Donald Trump is running his 2024 campaign on vengeance, even if his allies deny it.
In response to Trump’s violent threats against his political enemies over the weekend, CNN published a brief supercut of prominent Republicans trying to deny the former president’s appetite for revenge.
CNN runs a collection of clips of Trump supporters claiming he wouldn’t seek revenge which didn’t age well pic.twitter.com/gEvRkclCg4
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 10, 2024
“Donald Trump has been the one that has been very clear,” claimed Senator Marco Rubio in July. “His vengeance is going to be by winning and making America great again, not going after his political opponents.”
“This is the new narrative by all the lemmings in the mainstream media this week: ‘Trump wants revenge and vengeance,’” said former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway in June.
“President Trump has said it himself, the best revenge is success,” said Senator Tim Scott back in May, going on to fight with CNN’s Abby Phillip, who attempted to offer an on-air fact-check to the South Carolina senator’s claims.
Though Trump did say in February that “my revenge will be success,” he has also made plenty of public calls to take revenge in the form of imprisonment, military tribunals, and execution.
Over the weekend, Trump amped up his language around punishing his enemies. On Truth Social, he threatened to punish “Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters and Corrupt Election Officials” to the “fullest extent of the Law which will include long prison sentences” if he believes they meddle in the election. At another speech in Wisconsin, he called for a violent mass deportation of migrants, stating that “getting them out will be a bloody story.”
Will Trump be held to account for his threats on the debate stage?
