Never before has a presidential nominee openly suggested turning the
military on Americans simply because they oppose his candidacy. With
voting underway, Donald Trump has turned to dark vows of retribution.
With three weeks left before Election Day, former President Donald J. Trump
is pushing to the forefront of his campaign a menacing political threat: that
he would use the power of the presidency to crush those who disagree with
him.
In a Fox News interview on Sunday, Mr. Trump framed Democrats as a
pernicious “enemy from within” that would cause chaos on Election Day that
he speculated the National Guard might need to handle.
A day later, he closed his remarks to a crowd at what was billed as a town
hall in Pennsylvania with a stark message about his political opponents.
“They are so bad and frankly, they’re evil,” Mr. Trump said. “They’re evil.
What they’ve done, they’ve weaponized, they’ve weaponized our elections.
They’ve done things that nobody thought was even possible.”
And on Tuesday, he once again refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of
power when pressed by an interviewer at an economic forum in Chicago.
With early voting underway in key battlegrounds, the race for the White
House is moving toward Election Day in an extraordinary and sobering
fashion. Mr. Trump has long flirted with, if not openly endorsed, anti-
democratic tendencies with his continued refusal to accept the results of
the 2020 election, embrace of conspiracy theories of large-scale voter
fraud and accusations that the justice system is being weaponized against
him. He has praised leaders including President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia
and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary for being authoritarian
strongmen.
But never before has a presidential nominee — let alone a former president
— openly suggested turning the military on American citizens simply
because they oppose his candidacy. As he escalates his threats of political
retribution, Mr. Trump is offering voters the choice of a very different, and
far less democratic, form of American government.
“There is not a case in American history where a presidential candidate has
run for office on a promise that they would exact retribution against anyone
they perceive as not supporting them in the campaign,” said Ian Bassin, a
former associate White House counsel under Barack Obama who leads the
advocacy group Protect Democracy. “It’s so fundamentally, outrageously
beyond the pale of how this country has worked that it’s hard to articulate
how insane it is.”
During Vice President Kamala Harris’s rally in Erie, Pa., on Monday, she
played a video clip of Mr. Trump vowing to go after people who oppose
him.Kenny Holston/The New York Times
As they move into what will be their closing arguments to voters, Mr. Trump
and Ms. Harris are devoting most of their attention to wrangling over the
issues that remain voters’ top priorities — the economy, abortion rights,
housing costs and American engagement in the wars roiling Ukraine and the
Middle East. The race remains tight, with views about Mr. Trump deeply
cemented for most voters.
But the Harris campaign sees fresh political opportunities in Mr. Trump’s
latest attacks on democratic principles, particularly among moderate
Republicans and independents who disapprove of the former president’s
character and polarizing style.
Why is this story labeled ‘News Analysis’? In this format, reporters with
deep experience in the subject draw on their expertise to help you better
understand an event. They step back from the breaking news to evaluate its
significance and possible ramifications, but they may not inject their
personal opinions.
As Mr. Trump spoke Monday night, Ms. Harris stood in a stadium at the
opposite end of Pennsylvania where she took the unusual step of playing an
extended video montage of Mr. Trump vowing to go after those who oppose
him. It included his recent comments about the possibility of military action
against the “enemy within.”
“He’s talking about, he considers anyone who doesn’t support him or will
not bend to his will an enemy of our country,” she told several thousand
supporters at a rally in Erie, Pa. “He is saying that he would use the military
to go after them.”
Ms. Harris’s full-throated attacks on Mr. Trump are a notable break from her
previous efforts to minimize him as a vestige of the past. Her aides believe
voters are still not familiar with Mr. Trump’s statements, nor do they fully
understand the stakes for American democracy.
The campaign plans to integrate the video of Mr. Trump’s remarks — which
it quickly turned into a television ad — into future rallies. Ms. Harris told
aides after Monday night’s event that using the video footage to make her
case against Mr. Trump reminded her of presenting evidence at trial.
Some who have publicly opposed Mr. Trump’s return to power are preparing
for him to keep his promises. Gen. Mark A. Milley, who served as chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Mr. Trump’s administration, told the
journalist Bob Woodward that he feared being recalled to uniform to be
court-martialed “for disloyalty” should Mr. Trump win re-election. After
criticizing Mr. Trump in a pointed retirement speech, General Milley told Mr.
Woodward that he installed bulletproof glass and blastproof curtains at his
home.
Olivia Troye, who was Vice President Mike Pence’s homeland security
adviser before becoming a prominent surrogate for the Harris campaign,
said in an interview that her fears about a second Trump administration
included prosecutions and a possible threat to her family’s physical security.
She worries that her husband could lose his job, and that Mr. Trump could
pardon Jan. 6 rioters and they could target her. She even paused plans to
adopt a child because she fears the environment for her family has become
too dangerous.
“I have certainly considered what my options are in terms of citizenship in
other places,” she said. “We are preparing for the worst-case scenario.”
Such threats of vengeance from Mr. Trump are hardly new: He has been
talking about punishing his political adversaries since his 2016 run, when he
repeatedly insisted that his opponent, Hillary Clinton, should go to jail and
he encouraged crowds to chant “lock her up” at his rallies. Since his defeat
in 2020, he has refused to accept that result, continuing to peddle false
claims about election fraud.
And he has woven vows of retribution throughout his third campaign,
promising to avenge what he sees as his wronged supporters.
“In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice,’” Mr. Trump told a crowd of
conservative activists in March 2023. “Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am
your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your
retribution.”
He toned down his rhetoric for a brief period before winning the Iowa
caucuses in a landslide. But he quickly revived threats for revenge
prosecutions and other retaliatory measures after being convicted of 34
felony counts by a New York jury in late May, saying, “Sometimes revenge
can be justified.” In June, he took another tack: “My retribution will be
success.”
Mr. Trump’s advisers would prefer that he focused on the economy and
immigration, believing these issues will give him the edge with undecided
voters who may be otherwise turned off by his menacing message.
But even in ostensibly policy-focused speeches or in town halls where he is
meant to directly respond to voter concerns around pocketbook issues or
public safety, Mr. Trump tends to return to the same grievances that have
animated his political campaign this year.
At rallies, he has tried to volley Democrats’ attacks back at them, accusing
President Biden of being a threat to democracy when he was still the
nominee, and then suggesting Ms. Harris had orchestrated a “coup” when
she replaced Mr. Biden on the ticket. At his town hall on Monday, Mr. Trump
— whose vehement election denialism spurred some of his supporters to
storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and disrupt the peaceful transfer of
power — argued that Mr. Biden’s exit from the race amounted to the
“overthrow of an American president.”
Trump treated the Jan. 6 riot as largely a harmless protest, downplaying the
size of the mob of his supporters and their violent intent.
“You had a peaceful transfer of power,” Mr. Trump said, citing Inauguration
Day, when he “left the morning that I was supposed to leave,” as proof of “a
very peaceful transfer.”
During an interview with John Micklethwait, Bloomberg’s editor in chief, in
Chicago on Tuesday, Mr. Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of
power.Jim Vondruska for The New York Times
Notably, many of the business and civic leaders seated in the ballroom in
Chicago applauded. And there are signs that voters and even some
prominent elected officials simply do not believe that Mr. Trump will make
good on his most alarming threats.
When Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Republican of Virginia, was asked about Mr.
Trump’s “enemy within” remarks during an interview with the CNN host Jake
Tapper on Monday, he argued that the former president was referring to
undocumented immigrants.
After being asked about Mr. Trump’s suggestion of turning the military
against Americans, Mr. Youngkin replied that he didn’t believe that was what
the president was saying. The network, he said, was “misinterpreting and
misrepresenting his thoughts.”
"I’m literally reading his quotes to you,” Mr. Tapper replied.
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