunt.”

Judges presiding over Trump’s criminal cases have rejected those arguments.

Biden did state publicly that subjects of the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s investigation should face prosecution for defying subpoenas. He later said that comment was “inappropriate.” But there’s no evidence that Biden has directed the federal cases against Trump. Those cases are being led by special counsel Jack Smith.

During Biden’s presidency, the Justice Department has also brought prosecutions against several high-profile Democrats, including former New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez and New York Mayor Eric Adams, as well as the president’s son, Hunter Biden.

Vice President Harris has generally avoided commenting on Trump’s federal criminal cases. When supporters at recent campaign rallies started chanting “lock him up,” she told the crowd, “We’re gonna let the courts handle that.”

Could Trump actually order prosecutions of his enemies?

After the widespread abuses of presidential power by Richard Nixon, subsequent administrations generally sought to give the Department of Justice more independence from the White House, in part to insulate the agency from electoral politics.

But legal experts and former government officials said those rules and norms can be overturned or ignored.

“There are not really legal restrictions or even structural restrictions that would stop the president, if he were to appoint loyalists to be the lead prosecutors in all 93 jurisdictions around the country, from simply directing them to go and investigate his perceived opponents,” said Bassin, who also served as associate White House counsel in the Obama administration. “If he appointed a loyal director of the FBI, he would be able to make life pretty miserable for the people he is targeting.”

Trump has said he will appoint the “most ferocious legal warriors against crime and Communist corruption that this country has ever seen.”

Trump’s allies have also promised to weaken or even end the Justice Department’s independence from the White House if he returns to office, which would give Trump and his political appointees greater ability to direct the federal prosecutions.

“The president has the authority under the Constitution to conduct law enforcement,” Russ Vought, a former Trump administration official and a leader of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint, told NPR last year. Vought added that “I think you can absolutely trust Donald Trump” not to use the Justice Department for partisan purposes.

The Supreme Court also recently removed one potential guardrail preventing political prosecutions in its ruling on Trump’s claim of presidential immunity.

 

Investigations

Trump’s Bedminster club hosted an alleged Nazi sympathizer who stormed the Capitol

 

Investigations

The Trump campaign embraces Jan. 6 rioters with money and pardon promises

“One of the most remarkable lines in that Supreme Court opinion is that a sitting president could order their Justice Department to engage in a ‘sham’ investigation,” said Ryan Goodman, a law professor at New York University. “So a president would not have to fear criminal accountability for ordering a sham investigation of their perceived enemies.”

One final check against political prosecutions is the judicial branch. Judges can refuse to authorize search and arrest warrants. If an investigation leads to an actual prosecution, judges can also dismiss charges and juries can acquit defendants. But the process alone can do significant damage to a target’s reputation and finances, regardless of the final outcome. And both Trump and running mate JD Vance have suggested they might ignore the judiciary’s decisions.

Trump posted on Truth Social that “massive fraud” in the 2020 election justified “the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” In a 2021 interview, Vance said Trump should ignore court rulings if they constrain the administration’s ability to replace career officials with political loyalists.

“Much of this depends upon the character of the individual in the White House and the character of those surrounding them,” said Goodman, “because there's so many levers of power that they can use.”

Trump’s actions in his first term

Trump made the prosecution of Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival in the 2016 election, a centerpiece of his first presidential campaign. “Lock her up” became a perennial call-and-response between Trump and his supporters at rallies.

And while the Justice Department under Trump did not ultimately charge Clinton, there’s substantial evidence that his pressure on prosecutors did have an impact in some cases.

“President Trump treated the Department of Justice like his own personal law firm, and he put people in charge there who did his bidding,” said Geoffrey Berman, who served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York during the Trump administration, in a 2022 interview with WHYY’s Fresh Air. “The Justice Department targeted political enemies of the president and assisted political allies of the president.”

One of Trump’s most frequent targets in his first term was Andrew McCabe, a longtime FBI official who became the bureau’s acting director when Trump fired James Comey in 2017.

 

Andrew McCabe, then-acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on May 11, 2017.

Andrew Harrer/Getty Images

While in office, Trump attempted to “purge” the FBI of people he perceived as disloyal, McCabe said in an interview.

Trump repeatedly attacked McCabe, because he was in the leadership of the FBI during the investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 election and because he perceived McCabe as a partisan enemy. McCabe considered himself a moderate Republican, but Trump seized on the fact that McCabe’s wife had run unsuccessfully for the Virginia state Senate in 2015 as a Democrat.

Trump publicly pressured the department to fire McCabe before he would be eligible to receive retirement benefits, writing on Twitter, “FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!”

“It was clear to me, he was basically saying, ‘I'm going to do whatever I can to fire this guy before he can retire,’” McCabe said.

Department of Justice leaders demoted and then fired McCabe just hours before that deadline.

“Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI,” Trump posted. “A great day for Democracy.”

Internal investigators at the Justice Department said that McCabe “lacked candor” about his contacts with journalists — an allegation McCabe denies — and federal prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into McCabe that dragged on for nearly two years.

McCabe said he was with his wife and two children when the news of the criminal investigation leaked.

“It was just an incredibly sad moment and really scary for them, because it was the first time that I think they had ever considered that what had been political nonsense might actually cost me my liberty,” McCabe said. “And it's also humiliating. It's embarrassing.”

Federal Judge Reggie Walton, a George W. Bush appointee, questioned prosecutors over their handling of the case and Trump’s apparent influence over it.

“I don't think people like the fact that you got somebody at the top basically trying to dictate whether somebody should be prosecuted,” Walton said. “I just think it's a banana republic when we go down that road.”

Prosecutors ultimately dropped the case without bringing charges.

McCabe sued the Department of Justice over his firing. After Trump left office, he received a settlement that restored his back pay, retirement benefits and rank.

McCabe was not the only target, according to an analysis co-written by Goodman. He found 11 other cases in which Trump pushed the Justice Department to investigate his rivals.

“There is an established track record of Trump having done this before,” said Goodman of NYU. “It's not pure rhetoric.”

In one instance described in the Mueller report and cited by Goodman, Trump urged then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to prosecute Hillary Clinton. (Trump also urged prosecution publicly on Twitter.) Federal prosecutors in Utah later opened an investigation into Clinton and the Clinton Foundation without bringing charges. Hillary Clinton remained one of Trump’s most frequent targets even after he left office. Last year, he reposted a video with calls to “lock her up” for alleged treason.

The Jan. 6 Select Committee in Congress presented additional evidence of Trump putting pressure on prosecutors to say they found widespread fraud in the 2020 election, despite a lack of evidence.

 

 

“What I'm just asking you to do is to say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen," Trump told officials in his Justice Department, according to testimony obtained by the select committee.

“Trump was absolutely willing to use the Justice Department for his ends,” former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a member of the select committee, told NPR.

