‘I think the bigger problem are the people from within, we have some very bad people, sick people, radical left lunatics,’ Republican candidate tells Fox’s Maria Bartiromo

“And it should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military,” he said.

“I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within. Not even the people who have come in, who are destroying our country.”

It isn’t clear under what circumstances Trump would view it justifiable to call in US troops against his own countrymen.

But his comments mark a baseless attack and a particularly hollow one coming from someone whose supporters violently attacked the US Capitol in an attempt to stop him from being thrown out of office three years ago.


🗳️ Register to vote: https://vote.gov/

  • mkwt@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    This is a reminder to American service members:

    Your oath of allegiance is to the United States, not to Donald Trump, Joe Biden, or Kamala Harris. You have a duty to obey lawful orders issued under the authority of the commander in chief. But it is your duty to disobey unlawful orders.

    • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      The oath is actually to the Constitution of the United States. So it’s not even the country or the government but the idea, the founding document.

    • njm1314@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      The military has never had any hesitancy at all in murdering American citizens when told to. They will not stand up.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    It isn’t clear under what circumstances Trump would view it justifiable to call in US troops against his own countrymen.

    Isn’t it though? He would view it justifiable to call them in for literally any reason.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    "I don’t think [immigrants] are the problem in terms of election day,” Trump told Bartiromo. “I think the bigger problem are the people from within, we have some very bad people, sick people, radical left lunatics.”

    At that point, he suggested a seemingly sinister solution.

    “And it should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military,” he said.

    “I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within. Not even the people who have come in, who are destroying our country.”

    He’s called Biden a “radical leftist”, it’s anyone who won’t vote for him…

    • SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      If anyone actually believes Biden is a radical leftist it has to be a combination of a failure of the education system and systemic brainwashing.

    • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      "I don’t think [immigrants] are the problem in terms of election day,” Trump told Bartiromo. “I think the bigger problem are the people from within, we have some very bad people, sick people, radical left lunatics.”

      And yet there are SO many “radical left lunatics” right here on lemmy that seem to think both sides are equally as bad.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        I don’t see that often.

        What I see a lot of is accounts that say Kamala has to be “conservative” on some issues to get votes, but can’t give a valid reason why Kamala sticks with unpopular policy like pro-genocide or pro-fracking.

        But she doesn’t take the threat of trump seriously enough to make her want to aide with the platform of her own goddamn party. She like genocide and fracking too much apparently, and it would be cynical to imply it was the donations and not her genuine feelings on the issues

        • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Not a single person is saying she needs to be conservative. You know this. Everyone knows this. So, nice bad faith straw man there.

          What people are saying is that she needs to play the centrist game to garner support. It’s a known thing that any candidate that dabbles in “leftists” territory is unelectable. Maybe it’s the stink of delusion and ignorance, or maybe it’s their lack of any semblance of organization.

          My guess if asked, is that no one takes their embarrassing “pRo GeNoCiDe” accusations seriously.

          You don’t get to threaten candidates with your sad little withheld votes and demand them to kiss your asses while they jump through your single-issue hoop.

          That’s not how politics work. It’s not how politics ever worked, and it’s not how politics ever will work.

          She’s trying to save democracy. With, or without your help.

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Not a single person is saying she needs to be conservative

            So why is she for:

            1. Fracking

            2. A border wall

            3. Coninuing support for genocide

            People defend her move to the right on those three and more fucking daily…

            Like, you think no one is pressuring her into that and she is willing to risk trump by being more conservative than the Dem voter base because she believes in those three things that much?

            If you want to “save democracy” you’d be doing anything you can to get her more votes, that means dragging her back left towards the party base.

            She keeps going right, and her numbers keep dropping. It ain’t a coinky dink bud

              • RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world
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                7 months ago

                Dude. If you are against a modern economy with electricity, don’t be a hypocrite.

                Turn off your phone and go outside and sit there by yourself.

            • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              So… since you’re incapable of having a discussion without resorting to accusing people of supporting genocide- I’m going to end this here and flag you as a bad actor.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          7 months ago

          Touch grass. If a Democratic presidential candidate were to come out strongly against Israel prior to Election Day, they will lose.

          You need to get a better understanding of the political situation in your own country.

  • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    And polls continue to call the race a tie.

    At some point we have to acknowledge that roughly 30% of our population are just evil, fascist monsters. Having lived in those states, this isn’t a surprise.

  • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    The guy’s a nutjob and the fact that his candidacy is still being framed as having any air of legitimacy by the media is fucking disgusting.

  • LANIK2000@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Oh hey, treason man is yet again announcing publicly that he’s a treasonous piece of shit and that he plans to continue committing treason? Wow, what shocking news. /s

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    7 months ago

    “I think the bigger problem are the people from within, we have some very bad people, sick people, radical left lunatics."

