Oh, Donnie, Donnie, Donnie. In his hamfisted bid to gain more converts on the road to accursed reelection this November, Donald Trump has made some seriously deranged claims about why he’s apparently the guy to vote for.
These range from mystifying — like Pennsylvania getting renamed if the Democrats stay in power — to misleading — like, well, pretty much everything else he’s said. And yet Trump has veered away from being misleading and mystifying to being downright monstrous in his latest promise. His alarming pledge that there will be a “bloodbath” if he doesn’t win is not only giving his lawyers conniptions, but is also deplorably triggering for a nation that still remembers the horrors of the January 2021 insurrection.
Trump made the truly startling comment during a rally in Ohio on Saturday, March 16. “If I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath for the whole… That’s gonna be the least of it,” Darth Orangeus declared, displaying his usual unique way with words and knack for incendiary yet empty-headed rhetoric. “It’s gonna be a bloodbath for the country.”
Even his loyal followers in attendance appeared stunned by the galling utterance. So has Trump actually gone too far this time?
Of course, Trump totalists have argued that POTUS No. 45 — aka GOPzilla — didn’t literally mean a “bloodbath” but may have been colorfully indicating a downturn in fortunes for the people of Ohio. Political analyst David Corn has well and truly put paid to that interpretation, however, with his insightful interrogation of Trump’s comments. As Corn told co-host Symone Sanders-Townsend on MSNBC’s The Weekend:
“At this point in the game, trying to parse a word like ‘bloodbath’ strikes me as being entirely absurd. In the same speech, he calls hundreds who beat up cops, ‘unbelievable patriots.’ When he says the word ‘bloodbath,’ he knows what he’s doing, whether he means an economic bloodbath or something else in the same speech. He is endorsing political violence and when he says he’ll never have another election if I don’t win, well, that too, has a tone of violence to it as well.”
The replies to thatsnotrightpolitics’ repost of Corn’s words are full of those genuinely scared by the implication behind Trump’s threat — because that’s certainly what it seems to be. “I know, I’ll threaten them with violent repercussions unless they vote for me,” wrote one, who appears to have just been in Donald’s head, Being John Malkovich-style. “Holy crap. He’s seriously willing to do Jan. 6 all over again AND make it even worse??” said another, summing up all our fears in the process. Meanwhile, an international commenter spoke on behalf of their whole continent: “Dear America. Please fix this. Regards, Europe.”
Many of the GOP’s gaga MAGA stratagems lately have arguably crossed a line, even with Trump’s sordid standards. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) may have convinced herself into thinking she got the better of President Biden at the SotU address, but she’s the one who showed up the downfall of Trump merchandising, also got Laken Riley’s name wrong, and legitimately broke the law. It certainly does feel like the MAGA machine is finally breaking down. Now all we can do is pray the ghost in that machine, the ex-president poltergeist himself, will accept that without going all The Shining on the United States.