Preparing for the worst

Trump continues to threaten McCabe.

Steve Bannon, who served as Trump’s chief strategist in the White House and remains a prominent supporter, said on his podcast that McCabe “should be worried” that Trump would go after him if he returns to the White House.

“You should be very worried,” Bannon said. “But also understand this, brother, we have extradition treaties with virtually every country in the world. And you go ahead and run and run as far as you want. We're going to come and get you." (Bannon is currently serving a four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress and is due to be released at the end of October.)

Trump reposted Bannon’s comments on Truth Social.

“It shows you, I think, and in serious terms, a persistent commitment to this idea of ‘we are going on the revenge tour,’” McCabe said in response to those comments.

McCabe said he has had difficult conversations with his family about what Trump might do if he returns to the White House, and he knows other former officials who are also contemplating leaving the country.

“I don't intend to leave the country that I served for 21 years,” McCabe said. “But this kind of pits you against your children and your spouses who just want you to be safe.”

Grisham said she is also making preparations in case Trump returns to the White House — and saving up money.

Trump has not threatened her with jail time or prosecution, but did attack her in personal terms after she published a book critical of the administration.

“I'm definitely fearful for myself and for many of my friends who have spoken out, too,” Grisham said. “It's a terrifying thought, because that is literally the most powerful person in the world that knows you and wants only bad for you. It's truly a terrifying thought.”

Edited October 25 by Vesper

[Fulham Broadway 16,920]

8 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Trump has made more than 100 threats to prosecute or punish perceived enemies

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/21/nx-s1-5134924/trump-election-2024-kamala-harris-elizabeth-cheney-threat-civil-liberties

With just two weeks remaining until the presidential election, former President Donald Trump has used his most recent appearances on podcast and cable interviews to escalate attacks on fellow Americans whom he calls “the enemy from within.”

In one recent interview, Trump said that if “radical left lunatics” disrupt the election, “it should be very easily handled by — if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”

That statement, on Fox News, was not the first time Trump has expressed support for using government force against domestic political rivals. Since 2022, when he began preparing for the presidential campaign, Trump has issued more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived opponents, NPR has found.

A review of Trump’s rally speeches, press conferences, interviews and social media posts shows that the former president has repeatedly indicated that he would use federal law enforcement as part of a campaign to exact “retribution.”

Vice President Kamala Harris “should be impeached and prosecuted,” Trump said at a rally last month.

“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family,” Trump said last year.

“ELIZABETH LYNNE CHENEY IS GUILTY OF TREASON,” reads one post Trump reposted on his social media site, Truth Social, regarding the former Republican congresswoman. “RETRUTH IF YOU WANT TELEVISED MILITARY TRIBUNALS.”

Journalists who decline to identify the sources of leaked information would also face imprisonment, Trump said.

“If the reporter doesn't want to tell you, it's ‘bye-bye,’ the reporter goes to jail,” Trump said in 2022. He appeared to suggest that the reporter could also face sexual assault while in custody.

Trump and his allies have either downplayed these threats, or said that these actions would be justified, in part, because of the four criminal prosecutions brought against Trump since he left office. In one of those cases, a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts in connection with hush money he paid to keep an alleged affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels secret. He is appealing that verdict.

When right-wing radio host Glenn Beck asked Trump if he would lock up his opponents in a second term, Trump responded, “The answer is you have no choice because they’re doing it to us.”

Legal experts said that there are few guardrails preventing Trump from pursuing his plans to prosecute opponents and noted that Trump pressured the Department of Justice to investigate rivals during his first term. In about a dozen cases, the Justice Department followed through and initiated investigations, according to one analysis.

If Trump follows through on his stated plans in a second term, these experts said, his actions could endanger Americans’ civil liberties and cause a chilling effect on criticism of the president. The threats he’s made have already led some of his targets to prepare for the worst by saving money and considering whether to leave the country if Trump wins the election.

“This is how autocrats cement their permanent grip on power,” said Ian Bassin, the executive director of the nonprofit group Protect Democracy, which advocates for protections against authoritarianism.

Many of Trump’s threats relate to his persistent false claims about election fraud and the lie that he won the 2020 election.

“START ARRESTING THE POLL WORKERS AND WATCH HOW FAST THEY TELL YOU WHO TOLD THEM TO CHEAT,” reads a message Trump reposted on social media in 2023.

He has also repeatedly targeted the prosecutors, judges and even courtroom staff connected to the prosecutions against him for alleged election interference, improperly holding classified documents and business fraud.

New York Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron “should be arrested and punished accordingly,” Trump said at a rally in January. James successfully brought a civil fraud case against Trump, which Engoron presided over. Trump is appealing the judgment against him. He also reposted a message attacking a member of the Georgia grand jury that indicted him.

Among the other targets of Trump’s threats are former President Barack Obama (“RETRUTH IF YOU WANT PUBLIC MILITARY TRIBUNALS”), members of the U.S. Capitol Police who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot (“The cops should be charged and the protesters should be freed”), members of the Jan. 6 Select Committee in Congress (“They should be prosecuted for their lies and, quite frankly, TREASON!”), Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (“We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison”), people who criticize the Supreme Court (“These people should be put in jail, the way they talk about our judges and our justices”) and protesters who burn the American flag (“You should get a one-year jail sentence if you desecrate the American flag”).

In one instance, Trump suggested that Gen. Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in his administration, could face execution for calling officials in China to try and defuse tensions in the chaotic aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack.

“This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Milley, who retired in 2023, has since told journalist Bob Woodward that Trump is “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.”

In addition to using the powers under criminal law, Trump has also promised to take greater control of agencies like the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates broadcast television and radio, including NPR’s network of member stations.

After his presidential debate against Harris on ABC News, Trump called for the FCC to revoke ABC’s broadcast license, due to his perception of the moderators’ bias. He also called for an investigation of CBS News for campaign finance violations after it aired an interview with Vice President Harris. He’s previously floated pulling the license for NBC, as well, over criticisms of its news coverage.

“I absolutely think he will follow up on those threats,” said Stephanie Grisham, who worked for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and served as his White House press secretary. Grisham resigned in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and has since become a vocal critic of her former boss.

“I just know that once he's in office with no guardrails, no reason to worry about reelection, and only the most fervent, loyal people surrounding him,” Grisham said, “he will absolutely make sure his enemies pay for what he perceives to be their crimes.”

John Bolton, who served as national security adviser in the Trump White House, said at an event earlier this year that he believed Trump would use the Department of Justice to enact a “retribution presidency.”

In response to NPR’s reporting, the Republican National Committee issued a statement.

“Kamala Harris is the threat to democracy,” said RNC spokesperson Anna Kelly. “She and Joe Biden weaponized our justice system in order to sway an election.”

 

Supposed to be some revealing video about Trump released this weekend - but as we know it will probably just increase his vote base 🤪

[Fulham Broadway 16,920]

One of the late golf legend Arnold Palmer’s daughters calls Donald Trump’s references to her father’s genitalia “a poor choice of approaches” to honoring his memory,

“When he took the showers with other pros, they came out of there. They said, ‘Oh my God. That’s unbelievable,’” Trump said with a laugh. “I had to say. We have women that are highly sophisticated here, but they used to look at Arnold.

Was it really a big cock or just look big in trumps small hands ?

[Vesper 29,019]

Trump attacks Harris with racist stereotype, eyes ‘extreme power’ as president

An event with Latino supporters quickly swerved off topic as Trump bashed solar farms as a threat to rabbits and pushed falsehoods about electric vehicles.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/22/trump-attacks-harris-racist-stereotype-florida/

DORAL, Fla. — Republican nominee Donald Trump used a racist stereotype to attack Vice President Kamala Harris and described his desire to exercise “extreme power” as president during an event Tuesday that was billed as a summit to highlight his support among Latinos.

“I was going to hit her really hard on the trail today, but now I don’t have to, because she’s off,” Trump said of Harris, who is spending the day in Washington between campaign travel on the other days of the week. “You know why? She’s lazy as hell, and she’s got that reputation.”

Harris recorded multiple media interviews on Tuesday, according to her public schedule, after campaigning in three battleground states on Monday.

Trump’s coded language tries to undermine Harris’s qualifications based on her race and gender, said Rachel Noerdlinger, a Democratic communications strategist and senior adviser to Win With Black Women.

“Trump is reviving the old trope that Black women are unqualified for jobs historically held by White men,” she said. “Not having a campaign event while you’re in the middle of also governing isn’t ‘lazy’ — making almost 300 trips to the golf course as president is.”

Trump has bristled at being called lazy himself, particularly by Harris’s campaign as he reduced campaigning over the summer. Trump has picked up his travel schedule this month with multiple events a day, though he canceled a virtual town hall on Tuesday.

He spoke Tuesday at a roundtable with Latino leaders at his golf resort here in Florida before a few hundred Hispanic supporters. Elsewhere in his remarks, Trump brushed back at Harris’s criticism for his opposition to bipartisan legislation to increase border security funding and staffing. Trump argued that the bill was unnecessary, describing it as “phony” and “stupid,” because he could shut down the border by executive fiat.

“As president, you have tremendous — it’s called extreme power. You have extreme power,” he said. “You can, just by the fact, you say, ‘Close the border,’ and the border’s closed. That’s it. Very, very simple. You don’t need all of this nonsense that they talk about.”

The bipartisan bill, which Harris has said she would push to enact if elected, failed this year after Trump urged Republican senators to oppose the bill. After that, the Biden administration imposed sweeping restrictions on asylum via executive action that led to a significant drop in the number of illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump has previously said he wants to govern as a “dictator” on his first day in office to close the border and expand drilling for oil. He has since said he was joking, but the comments raised alarm about his authoritarian tendencies, his affection for autocrats, and the disregard for checks and balances he showed in his first term and has said he would intensify in a second.

“A second Trump term poses too big a risk for America to take,” Matt Corridoni, a Harris spokesperson, said in a statement. “An unhinged and unstable Donald Trump wants to purge the government of public servants to replace them with loyalists who will help him pursue unchecked ‘extreme power’ that he could use against his fellow Americans, whom he calls ‘the enemy from within.’”

Trump has repeatedly used the phrase “enemy from within” to describe his political opponents, sometimes specifying Democrats such as California Reps. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, and Adam Schiff, a Senate candidate. On Tuesday, Trump suggested the term could apply to whomever leaked Israeli battle plans this month, an incident the FBI said it is investigating.

The former president also described Harris as lazy in August during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, as he attacked her assignment to address the underlying causes of immigration through diplomacy with Central American countries.

“She didn’t want to do the work because she’s lazy,” he said at the time.

Spokesman Steven Cheung said Tuesday that Trump’s insult was not based on race or gender. “She is exhausted and lazy compared to the robust schedule President Trump has maintained, and has nothing to do with her race or gender,” Cheung said.

Trump reprised his attacks on Harris during a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Tuesday night, including over her identity. He falsely accused her of spending the day “sleeping” and taking another day off on Wednesday, when she is scheduled to do a town hall with CNN. The town hall is replacing the debate that Trump declined to participate in.

“This woman is a radical left lunatic who has no right even running,” he said in Greensboro. “She’s running because they want to be politically correct.”

Tuesday morning’s event was billed as a Latino summit, where Trump would take questions from Latino leaders. It quickly devolved into a roast of Harris, with speakers joining Trump in his attacks on the vice president.

Bob Unanue, CEO of Goya Foods, railed against Harris, saying she should “look in the mirror” to see the “root cause” of the country’s immigration problems. He repeatedly mispronounced her name as Que Mala, which in Spanish means “so bad.” Many in the crowd laughed and joined him in calling her “Que mala Kamala.”

Trump bashed solar farms in the desert as a “terrible” threat to rabbits, saying they are “all steel and glass and wires. It looks like hell. And you see rabbits get caught in it.” He falsely said electric-car charging stations would cost $9 trillion.

He again distorted official Homeland Security statistics on undocumented immigrants with homicide convictions, falsely claiming that the Biden administration “released” them when, in reality, the government numbers Trump is citing span decades and include people who are serving time in state and federal prisons.

He continued to lean on his anti-transgender message, going on a riff about men playing in women’s sports and vowing to end that on his first day in office. Of Democrats, he falsely claimed that “all they think about is transgender operations.”

The event wrapped up with a prayer being led for Trump. Speakers at the roundtable congregated around him as two evangelical pastors prayed for him to be protected and win the November election.

“Today, Lord, we lift up the man that we believe you put your hand upon to help restore America and bring America back to the place that honors you,” Mauricio Peña, one of the pastors, said as attendees took videos and extended their hand toward Trump in prayer.

Edited October 25 by Vesper

[robsblubot 3,529]

3 hours ago, Sir Mikel OBE said:

I agree with this, but what could she do?

 

If she comes out saying she would do so many things different, she risks offending the man who anointed her, and his fanbase. She's the nominee because, in their eyes, we wanted more of the same of Biden.

Yeah, she is/was in a bind (-en nope not going to do it 😅). Just think she did not have to say, "nope, would've done everything exactly the same." Could've have said that they could have adjusted a thing or two, you know, in hindsight.
Politics is funny too tho: there is the notion that flip-flopping on issues is a terrible thing, which is bizarre. It's like people aren't allowed to learn and/or change their minds.

Biden's point is interesting tho. Hard to say how much of the demographic wanted more of the same, some normalcy, but I think most people were upset about the inflation and they unfairly blame it on Biden. Presidents have as much control of inflation as they have of oil prices, or the weather (for MAGA readers, the last one is still *none* 😆).