    Yeah Don, we know. They even wear a red hat to help identify themselves.

  • BadNewsNobody@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    “There’s a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.”

  • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    “dictator day one”

    “prosecute my opposition”

    “prosecute my critics”

    It seems insane to think people are shooting at him because they’re listening to democrats (something the MSM largely does not do) and not because people are just listening to the things he’s saying he’ll do.

    • OlinOfTheHillPeople@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      It seems insane to think people are shooting at him because they’re listening to democrats

      I’m confused by this sentence. What do Democrats have to do with any of this?

      • Furbag@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Trump has had multiple assassination attempts on him this year, and each time it happens Trump blames Democratic rhetoric as the motivating force.

        Of course, anybody who took even a cursory look into the motives of each would-be assassin (and let’s be frank, it’s a big stretch to call some of these guys assassins - getting caught with a loaded weapon near where Trump is located is apparently enough to be considered an assassination attempt, even if Trump was never in any danger) they are often Republicans who absolutely hate the Democrats, so they wouldn’t be listening to their political rhetoric anyway which has been nothing short of “Political violence is not the solution, let’s win at the ballot box in November.”

        Meanwhile, Trump is promising to be a dictator on day one, promoting eugenics, deploying the armed forces to deport legal residents, threatening to prosecute and jail his political opponents and revoke the 1st amendment rights of his critics, but refuses to answer calls to “turn the temperature down”.

  • njm1314@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    For the millionth time all leftists should be armed. Cannot stress enough how important that is.

    • spyd3r@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      lol, leftists here are doing everything they can to take away the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

      • D1G17AL@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        That type of comment may have gone over well back on reddit but, sir, we are not idiots here. UTTER BULLSHIT, LEFTISTS DO NOT WANT TO TAKE AWAY YOUR RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS. We want that right too. We just don’t want mentally ill people having access to assault weapons with which they can kill many, many people with significantly reduced effort. Someone going on a rampage with a pistol or a shotgun is far less deadly than someone with a long rifle of any type, especially automatic rifles. BULL-FUCKING-SHIT LEFTIST DO NOT WANT TO TAKE THAT RIGHT AWAY.

        • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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          You rant loudly but wrongly about “assault weapons”. The fact is that pistols are used to kill far more people in the USA (and elsewhere) than “assault weapons” and any other kind of rifle. 3% or less of all homicides involve any kind of rifle.

          • Koarnine@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            7 months ago

            Go on, name the leftists doing that. That’s liberal shit.

            Furthermore how many mass shootings are committed with hand guns? Mass shootings are the target of ‘assault weapon’ rhetoric, not gun violence. And any one with a more than surface level knowledge understands how silly the framing and blaming on AR style guns has been.

            But to call that ‘coming from the left’ is insanity. The media if staunchy neoliberal, the politicians are too. The dems pushing that gun control are just as right wing as the ‘moderate conservatives’, they are reactionary liberals all the same bud. Reactionary liberals are the types who call for such extreme bans (books, guns, abortion, contraception).

            Every leftist I’ve ever met is completely for the right to bear arms. Other than the ones who realise that against the advanced military might of nations in 2024 owning your own gun of any capacity is meaningless (against state tyranny).

            The state has a monopoly on violence bud, owning a high capacity rifle will not protect you from state tyranny, neither will a hand gun. But a hand gun is a far more effective self defense tool for home defense than an AR15. So if it’s not for state tyranny, and its not for self defense, it’s either pure gun fetishism or you have a purpose to unload the high capacity ammunition rapidly (that could be 40 wild hogs or you know 40 wild schoolchildren).

            That being said, I still think you should be able to get them. Its called ‘gun control’ you know, background checks, ensuring safety. Not ‘ban all guns’.

            Responsible owners are no problem in my book, nor does banning a gun platform make sense. Curtailing the constant terrorism against our children and minoritys should be a high priority for anyone though. Left or right, its not simply ‘a fact of life’.

            Anyway brain dump but main point is y’all mfers need to stop conflating centre libbies with the left. Its fucking mind numbing.

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Military weapons? Yeah. They should be.

        Pistols? Shotguns? Not really. And yes, you can point to more extreme cases of ‘liberals’ who do want to amend the constitution, which is about the same thing as calling anyone even slightly conservative on one issue a fascist.

  • nifty@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    This rhetoric is meant for voter intimidation because they know Republicans always lose when Democrats turn out to vote.

    The polls are meaningless because they could be manipulated or manufactured, we don’t know who’s being polled. People just need to cast their vote and not let this be a close election.

    • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I will never express my opinions in places where I can be easily identified unless I am among people I know and trust. I will vote and keep my leftist ideology to myself amongst strangers irl. I rather like living without being bothered.

