With just three weeks until Election Day, former President Donald J. Trump has brought to the forefront of his campaign a menacing political threat to use the power of the presidency to crack down on those who oppose him. are.
In a Fox News interview on Sunday, Trump characterized Democrats as a virulent “enemy from within” who could cause chaos on Election Day and speculated that the National Guard might have to respond.
The next day, he ended his speech to a crowd at what was described as Pennsylvania’s town hall with a harsh message for his political opponents.
“They are very bad and frankly evil,” Trump said. “They’re evil. What they’ve done, what they’ve weaponized, what they’ve weaponized is our election. They’ve done something that no one even thought was possible.”
And on Tuesday, he again refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power when pressed by an interviewer at a Chicago economic forum.
With early voting underway in key battleground states, the race for the White House is heading into Election Day in an unusual and solemn manner. Trump has not accepted the results of the 2020 election, rejected conspiracy theories of massive voter fraud and accusations that the judicial system has been weaponized, even though he has not publicly endorsed them. It has long indulged in anti-democratic tendencies. he. He praised leaders such as Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as authoritarian strongmen.
But never before has a presidential candidate, let alone a former president, publicly suggested that he would deploy the military against Americans simply because they opposed his candidacy. With escalating threats of political retaliation, Mr. Trump is offering voters the choice of a very different and far less democratic form of American government.
Ian Bassin, who served as White House deputy general counsel under President Barack Obama, said: “At no time in American history have presidential candidates promised to retaliate against anyone they deem not to support them on the campaign trail.” There has never been a candidate for office.” Obama heads the advocacy group Protect Democracy. “This is fundamentally outrageous beyond anything this country has ever done, and it’s hard to explain how crazy it is.”
As they move into their final arguments before voters, Trump and Harris are focusing most of their attention on debates over issues that remain top of mind for voters, including the economy, abortion rights, housing costs and U.S. involvement in China. . A war that disrupts Ukraine and the Middle East. For most voters, views of Trump remain deeply entrenched, and the race remains close.
But the Harris campaign sees new political opportunities in Trump’s recent attacks on democratic principles, especially among moderate Republicans and independents who don’t support the former president’s personality and polarizing style. are.
In an unusual move Monday night, while Trump spoke, Harris stood at a stadium on the other side of Pennsylvania and played a lengthy video montage of Trump vowing to hunt down those who oppose him. measures were taken. It also included his recent comments about possible military action against the “enemy within.”
“What he’s talking about is that he considers anyone who doesn’t support him or doesn’t want to do his will to be an enemy of our country,” she told a crowd at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania. He spoke to 1,000 supporters. The military will pursue them. ”
Ms. Harris’ full-throated attack on Mr. Trump is a notable break from previous efforts to reduce him to a relic of the past. Trump’s aides believe voters have not yet fully understood what Trump has said or the risks to American democracy.
The campaign plans to incorporate video of Trump’s remarks, which it quickly turned into a TV ad, into future rallies. Harris told aides after Monday night’s event that using the video footage to make her case against Trump reminded her of presenting evidence at trial.
Some people who have publicly opposed Trump’s return to power are preparing him to keep his word. Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Trump administration, told journalist Bob Woodward that he feared he would be court-martialed “for breach of trust” if Trump won a rematch. spoke. -election. After General Milley criticized Trump in a sharp farewell speech, he told Woodward that he had bulletproof glass and explosion-proof curtains installed in his home.
Olivia Troy, who served as homeland security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence before becoming a prominent Harris campaign surrogate, said in an interview that her concerns about the second Trump administration include prosecutions and the safety of her family. He said it included the possibility of being threatened.
She worries that her husband may lose his job and that Trump will pardon the January 6 rioters and that they may target her. She even put plans on hold to adopt a child, worried that her family’s environment was becoming too dangerous.
“I certainly considered what my options were regarding citizenship elsewhere,” she said. “We are preparing for the worst-case scenario.”
Such threats of retaliation by Trump are nothing new. Trump has talked about punishing political opponents since he ran for office in 2016, when he repeatedly called for opponent Hillary Clinton to go to jail and encouraged the crowd to chant “Lock up Clinton!” did. At his gathering. Since his defeat in 2020, he has refused to accept the results and continues to spread false claims of election fraud.
And he vowed retribution throughout his third election campaign, promising to take revenge on wronged supporters.
“In 2016, I proclaimed, ‘I am your voice.’ Today, I add this: I am your warrior,” Trump said in front of a crowd of conservative activists in March 2023. Ta. I am your justice. And I am the one who will take revenge on those who have been wronged and betrayed. ”
He toned down his rhetoric for a brief period before winning the Iowa caucuses by a landslide. But after a New York jury convicted him of 34 felonies in late May, he quickly reinstated threats of revenge prosecutions and other retaliatory measures, saying, “Sometimes revenge is justified.” Ta. In June, he adopted a new attitude: “My revenge will be successful.”
Trump’s advisers want him to focus on the economy and immigration, saying those issues will appeal to undecided voters who may be turned off by Trump’s threatening messages. I believe that we will have an advantage.
But even in ostensibly policy-focused speeches and town halls where he’s supposed to directly address voters’ concerns like pocketbooks and public safety, Trump tends to return to the same grievances that have fueled his political campaign this year.
At the rally, he sought to fire back at attacks from Democrats, accusing President Biden of being a threat to democracy when he was still the nominee, and then criticizing the president as a threat to democracy when Harris replaced him. He suggested that he had orchestrated a coup d’état. ticket. Biden said Monday at City Hall that his violent election denialism led some of his supporters to storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. argued that his withdrawal from the election campaign was of great significance. “Overthrow the American President.”
President Trump has treated the Jan. 6 riot as a largely harmless protest, downplaying the size of the mob of his supporters and their violent intentions.
“It was a very peaceful transfer of power,” Trump said, citing the fact that he “left on the morning he was supposed to leave” on Inauguration Day as evidence of a “very peaceful transfer of power.” .
Notably, many business and civic leaders sitting in the Chicago ballroom applauded. And there are signs that voters and even some prominent members of Congress do not believe Mr. Trump will carry out his most alarming threats.
When asked about Trump’s “enemy within” comment in an interview with CNN host Jake Tapper on Monday, Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin insisted the former president was referring to illegal immigrants.
Asked about Trump’s proposal to turn the military against the American people, Yonkin said he didn’t think the president was saying that. He said the network had “misunderstood and misrepresented his ideas.”
“I’m literally reading his words to you,” Mr. Tapper replied.