 

Edited October 25 by robsblubot

[Vesper 29,019]

Trump signals support in call with Netanyahu: ‘Do what you have to do’

Trump offers Israel his backing in wars with Hamas and Hezbollah even as his campaign seeks Arab American votes.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/25/trump-netanyahu-support-gaza-lebanon/

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump expressed support for Israel’s offensives against Hamas and Hezbollah in a recent call with the country’s prime minister — a position that could complicate his campaign’s outreach to Arab Americans claiming he opposes the war.

Trump told Benjamin Netanyahu in one call this month, “Do what you have to do,” according to six people familiar with the conversation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive and confidential information. Trump has said publicly that the two have spoken at least twice in October, with one call as recently as Oct. 19.

“He didn’t tell him what to do militarily, but he expressed that he was impressed by the pagers,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), who was on a call this month with Trump and Netanyahu, referring to the Israeli operation that killed Hezbollah leaders with explosive batteries inside pagers. “He expressed his awe for their military operations and what they have done.”

Graham added: “He told them, do what you have to do to defend yourself, but we’re openly talking about a new Mideast. Trump understands that very much there has to be change with the corrupt Palestinian state.”

An adviser to Netanyahu declined to comment.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said: “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, there was historic peace in the Middle East. Now, all of the progress made by President Trump in the region has been broken by the Harris-Biden Administration’s weakness and America Last policies. When President Trump is back in the Oval Office, he will fix the mess Kamala and Biden’s policies created. Israel will once again be protected, Iran will go back to being broke, terrorists will be hunted down, and the bloodshed will end.”

Trump has tried to court both Jewish and Muslim voters with at times contradictory positions on the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. He portrays himself as an unrivaled friend to Israel in front of Jewish audiences, while surrogates appeal to Arab communities by saying Trump supports peace and opposes the war.

Netanyahu, for his part, has spent years cultivating Republicans and has shown a clear preference for Trump in this election. People familiar with the situation said he is trying to regain Trump’s favor after antagonizing him by congratulating President Joe Biden on winning the 2020 election, a victory Trump has never accepted.

Trump’s message strays from the Biden administration’s painstaking efforts to persuade Israel to avoid escalating the conflict with Iran. U.S. officials are comfortable with Israel hitting Iranian military sites but want to avoid the targeting of oil, gas and nuclear infrastructure, which could upend the global economy amid Iranian threats to retaliate against Western energy interests.

Following consultations with Israeli officials, the Biden administration expects Israel to strike Iran sometime after Secretary of State Antony Blinken leaves the region, said two senior U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military matter. The top U.S. diplomat recently met with officials in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, where he departed Thursday for additional meetings in London.

Foreign governments regularly communicate with both major-party nominees and their representatives leading up to an election as they try to assess the potential impact on their national interests. Candidates have faced criticism in the past for venturing into foreign relations while not holding government office.

During the 1968 campaign, Republican Richard M. Nixon secretly worked to undermine the Johnson administration’s peace talks in Vietnam — efforts not revealed until decades later. Some U.S. officials have accused Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign of making a secret deal with Iran to wait to release American hostages until after the election. Two congressional inquiries found insufficient evidence to support the claim.

In private, Trump has expressed hostility to Iran because the country’s security forces hacked his campaign, according to the Justice Department, and the former president believes that Tehran is seeking to kill him in retaliation for the 2020 U.S. strike that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.

Trump asked U.S. intelligence officials briefing him on the threat whether Iran was involved in the two assassination attempts against him in July and September, and several of Trump’s advisers have become convinced of an Iranian connection. There is no evidence tying Iran to either of the assassination attempts, but the FBI has not ruled out the possibility of a connection, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal sensitive discussions.

Trump has emphasized international conflict and volatility, especially in Israel and Ukraine, to criticize Biden’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’s global leadership.

His campaign also is betting on appealing to American Jews, especially in the pivotal swing state of Pennsylvania, by emphasizing Israel and antisemitism. Without evidence, Trump accuses Harris, who is married to a Jewish man, of hating Israel and Jews, and he warns of the state’s total destruction if she wins. He has also criticized American Jews — who for years have strongly supported Democrats over Republicans — sometimes in terms that many view as playing on antisemitic tropes.

“The Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss,” Trump said at campaign event in September. “It’s only because of the Democrat hold, or curse, on you.”

Trump has pledged if elected to reimpose his ban on travel from some Muslim-majority countries and to revoke student visas from participants in pro-Palestinian protests. He has repeatedly crowed about relocating the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv; moving to normalize relations between Israel and some Arab states through the Abraham Accords; and recognizing the Golan Heights as part of Israel. “What’s that worth, $2 trillion?” he has asked donors. “And I did it in five minutes.”

Israel, he told the donors, will “be finished” if he isn’t reelected. “I actually believe that,” he said.

At a fundraiser this year, Trump repeatedly assured donors that he would be solidly behind Israel and would throw campus protesters out of the country. “Maybe you have to go further than that,” he said.

“We’re going to set that movement back 25 or 30 years,” he said.

At the same fundraiser, he said that Netanyahu “has got to be able to finish it. It’s a sick deal. And I’m one of the only people that says that now.”

Trump has made similar comments publicly. Speaking to reporters in Detroit on Oct. 18, he criticized Biden by saying the president was trying to restrain Netanyahu.

“He’s trying to hold him back, and he probably should be doing the opposite, actually,” Trump said. “I’m glad that [Netanyahu] decided to do what he had to do, but it’s moving along pretty good.”

At the same time, Trump and his allies have been courting Arab American voters in states such as Michigan, at events with surrogates including Graham, former acting intelligence chief Ric Grenell and Massad Boulos, a Lebanese businessman whose son is married to Trump’s daughter Tiffany. This month Trump met with Sheikh Belal Alzuhairy of the Islamic Center of Detroit and Sheikh Saleh Ibrahim of the Iman Islamic Complex, a Yemeni American congregation in the same city.

Boulos has been particularly active, four people in the region say.

A pro-Trump super PAC called Future Coalition PAC has been placing contradictory ads targeting Arab voters in Michigan and Jewish voters in Pennsylvania. The group’s digital ads in Michigan portray Harris as taking Israel’s side against pro-Palestinian protesters. In Pennsylvania, on the other hand, the group’s ads question her support for Israel and accuse her of “pandering to Palestine.”

The goal of the Trump campaign in Michigan, a campaign adviser said, is to persuade voters in heavily Muslim areas like Dearborn not to vote for the Democratic ticket, even if they are not willing to cast a ballot for Trump. In September, Trump received the endorsement of Amer Ghalib, a Yemeni immigrant who serves as the mayor of Hamtramck, Mich., home to a large Muslim population. He also won the backing of Yemerican PAC, the Yemeni American Political Action Committee of Hamtramck & Detroit, and Dearborn, Mich., community leader Samraa Luqman.

Graham was in Michigan on Wednesday pitching Trump to Muslim voters, he said. “I told the Arab Americans here today in Michigan, your homelands — whether it be Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan — the best hope for your homelands to live free from Iranian aggression is with Trump.”

Even some of Trump’s critics suggest that he has made serious inroads among Arab Americans while supporting Netanyahu.

“Because the situation has escalated in recent weeks, I think a lot people say what’s the difference?” said Warren David, a third-generation Arab American who is president of Arab America, a digital media platform. “ I am shocked at how many people say they are voting for Trump, when we were talking to people on the streets in bakeries and in different places. Trump is really capitalizing on this.”

David said he was approached by a Trump surrogate to appear at his conference in Michigan this weekend and said no. Others — including leaders from the “uncommitted” movement who urged votes against Biden in the Democratic primary race — are appearing, he said.

“He instituted the Muslim ban, he made Jerusalem the capital of Israel, he gave the Golan Heights away. There is your heart, and people are mad. And there is your logic. People aren’t voting strategically,” David said.

Meanwhile, top Harris campaign officials are blanketing Michigan this weekend, according to activists, along with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California).

“We just have to really remind people about Donald Trump’s real record and how he treats the Arab American community, and remind people of the Muslim ban, that he wants to start internment camps,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Michigan).

[Vesper 29,019]

Elon Musk’s Secret Conversations With Vladimir Putin

Regular contacts between world’s richest man and America’s chief antagonist raise security concerns; topics include geopolitics, business and personal matters

https://www.wsj.com/world/russia/musk-putin-secret-conversations-37e1c187

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a linchpin of U.S. space efforts, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022.

 

The discussions, confirmed by several current and former U.S., European and Russian officials, touch on personal topics, business and geopolitical tensions.

 

At one point, Putin asked the billionaire to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, said two people briefed on the request.

 

Musk has emerged this year as a crucial supporter of Donald Trump’s election campaign, and could find a role in a Trump administration should he win.

 

While the U.S. and its allies have isolated Putin in recent years, Musk’s dialogue could signal re-engagement with the Russian leader, and reinforce Trump’s expressed desire to cut a deal over major fault lines such as the war in Ukraine. 

 

At the same time, the contacts also raise potential national-security concerns among some in the current administration, given Putin’s role as one of America’s chief adversaries. 

 

Musk has forged deep business ties with U.S. military and intelligence agencies, giving him unique visibility into some of America’s most sensitive space programs.

 

SpaceX, which operates the Starlink service, won a $1.8 billion classified contract in 2021 and is the primary rocket launcher for the Pentagon and NASA.

 

Musk has a security clearance that allows him access to certain classified information.

 

 

Knowledge of Musk’s Kremlin contacts appears to be a closely held secret in government.

 

Several White House officials said they weren’t aware of them.

 

The topic is highly sensitive, given Musk’s increasing involvement in the Trump campaign and the approaching U.S. presidential election, less than two weeks away. 

 

Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment.

 

The billionaire has called criticism from some quarters that he has become an apologist for Putin “absurd” and has said his companies “have done more to undermine Russia than anything.”

 

During his campaign swing through Pennsylvania last week, Musk talked about the importance of government transparency and noted his own access to government secrets.

 

“I do have a top-secret clearance, but, I’d have to say, like most of the stuff that I’m aware of…the reason they keep it top secret is because it’s so boring.”

 

A Pentagon spokesman said: “We do not comment on any individual’s security clearance, review or status, or about personnel security policy matters in the context of reports about any individual’s actions.”

 

One person aware of the conversations said the government faces a dilemma because it is so dependent on the billionaire’s technologies.

 

SpaceX launches vital national security satellites into orbit and is the company NASA relies on to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station. 

 

“They don’t love it,” the person said, referring to the Musk-Putin contacts.

 

The person, however, said no alerts have been raised by the administration over possible security breaches by Musk.

 

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the only communication the Kremlin has had with Musk was over one telephone call in which he and Putin discussed “space as well as current and future technologies.” 

 

Apart from that, he said neither Putin nor Kremlin officials were holding regular conversations with Musk.

 

A spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign called Musk “a once-in-a-generation industry leader” and said “our broken federal bureaucracy could certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency.”

 

“As for Putin,” the spokeswoman continued, “there’s only one candidate in the race that he did not invade another country under, and it’s President Trump. 

 

President Trump has long said that he will re-establish his peace through strength foreign policy to deter Russia’s aggression and end the war in Ukraine.”

 

 

A bottle of vodka

 

Musk has long had a fascination with Russia and its space and rocket programs.

 

Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk said the businessman traveled to Moscow in 2002 to negotiate the purchase of rockets for his fledgling space program, but passed out during a vodka-heavy lunch.

 

The sale ultimately failed, though his Russian hosts gave Musk a bottle of vodka with his likeness superimposed on a drawing of Mars.

 

The billionaire’s conversations with Putin and Kremlin officials highlight his increasing inclination to stretch beyond business and into geopolitics.

 

He has met several times and talked business with Javier Milei of Argentina, as well as former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, whom he defended in an acrimonious online debate. 

 

Putin is on a different order of magnitude.

 

The Russian leader has created an authoritarian system that oversees fraudulent elections and the assassinations of political opponents, for which President Biden called him a “killer.”

 

With keys to one of the world’s most powerful nuclear arsenals and growing territorial ambitions in Europe, Putin has become the U.S.’s chief antagonist.

 

Labeling him a “despot,” the Treasury Department took the unusual step in 2022 of blacklisting him for invading Ukraine, putting him in the same company with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus. 

 

 

In October 2022, Musk said publicly that he had spoken only once to Putin.

 

He said on X that the conversation was about space, and that it occurred around April 2021. 

 

But more conversations have followed, including dialogues with other high-ranking Russian officials past 2022 and into this year.

 

One of the officials was Sergei Kiriyenko, Putin’s first deputy chief of staff, two of the officials said. What the two talked about isn’t clear.

 

Last month, the U.S. Justice Department said in an affidavit that Kiriyenko had created some 30 internet domains to spread Russian disinformation, including on Musk’s X, where it was meant to erode support for Ukraine and manipulate American voters ahead of the presidential election. 

 

After the Russian invasion in February 2022, Musk at first made strong public statements of support for Kyiv.

 

He posted “Hold Strong Ukraine,” flanked by Ukrainian flags on what was then still known as Twitter.

 

Shortly after, he jokingly challenged Putin to one-on-one combat over “Україна,” the Ukrainian language name for the country.

 

He followed up by donating several hundred Starlink terminals to Ukraine.

 

By July some 15,000 terminals were providing free internet access to broad swaths of the country destroyed by the Russian attacks.

 

Later that year, Musk’s view of the conflict appeared to change.

 

In September, Ukrainian military operatives weren’t able to use Starlink terminals to guide sea drones to attack a Russian naval base in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow had occupied since 2014.

 

Ukraine tried to persuade Musk to activate the Starlink service in the area, but that didn’t happen, the Journal has reported.

 

His space company extended restrictions on the use of Starlink in offensive operations by Ukraine.

 

Musk said later that he made the move because Starlink is meant for civilian uses and that he believed any Ukrainian attack on Crimea could spark a nuclear war.

 

 

His moves coincided with public and private pressure from the Kremlin.

 

In May 2022, Russia’s space chief said in a post on Telegram that Musk would “answer like an adult” for supplying Starlink to Ukraine’s Azov battalion, which the Kremlin had singled out for the ultraright ideology espoused by some members.

 

Later in 2022, Musk was having regular conversations with “high-level Russians,” according to a person familiar with the interactions.

 

At the time, there was pressure from the Kremlin on Musk’s businesses and “implicit threats against him,” the person said. 

 

At the same time, Musk increasingly took to Twitter, for which he was completing the purchase, to say SpaceX was losing money by funding the operation of the terminals.  

 

In October 2022, he asked his tens of millions of followers on X to vote on a pathway to peace that mirrored some aspects of the Kremlin’s offer to Ukraine at the time.

 

Those conditions included continued Russian occupation of Crimea and Ukrainian neutrality outside of NATO.

 

He also specified that Ukraine should continue allowing the supply of water to Crimea, an issue that had been an important concern of the Kremlin before the war.

 

One current and one former intelligence source said that Musk and Putin have continued to have contact since then and into this year as Musk began stepping up his criticism of the U.S. military aid to Ukraine and became involved in Trump’s election campaign.

 

 

‘Red lines’

 

In the fall of 2022, political scientist Ian Bremmer, founder of New York-based consulting firm Eurasia Group, wrote on Twitter that Musk had told him he had spoken with Putin and Kremlin officials about Ukraine.

 

“He also told me what the Kremlin’s red lines were,” he wrote.

 

Bremmer wrote in a newsletter to subscribers that Musk had relayed to him a message from Putin that Russia would secure Crimea and Ukrainian neutrality “no matter what,” and that it would respond to a Ukrainian invasion of Crimea with a nuclear strike.

 

Musk said that “everything needed to be done to avoid that outcome,” Bremmer wrote.

 

Musk has publicly denied he said any of those things to Bremmer.

 

In the past year, Musk and Russia’s interests have increasingly overlapped.

 

Apart from Russia’s use of X for disinformation and Musk’s outspoken opposition to aid to Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said earlier this year that Russian forces occupying the country’s eastern and southern swaths had started using Starlink to enable secure communications and extend the range of their drones. 

 

Russian troops also began using Starlink terminals, brought in through third countries, at a massive scale, undermining one of Ukraine’s few battlefield advantages.

 

Musk has said on X that to the best of his knowledge, no terminals had been sold directly or indirectly to Russia, and that the terminals wouldn’t work inside Russia. 

 

Pentagon officials have said the military was working with Ukraine and Starlink to address the issue, and described SpaceX as a great partner in those efforts.

 

People familiar with the situation have said controlling who is using Starlink in Ukraine is difficult. 

 

Starlink has said on X that when SpaceX learns of claims that unauthorized parties are using the service, it investigates and can cut off access.

 

Earlier this year, Musk gave airtime to Putin and his views on the U.S. and Ukraine when X carried Tucker Carlson’s two-hour interview with the Russian leader inside the Kremlin.

 

In that interview, Putin said he was sure Musk “was a smart person.”

 

 

“There’s no stopping Elon Musk, he’s going to do what he thinks he needs to do,” Putin said.

 

“You need to find some common ground with him, you need to search for some ways to persuade him.”

 

Late last year, the Kremlin first made the request of Musk to not activate Starlink over Taiwan, said a former Russian intelligence officer briefed on the situation.

 

The request was done as a favor to China, he said, whom Russia was increasingly relying on for trade and to get around sanctions.

 

A representative of the Chinese embassy in Washington said they weren’t aware of the specifics and couldn’t comment. 

 

Starlink has never secured permission to offer internet service in Taiwan, whose government places restrictions on non-Taiwanese satellite operators. 

 

Taiwan is currently listed as “coming soon” on a Starlink map of where it provides service. 

 

As the year progressed, Musk became more preoccupied with the presidential election.

 

Through the first months of the year, Musk said he would refrain from backing any presidential candidate while at the same time holding private conversations discussing how he could get Trump elected. Musk publicly endorsed him in July.

 

The businessman said he planned to commit as much as $45 million a month to a new super political-action committee in part to get it done, according to people familiar with the matter.

 

The effort included hiring armies of canvassers to scour battleground states for voters.

 

Since then, Trump has said he intends to make Musk the head of a “government efficiency commission.”

 

The two speak often.

Edited October 25 by Vesper

[Fulham Broadway 16,920]

 

[Vesper 29,019]

 Democracy Dies in Darkness

 

Ann Telnaes cartoon on The Washington Post not endorsing a presidential candidate.

 

 

 

[Vesper 29,019]

Some of Trump’s most senior former advisers warn he could deploy troops against Americans

“It’s not the American way,” said his former chief of staff, John Kelly.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2024/10/24/trump-military-president-election

As protests swept the nation after the murder of George Floyd and some rioting broke out in Washington, President Donald Trump demanded in a White House meeting in June 2020 that 10,000 troops deploy to the capital, according to people familiar with the matter. The number, one of them said, seemingly was “pulled out of thin air” as he sought to counter any perception that he was weak.

The incident prompted a study in which Pentagon officials and others in the Trump administration reviewed how to address the president’s demand. They came back with a proposal to supplement federal police already based in Washington with a few thousand National Guard members; a battalion from the 82nd Airborne Division that could be summoned on short notice from North Carolina; and several hundred soldiers with the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, a unit at nearby Fort Myer whose role is mostly ceremonial at Arlington National Cemetery.

But Trump never gave the final order to put active-duty soldiers in the streets.

“He wanted to do it. He was suggestive of it,” said one person familiar with that matter who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. “But that’s also kind of typical of his decision-making. He knows that if he gives the order, he owns it.”

The active-duty troops got as close to Washington as nearby Fort Belvoir, Va., and other installations on the outskirts of the city. It was not the only time that Trump, as president, wanted to deploy the armed forces within the United States against the advice of civilian and military leaders. He also sent active-duty troops to bolster security at the southern border and sought military hardware for a ceremonial parade down Pennsylvania Avenue that ultimately became mostly an air show.

Now, with less than two weeks until Election Day, some of Trump’s most senior former advisers are warning Americans to take his militaristic impulses seriously. His longest-serving chief of staff, John Kelly, told the New York Times that he feels Trump meets the definition of “fascist,” expected personal loyalty from military leaders and spoke admiringly of Adolf Hitler.

