Trump says there will be a ‘bloodbath’ in the US if he loses the November elections

Former U.S. president Donald Trump took his violent rhetoric one step further on Saturday, predicting at a rally in Ohio that there will be a “bloodbath” in the United States if he is not elected in next November’s elections. He also escalated his xenophobic discourse: claiming undocumented immigrants are “not people.”

Last Tuesday, Trump secured the delegates needed to cinch for the nomination of the Republican Party. The race for the White House is set to be a repeat of the 2020 showdown between Trump and Biden. In that race, the real estate tycoon refused to admit defeat. In the months leading up to election day, the Republican began spreading false accusations that the Democrats would steal the election — the Big Lie that led to the assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

On Saturday, Trump gave one of his classic angry, disjointed and apocalyptic speeches, but it was not exactly a rally. The event was outside Dayton to endorse Bernie Moreno’s run for senate in Ohio. Trump grabbed the microphone and launched into a rant in which he criticized the electric car industry for manufacturing vehicles outside the United States. He also tried to co-opt one of Biden’s favorite arguments — that a Trump victory would pose a “threat to democracy” — claiming that if he loses the November election, it would mark the end of democracy in the United States. “If we don’t win this election, I don’t think you’re going to have another election in this country,” he told the crowd.

But Trump’s address made headlines for the following statement: “If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole country. That will be the least of it.” He did not explain the threat further, but his campaign later denied that Trump was trying to incite violence. A Trump spokesperson told the media that he was referring to the auto industry. At another point in his speech on Saturday, Trump promised to impose “a 100% tariff” on foreign-made electric cars.

The Biden campaign did not buy that argument, calling Trump’s comments “threats of political violence.” “He wants another January 6, but the American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence and his thirst for revenge,” James Singer, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, said in a statement.

The former president faces 91 criminal charges in four separate cases. Two of them stem from his efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election, and for his role in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. One concerns his actions to subvert the Georgia election results, while the other is a federal case that will be heard in Washington once the Supreme Court clarifies whether Trump — as he claims — was protected by presidential immunity at the end of his term.

During his speech in Ohio, the Republican once again called the rioters arrested and imprisoned for attacking Congress “hostages.” He also promised to pardon them if he returns to the White House. More than 1,200 people were charged for their role in the attack.

Just like in his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump is focusing his fiery rhetoric on the undocumented immigrants who try to enter the United States through the southern border, which is in crisis due to the impotence of the Biden administration and the inaction of Congress. Back in 2016, he repeatedly called Mexicans “rapists.” Now, for his 2024 campaign, Trump has accused migrants of “poisoning the blood of the country” — a statement with overtones of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. He has also called them — without evidence — of being criminals, arguing they’re entering the United States from “prisons, mental institutions and insane asylums.”

“I don’t know if you call them ‘people,’” he said on Saturday. “They’re not people, in my opinion, but I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says it’s a terrible thing to say.”

In addition to these recent controversial comments, Trump has also promised to be a “dictator” on the first day of his term to reverse all of Biden’s policies and suggested that he would encourage Russia to attack NATO countries that do not meet defense spending quotas.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition