Donald Trump just did an interview with Time Magazine, and it is blowing up right now.
The biggest highlight of the interview was when Trump discussed possible violence after the 2024 election.
Talking Points…
- Donald Trump's post-election outlook
- Response to comments
- Analysis
I have often stated that Donald Trump is often his own worst enemy, and that may be the case here after Trump’s Time Magazine interview was published. Trump, who has been charged with inciting rioting in the aftermath of the 2020 election, continues to stoke that fire with inflammatory comments. In this news cycle, Trump should be distancing himself from Biden, but he instead continues to shoot himself in the foot.
First and foremost, Trump made comments regarding the outcome of the 2024 election if he did not win. When asked if he thought there would be political violence around the election, Trump responded:
“If we don’t win, you know, it depends.
“It always depends on the fairness of the election.”
Any time Trump makes a comment like that, it is taken as a nod to his supporters on how to act, and that is exactly how the media interprets these comments. Headlines are blowing up all over the place that Trump is already giving the order to riot his supporters if he loses this election. Trump made matters worse by interpreting the Constitution, which is, simply put, false.
Trump claimed that a stolen election “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” Trump has made this claim before, and every constitutional expert I have seen has shot that idea down, not to mention that you would have to prove the election was stolen, something Trump was unable to do after the 2020 election. He and his surrogates lost every case they brought on this front, yet Trump continues to push these claims even today rather than moving past it and looking forward.
Just as I mentioned above, the media pounced on this interview, as did Democrats and pundits, who are now saying Trump is showing no remorse and promoting political violence if he loses the election. For instance, MSNBC News ran a headline titled:
“Trump reveals terrifying plan for potential second term in Time Magazine interview.”
Alex Floyd, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, also jumped all over the violence angle, stating:
“Donald Trump’s repeated threats of political violence are as horrifying and dangerous as they are un-American.
“Trump is hellbent on threatening our democracy, win or lose.”
Trump’s sensationalistic comments usually do not surprise me, but even I was taken aback by the comments made by Trump in this interview, knowing exactly how the media would frame them. This interview gave Democrats everything they needed to attack Trump as a “threat to democracy,” and Trump did not know that.
There is no way he can explain this away as meaning something else that will enable voters and the media to buy into it. From this point forward, any violence that takes place regarding the election will be blamed on Trump due to that interview, and those comments may scare away voters who were on the fence about voting for Trump again. It’s disheartening, really, for Trump to shoot himself and the conservative movement in the foot like that with an answer that he had to know would feed the Democrat attack machine.
