We reviewed Trump’s speeches, interviews, and social media posts since 2022 and found that he has made more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, jail or otherwise punish his opponents, whom he sometimes calls “the enemy from within.”
🧵
First and foremost, Trump targets his political opponents.
If he wins the presidential election, he has promised to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate President Biden and Biden’s family on his first day in office.
Now that Vice President Harris is his opponent, Trump said she should also be “impeached and prosecuted.”
On Truth Social, Trump has reposted calls for Barack Obama and Liz Cheney to face military tribunals.
Trump suggested that former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley could face the death penalty. (Milley has since called Trump a “fascist,” per journalist Bob Woodward.)
Then there are the participants in Trump’s trials. Trump has targeted the prosecutors, judges, and even a court staffer.
On Truth Social, he floated the idea that a member of the Georgia grand jury that indicted him should be prosecuted.
Last year, Glenn Beck asked Trump if he would lock people up if he wins the election.
Trump said yes, and indicated it would be justified because of the four criminal cases brought against him since leaving office.
Trump has repeatedly promised to pardon rioters charged and convicted for their role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“The cops should be charged and the protesters should be freed,” reads a post Trump reposted on Truth Social.
At a rally, Trump said people who protest and criticize the Supreme Court “should be put in jail.”
And he has said that journalists should be imprisoned if they refuse to give up the sources of government leaks. He appeared to suggest that journalists could also face sexual assault in jail.
Another target of Trump’s threats: election workers.
These threats come in the context of Trump and Sen. JD Vance’s comments pushing back on restrictions on presidential power.
Vance told an interviewer prior to the campaign that Trump should ignore the courts if they stop him from replacing civil servants with loyalists.
These are just some examples out of more than 100.
You can read our full story - with comments from @ianbassin @rgoodlaw @OMGrisham @AdamKinzinger and response from the RNC - here: npr.org/2024/10/21/nx-…
@ianbassin @rgoodlaw @OMGrisham @AdamKinzinger Some Trump allies and supporters have downplayed Trump’s comments as campaign rhetoric and bluster.
But some, like this person who responded to our story, have a different take.
@ianbassin @rgoodlaw @OMGrisham @AdamKinzinger This is another defense that Trump's allies have made: That he did not go after his rivals and opponents in his first term.
Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf club hosted a convicted Jan. 6 rioter and alleged Nazi sympathizer twice this summer, where he was celebrated and gave speeches.
At one event, Trump sent a video praising the attendees as “amazing patriots.”
At the other, he won an award.
The rioter, Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, has a lengthy and well-documented history of extreme racist and antisemitic comments.
He allegedly told coworkers, “Hitler should have finished the job.”
In 2020, he posted a lengthy video rant against Jewish communities in New Jersey.
He served nearly three years in prison for nonviolent offenses on Jan. 6, and is currently appealing his conviction on the felony obstruction charge that the Supreme Court recently narrowed.
Since leaving prison, he’s gone on a tour of far-right media.
The publisher of @DineshDSouza's election conspiracy theory film and book "2,000 Mules" has issued an apology to a Georgia voter accused in the film of illegal voting in the 2020 election.
"There will be no future distribution of the film or the book by Salem."
@DineshDSouza Some key context Salem is a co-defendant, along with Dinesh D'Souza and True the Vote, in a lawsuit filed by this voter, Mark Andrews.
He is represented by lawyers with @protctdemocracy, which also represented the Georgia election workers who sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation.
@DineshDSouza @protctdemocracy Story coming.
Protect Democracy declined to comment on Salem's statement.
I've also reached out to their co-defendants in the lawsuit, @truethevote and @DineshDSouza.
Dozens of federal judges attended week-long seminars at luxury retreats - receiving free rooms, free meals and free money for travel worth thousands - and failed to fully disclose as required.
The judges with disclosure issues included some big names.
Judge Aileen Cannon, currently presiding over Trump’s classified documents case, attended two week-long seminars at a luxury resort near Yellowstone National Park.
She failed to upload a disclosure within 30 days, as required.
The court said it was an “inadvertent” omission.
Judge Robert Conrad, Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, also failed to file disclosures for multiple events within 30 days.
In his job, he helps implement these very judiciary policies on disclosure.
A spox said the missing disclosure was inadvertent.
We reviewed Trump’s speeches, rallies and social media.
At times he has signaled support for freeing all Jan. 6 defendants. In interviews, he has suggested he would pardon “a large portion” outside of “a couple of them.”
“The purpose of the pardon is both to make people feel they're gonna get away with past crimes," said @ruthbenghiat , "but just as scary is that it's designed to make future violence more possible, because people will feel they won't pay any consequences."
A federal judge ruled that the defamation and voting rights lawsuit against Dinesh D'Souza, True the Vote, Salem Media, and Regnery can move forward, albeit with some counts dismissed.
Notably, the Judge's order describes the alleged conduct of D'Souza and True the Vote - making claims "based solely on conjecture and speculation" - as "disturbing."
Some background on the film, which implied - completely falsely - that True the Vote helped solve a murder: