“We don’t have time to retaliate,” Trump said at a town hall in Iowa.
Donald Trump has made the idea of ”retaliation” a centerpiece of his 2024 White House campaign, with rally after rally calling on his supporters to do everything in his power to defeat his political opponents. He said he intends to pursue those who are involved.
The rhetoric has raised alarm among critics that a second term for President Trump could spark a wave of authoritarian retaliation.
But on Wednesday night, President Trump reversed the message he had spent nearly a year promoting about the stump.
During a town hall with Fox News in Iowa, where Republican opponents exchanged attacks on stage at Drake University, President Trump said he was sitting with the network’s Bret Baier and Martha McCollum, saying, “It’s time to retaliate.” Probably not,” he said.
“We’re going to make this country successful again. There’s no time for retaliation,” Trump said. “And remember this: our ultimate reward is success.”
Still, he began by arguing that “many people” would argue that retaliatory activity is “not that bad” or even “normal.”
“Look what they did,” Trump said, repeating his complaints about past investigations against him and the 2020 election.
The former president’s theme of retribution has its roots in old Confederate norms, ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl reported, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in early March of last year. surfaced for the first time.
“In 2016, I proclaimed I was your voice. Today I add: I am your warrior. I am your righteousness, your voice for the wronged and betrayed. , I am your retribution,” he told the crowd.
Weeks later, at an event billed as his first campaign rally of 2024, President Trump spent much of his 90-minute speech defending the January 6 rioters he believed had harmed or betrayed him. He repeated these words while expressing his dissatisfaction with the people. The rally was held in Waco, Texas, a location notorious for deadly confrontations between religious sects and federal law enforcement.
“After this election, I will be president of the United States. You will be vindicated and proud, and the thugs and criminals who are corrupting our justice system will be proud,” he said at the march. He will be defeated, discredited and completely humiliated.” 25 events.
The former president has proposed annihilating the so-called “deep state” by expanding presidential powers and firing career officials he claims are promoting his political agenda. He has threatened to call for defunding or dismantling the Justice Department and FBI, or directing them to go after “radical” prosecutors across the country.
President Joe Biden used his first campaign campaign of the new year to portray Trump as a threat to democracy over his rhetoric.
“President Trump is not worried about your future, I promise you,” Biden said last week in a speech commemorating the three-year anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“President Trump is now pledging to use his words for years to come in a full-scale campaign of revenge and retribution,” Biden said, adding, “Those are his words, not mine.” Told. He went on to say that he would be a dictator from day one. I mean, if I were writing a fiction book and the president of the United States said something like that, and I wasn’t kidding… it’s really hard to believe. ”