      • nifty@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        There’s no such thing as living without being bothered in an autocratic regime, doesn’t matter who you are. You could be the most ardent supporter and you’d still be shit out of luck for any reason. Stalin used to have his own cabinet members routinely disposed of

        • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          I meant being bothered as in strangers harassing me for my beliefs lol. I live in a grossly red part of my state and I keep a low profile out of what I feel is necessity

  • JaggedRobotPubes@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    He’s crying.

    He’s falling apart and going more batshit as his last-ditch attempt to grab power before crashing permanently.

  • Freefall@lemmy.world
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    Soldiers are not obligated to follow unlawful orders…the brass will say “no”.

    • Clbull@lemmy.world
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      How much support is there for Trump in the military though?

      I’m worried about the possibility that this kind of rhetoric could lead to an attempted coup or civil war.

      • FundMECFS@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        Really depends. In general officers tend to be mixed bag while enlisted soldiers tend to lean Trump.

        But it also depends the branch. In my experience most Marines tend to support Trump while the Navy and Airforce is more mixed.

        I’m sure you can get some statistics if you look it up. But it’s pretty certain the military leans more conservative than the general population on average.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        They lean conservative but not Trump. They voted blue in 2020 because the conservatives didn’t really come out to vote for him. They also have very complicated feelings about the Constitution and targeting Americans. So they probably would refrain from getting involved in anything but the most egregious conduct, like the Jan 6th insurrection, until we’re so far down the hole they can’t maintain unit integrity between left and right. At that point you’d probably see about a 60/40 split.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Just cause the big guy called Trump a fascist doesnt mean there arent plenty of supporters down the chain of command.

      • Freefall@lemmy.world
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        If the soldiers down the chain don’t get the order because the big guy ignored the fascist, then their feelings don’t matter.

    • fadingembers@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      7 months ago

      Unfortunately people as a whole tend to follow orders regardless of their political party or legality. It’s been studied and observed all throughout history

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        The officers already told Trump no. And when the National Guard was deployed for BLM protests they actually stuck to their ROE and didn’t deploy force recklessly like the police. Even when the police tried to get the NG in trouble with the people by dressing like them and then telling the NG they might as well.

        If the NG was ordered to show up at the polls they would most likely sit in a position a couple hundred meters away where most people won’t see them but they’d be able to respond rapidly. They’d force the governor to be more and more explicit in their orders until they got to an actually illegal one. For example if the NG has been called for law and order they would be under the same restrictions as the police in regards to polling places. (In many states police aren’t allowed to hang out there, they have to vote and leave unless someone specifically calls them and faking a call to get them there could count as election interference.)

        I know it’s hard to understand the military mindset from the outside looking in, but I guarantee you it’s not the robotic machine that Hollywood portrays. They are very conscious of their responsibility to the people.

        • fadingembers@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          You don’t think Trump will find people to do the job for him? Do you remember them black bagging and abducting people off the street in Portland during BLM? While the NG’s performance was commendable during that turbulent time, I wouldn’t rely on that fact staying true. Also I’m a vet and at least when I was in when we were given orders we weren’t told why we were doing them or given any context for them so in the heat of the moment that’s all you’re going to have to go off of.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            This is at a level far above where we dwelled. It’s the guys with stars on their shoulders shielding the troops. And you’re correct, Trump did find willing lackeys, but he found them in Federal Law Enforcement. Most of them came from the Bureau of Prisons. He can’t openly recruit among the military the way he can among federal agents. So I’m pretty sure what will really happen, if he’s elected, is he’ll stand up that group of agents again, equip them heavily and just call them soldiers.

            Which is actually straight out of the dictator’s handbook.

      • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Its not as simple as that though, e.g. that electro shock experiment was rather shaky and subsiquent attempts to replicate it have all but falsified its results.

        What you have to do is cherry pick the small group of people that are willing to do awful things, you then get them to do those things in presence of the saner people who then feel guilty by association. After that you can use their lack of action to stop this awful thing as blackmail/guilttrip to get them to do some small awful thing of their own, and then repeat that process to get them to do increasingly awful things until everyone is just as bad as what was originally just a very small subset of that group. Importantly even though they’re doing awful things they still feel bad about it but they’re in too deep, this makes them even more effective than your original psychopaths because they know how they’re likely to be punished should your side loose which makes them fanatical in order to avoid punishment.

        Its a tried and tested process but not quite as simple as people just following orders.

        • fadingembers@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          7 months ago

          We have innocent men being lawfully executed by the state in the current year. How many people in total were involved in those processes without a single one standing up for justice? Our current “liberal” presidential administration hasn’t uttered a single word in opposition to their murders