“To use the U.S. military in terms of domestic law enforcement, it’s not the American way,” Kelly said in an interview with The Washington Post. “The fear is he will tell them to do something illegal, and that’s a really bad thing to do. And then you have generals resigning. And very possibly within the ranks, you have people refusing to do it. These guys are going to follow the law.”

In running to retake the White House, Trump has named his unfulfilled demands to deploy the military against civil unrest as one of his top regrets — and one he aims not to repeat. His allies have laid plans for him to do so by invoking emergency authority under the Insurrection Act of 1807.

“The next time, I’m not waiting,” he said at a March 13, 2023, campaign speech in Davenport, Iowa. In a Fox News interview Oct. 13, he said the military could handle his domestic political opponents such as congressional Democrats and election protesters, whom he deemed “the enemy from within.”

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday that she agreed with Kelly’s assessment of Trump as a fascist, and she picked up Kelly’s remarks to emphasize her campaign’s closing message portraying the former president as unstable and dangerous.

“This is a window into who Donald Trump really is, from the people who know him best, from the people who worked with him side-by-side in the Oval Office, and in the Situation Room,” she told reporters. “In a second term, people like John Kelly would not be there to be the guardrails against his propensities and his actions. Those who once tried to stop him from pursuing his worst impulses would no longer be there.”

The Trump campaign denied Kelly’s account. Some allies have cast doubt on Kelly’s recollection and taken exception to references to Hitler. Trump denied praising Hitler in remarks to reporters in Las Vegas on Thursday and walked away from a question about whether he would use the military against political opponents.

Trump and his former national security adviser, Keith Kellogg, who has remained close to him, accused Kelly of lying in social media posts.

“They can speak up, but the criticism to me doesn’t match the reality of what happened during Trump’s period,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said in an interview. “I’m sort of offended by that kind of stuff — you can be a critic of Trump, but there were no concentration camps.”

As president, Trump often sought to use military force in a bid to crack down on perceived problems. His advisers headed off many of those efforts, as they questioned the legality, common sense or political fallout of doing so, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Trump’s walk to St. John’s Church across Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020, caused outcry because of the use of force on protesters just before it and because Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Gen. Mark A. Milley, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were photographed with him in the square. Esper later recalled in his memoir, “A Sacred Oath,” feeling like he had been duped, while Milley apologized, saying appearing in battle fatigues during such a partisan moment was “a mistake that I have learned from.”

A person close to both men said they began seeing Trump in darker terms after that incident and faced significant criticism from others in the military. Neither repaired their relationship with him.

Esper, asked about those deliberations Wednesday, referred a reporter to the account in his book. In it, he said he wanted to get the active-duty soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division back to their home base in North Carolina “as quickly as possible.”

“At this point, even if we were wrong and violence spiked in the city, I didn’t want active-duty forces quickly available to the president,” Esper wrote. “We had managed to keep them out of the District so far. Guard forces were now flowing into D.C. in healthy numbers, so I decided to send all active-duty units home. I didn’t inform the White House about these decisions either. I couldn’t trust they wouldn’t reverse my decision.”

He also recounted Trump being incensed by the defense secretary telling reporters during a news conference that he did not support using the Insurrection Act to quell the unrest. Trump, he wrote, “launched into a tirade” when he saw him next and accused Esper of betrayal.

Esper and Milley objected to Trump’s interest in using the Insurrection Act, saying the military should not be used except as a last resort or facing an actual uprising, according to a memoir by Trump’s attorney general at the time, William P. Barr. Barr said he agreed that the emergency authority was not necessary, and Trump decided to place Barr in charge of the federal response, with the Pentagon’s support, rather than assigning Milley to deal with the unrest.

Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, Gen. Gustave Perna and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley at the White House in May 2020. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

“He appeared to want the military to play the lead role in reacting to the rioting,” Barr wrote. (Barr has said he’ll support the Republican nominee.)

Former administration officials said Trump wanted to send military to cities where he believed crime was out of control as well as to the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump did send active-duty troops to the border, but they were mostly limited to stringing razor wire in support of law enforcement.

“Let’s just send the troops in to catch them!” Trump said in one Oval Office meeting in 2018, according to an attendee.

Kelly and others have raised concerns that Trump would want the military to help him round up undocumented immigrants. Trump adviser Stephen Miller has proposed detaining migrants on military bases and flying them out of the country on military planes — ideas that Pentagon officials resisted in Trump’s first term. Miller has also suggested ordering National Guard troops from Republican-led states into neighboring states governed by Democrats.

“The idea of using the military to protect the border was on his own mind,” said John Bolton, his former national security adviser.

In a second term, Trump has laid the groundwork for sending more troops to the border, frequently calling undocumented immigration an “invasion.” The Center for Renewing America, a right-wing think tank that participated in the Project 2025 coalition proposing policy and personnel for the next Republican administration, published a policy brief in July presenting a legal argument for deploying troops to the border.

The organization’s president, former Trump budget director Russ Vought, said the same legal argument could apply to deploying the military for domestic law and order, according to an undercover video made by British journalists pretending to be donors.

The group also discussed planning for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office, according to a person involved in those conversations and internal communications, as The Post first reported in November.

A spokeswoman for the Center for Renewing America did not respond to a request for comment.

“It’s very rare to actually put troops in the street. For Trump, that would be the first thing he would think of doing, instead of going through the traditional pattern,” Bolton said.

A member of the military at the Lincoln Memorial as protesters gather in June 2020. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Trump frequently talked to aides about how frustrated he was with the Defense Department during his first term in office, several current advisers said. He has privately said he would view the Pentagon and the Justice Department as his two most important staffing priorities, these people said.

He also clashed with Pentagon officials about the role of the National Guard, as they raised alarm about deploying in some domestic situations, and frustrated them by floating the Insurrection Act.

Trump would complain sometimes about how “no one at the Pentagon would do what they’re told to do,” in the words of one former senior administration official.

Bolton said Trump began his administration by calling military leaders “my generals,” but then would laugh at the term sarcastically, because they were so resistant to his impulses.

“Trump wants generals who are going to perform at his beck and call,” said Charles Kupperman, a former deputy national security adviser for Trump.

Trump’s past actions and recent rhetoric have prompted some critics to demand that senior officials who served during the Trump administration speak out more forcefully against the former president.

In a viral video posted Wednesday, retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton said that to break through pro-Trump disinformation, retired generals such as Milley and Jim Mattis, who served in the Marine Corps and then as Trump’s defense secretary, need to “get out and state publicly” that they believe Trump is a fascist, after privately doing so in accounts that author and Post associate editor Bob Woodward recently recounted.

“We need those two men, who swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies of the United States foreign and domestic, to come out and state exactly how they feel about former president Trump,” said Eaton, who’s now the head of the liberal veterans group VoteVets.

