The former president made multiple chilling warnings during an interview with Time magazine.
Donald Trump hasn’t quite let go of the possibility of utilizing mob violence if he loses the next election.
In a sprawling interview for Time magazine, Trump hinted that leveraging political violence to achieve his end goals was still on the table.
“If we don’t win, you know, it depends,” he told Time. “It always depends on the fairness of the election.”
And from Trump’s perspective, that’s winning rhetoric. According to him, his incendiary comments supporting a mob mentality, his early warnings of forthcoming abuses of power, and his threats to be a dictator on “day one” are only inching him closer to the White House. “I think a lot of people like it,” Trump told Time.
Ultimately I don’t think that will matter much. Acts of domestic terrorism or sabotage won’t affect the outcome of the executive maintaining power and are unlikely to garner much sympathy. Trump wanted to make sure he won by attacking the weakest points of the electoral system - slates of false electors to sow doubt and discord, and when that failed, inciting a mob to interrupt the certification. I think both of those points are still vulnerable to attack, but there are a lot more eyes on it now after 2020. Trump is already on trial for trying to overturn the election, and Biden has no reason to allow an armed mob of crazies storm the Capitol, win or lose.