Former President Donald Trump’s estranged niece, Mary Trump, issued a dire warning on Saturday after her uncle’s “bloodbath” remark at a rally.
Trump, the presumed 2024 GOP presidential nominee who was in Ohio on Saturday for a campaign stop at the Buckeye Values PAC rally, came under criticism for telling rallygoers that if he doesn’t get reelected in November “it’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”
Following his remark, Mary Trump took to X, formerly Twitter, to warn others of the seriousness of her uncle’s statement.
“Donald Trump does not deserve the benefit of the doubt and this isn’t a f***ing joke. His statement is both a threat and a promise. The corporate media needs to start acting accordingly,” she wrote.
Newsweek has reached out to Mary Trump’s spokesperson via email for comment.
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However, conservatives defended Trump’s comments, noting that he was discussing the auto industry, not physical violence.
“We’re gonna put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not gonna be able to sell those guys if I get elected,” Trump said while criticizing overseas manufacturing production. “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole. That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”
Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s communications director, told Newsweek in an email on Saturday night that “economically it will be a bloodbath because Crooked Joe Biden’s policies have decimated working families.”
In addition to Trump’s “bloodbath” remark, the former president honored and thanked the participants of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
“Please rise for the horribly and unfairly treated January 6 hostages,” an announcer said at the rally. Trump then saluted and the crowd stood as “Justice for All,” a rendition of the National Anthem, played. The song sung by the J6 Prison Choir also featured the voice of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
Trump is accused of inciting the Capitol riot by spreading unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud to his 2020 election supporters. It led to a violent protest as part of a larger effort to block Joe Biden’s 2020 Electoral College victory.
Last August, the former president was indicted on four counts by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for his alleged role in the insurrection, including conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. Trump, meanwhile, has maintained his innocence, accusing prosecutors of investigating him to derail him politically.
More than 1,265 individuals have been charged by the DOJ for their alleged involvement in the deadly riot, with many already convicted and serving sentences.
This is not the first time Trump has been criticized for calling jailed Capitol rioters hostages, sparking a wave of backlash on social media last year.
Last November, Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman who co-hosts MSNBC’s Morning Joe, called the rioters pure evil and that Trump comparing them to hostages is deeply offensive.
Meanwhile, Mike Sington, a former senior executive at NBCUniversal, condemned Trump’s comments on X on Saturday calling it “frightening.”
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.