Mattis and Milley did not respond to requests for comment.

Experts on civil-military affairs have raised reservations about how political activists have sought to capitalize on and pressure retired generals, who have often adhered to a norm that they will not criticize a commander in chief under whom they served.

Peter Feaver, a political scientist at Duke University, said Kelly and Mattis — as retired generals who went on to be political appointees — have more room to navigate than Milley and retired Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., another Joint Chiefs chairman under Trump.

“They have to be careful and weigh what they do now against the possible damage or impact that it would have on future military leaders who could serve in a Trump administration,” Feaver said. “The more political they are, the more that Trump will distrust everyone who worked with them.”

Edited October 26 by Vesper

[Vesper 29,019]

Trump calls U.S. ‘a garbage can for the world’ at insult-fueled rally, compares undocumented migrants to trash

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/24/trump-arizona-immigrants-garbage-can-trash-rally/

TEMPE, Ariz. — Former president Donald Trump painted a dark picture of the United States under the Biden administration at a campaign rally here Thursday, comparing the country to “a garbage can for the world” because of illegal border crossings.

“First time I’ve ever said ‘garbage can,’” Trump said. “But you know what? It’s a very accurate description.”

The remark was a new rendition of a common refrain for Trump, who has repeatedly used dehumanizing language when talking about immigrants, accusing them of “poisoning the blood of our country” and spreading falsehoods that some were eating people’s pets. He spent much of his insult-laced rally decrying a border “invasion” that he blamed on Vice President Kamala Harris. For roughly an hour, the Republican presidential nominee interwove attacks on illegal immigration and invective aimed at Harris — the Democratic nominee — other Democratic politicians and journalists.

In Trump’s words, Harris’s “gross incompetence” at controlling illegal immigration disqualifies her from the presidency. Trump also called President Joe Biden “a stupid fool” and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) “crazy as a bedbug.”Following

The former president slammed California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) as “the worst” and accused Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) of being too “petrified” to deal with migrant-fueled gang violence. This month, Trump promoted false claims that a Venezuelan gang had taken over an apartment complex in a Denver suburb.

Despite Trump’s tendency to link migrants and crime during his rallies, there is evidence that immigrants — documented or undocumented — tend to be more law-abiding than people born in the United States. Crime, including homicides and assaults, is also falling nationwide.

Trump repeated many of the same insults and attacks at a separate rally in Las Vegas, where he projected confidence that he’s “leading by a lot” in several swing states, despite polling showing razor-thin margins. He added that he’s “not allowed to say” that he’s way ahead and said he expects to be declared the winner on Nov. 5, despite the possibility that the result will not be clear that night.

“Pretend it’s close,” Trump said. “Everybody has to.”

With less than two weeks until Election Day, Trump’s negative messaging in Tempe and Las Vegas may linger in voters’ minds. The events are likely to be among his final pre-election appearances in the two swing states that are also key to determining control of Congress. Trump has been pitching himself as the only person who can clean up the messes made by Democrats — and he has vowed retribution against those who have crossed him.

That category, in Trump’s mind, includes journalists, whom he characterized Thursday as “the enemy of the people,” a return to a phrase he has used since his 2016 campaign. Trump said he hopes that “someday they’re not going to be the enemy” and added that some reporters are good people.

“We have to free them from the left,” Trump said of those journalists.

The former president has recently faced criticism for labeling fellow Americans as enemies. In an interview with Fox News that aired Sunday, he called Pelosi and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California) examples of “the enemy from within.” Former White House chief of staff John F. Kelly recently told the New York Times that he was compelled to speak out against his former boss, in part because he was alarmed by Trump’s comments about using the military against the “enemy within.”

The Harris campaign took aim at Trump’s remarks about journalists in Tempe, calling them “a clear sign that Trump is not backing away from his dangerous rhetoric in the wake of the bombshell interview” from Kelly.

“General Kelly joins a chorus of former Trump officials — his former Secretary of Defense, his former top General, and multiple former National Security Advisors — warning that a second Trump term in which he’s surrounded by loyalists and yes-men is a risk America can’t afford,” Harris’s campaign said in a statement.

As he often does, Trump riffed and rambled during the rallies. At one point in Las Vegas, he repeated a story about using tariffs to stop an auto plant from being built outside the United States that he had recounted just 10 minutes earlier.

During the Tempe rally, which was held at Arizona State University, Trump denounced the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and lamented that “nobody ever mentions” the 13 U.S. service members killed and others injured in a terrorist attack on the withdrawal’s last day.

“I mention them all the time because they are sitting at home right now,” Trump said. “They’re suffering, and it should have never, ever happened.”

Trump has previously spoken dismissively of service members. Confirming previous reporting, Kelly told CNN in October 2023 that Trump had said military members who were seriously hurt or tortured as prisoners of war were “suckers.” Those killed in combat, Trump said, were “losers,” according to Kelly.

On Thursday, Trump also criticized Biden after he said of Trump this week, “We’ve got to lock him up.”

“He’s not allowed to say that,” Trump said. “He’s such a stupid guy. He’s such a stupid fool.”

Shortly after his pronouncement about locking up Trump, who was convicted in May of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments, Biden said he meant “politically lock him up.”

Trump’s comments about undocumented immigrants on Thursday largely focused on those who commit crimes. He described, in graphic terms, the 2016 killings of two high school girls on Long Island by members of the gang MS-13.

“We got to get these animals out of here fast, and we’re going to be heroes,” Trump said.

A few hours later, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), struck a more nuanced note on the issue. He said in an interview with NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo that he wanted to emphasize that he does “not think that all, or most, illegal immigrants are violent criminals.”

The races in Arizona and Nevada look to be extremely close. Trump leads in Arizona by two percentage points, while Harris leads in Nevada by less than one percentage point, according to The Washington Post’s polling average. Trump lost Arizona to Biden in 2020 by just more than 10,000 votes, and voters in 2022 chose a Democrat for governor after 14 years of Republican leadership. Biden also won Nevada in 2020 by 2.4 percent.

Trump’s confidence that he’s leading polls, despite the close margins, could fuel a false narrative that the election was rigged — and in turn, promote violence — if he loses the race. In 2020, he tried to overturn the election result and incited a horde of people to storm the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying the outcome. This year, Trump has campaigned with a sense of bravado, while Harris’s team has framed her as an underdog.

Between Thursday’s events, Trump made an additional, unannounced appearance. He called into Vance’s NewsNation interview to ask his running mate a question: “How brilliant,” he asked, “is Donald J. Trump?”

Vance, who was sharply critical of Trump before he was selected to be his running mate, laughed.

“Sir, of course, you’re very brilliant,” he said. “And we both agree — we both agree that it’s important to have very smart people running our government.”

Edited October 26 by Vesper