On social media and in a fundraising email Tuesday, Donald Trump expressed alarming concern. The Justice Department, he said, was prepared to kill him.
The wild distortion took place against the backdrop of Trump’s hush-money trial in New York and amid fears of increasing political violence surrounding the upcoming presidential elections, mainly from the far right. The comments confirm an inverse picture that Trump and his allies have painted, pitting a patriotic Trump against anti-democratic deep state foes.
Related: Donald Trump deletes Truth Social video with ‘Unified Reich’ reference
The bizarre claims could fuel anger among his supporters and fuel conspiracy theories. “You know they just want to do the unthinkable,” read the Trump campaign fundraising email signed with the former president’s name. “Joe Biden was locked and loaded, ready to take me out and put my family in danger.”
On his social media website Truth Social, Trump repeated this claim. “Joe Biden’s corrupt DOJ, during their illegal and unconstitutional raid on Mar-a-Lago, ALLOWED the FBI TO USE DEADLY (DEADLY) FORCE,” he alleged.
Trump was apparently referring to the search warrant order issued in August 2022, when plainclothes agents from the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in search of classified documents that Trump had reportedly refused to hand over to the government.
A May lawsuit by Trump’s legal team, under a section titled “The Illegal Raid,” quotes from a line in the search warrant.
“The order included a ‘statement of policy’ regarding ‘use of deadly force,’ which stated, for example, ‘Department of Justice law enforcement officers may use deadly force if necessary,'” attorneys representing Trump wrote.
The language cited in the filing is apparently taken from DoJ policy describing the use of force in executing search warrants. The unabridged text of the policy reads: “Law enforcement and Department of Justice correctional officers may use deadly force only when necessary, i.e., when the officer has reasonable suspicion that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death . or serious bodily injury to the officer or to any other person.”
The agency executed the warrant to search Trump’s Florida home while Trump was in New York and reportedly communicated with Secret Service agents present to ensure a smooth operation.
In a statement, the FBI described the language as “a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force. No one has ordered additional steps to be taken and there has been no deviation from the norm in this matter.”
The Washington Post previously reported that FBI agents selected a day for the raid when Trump would not be at Mar-a-Lago and told the Secret Service in advance.
But Trump’s statements about the filing have caused a stir. Christina Bobb, a lawyer for the former president who signed documents before the search claiming Trump had complied with the subpoena for documents, responded with a similar exaggeration.
“WTF?!! Were they willing to kill me?! A few dozen FBI agents versus me and they were ready to kill me?!!! What the hell happened to the United States of America?!” wrote Bob, on X.
“These people are sick,” Paul Gosar, an Arizona congressman and staunch Trump ally, also wrote about X. “Biden ordered the attack on Trump at Mar-A-Lago,” he added in a subsequent post .
The rhetorical detour — from the substance of Trump’s legal battle, which ranges from alleged financial improprieties to his mishandling of classified documents to his brazen attempt to overturn the 2020 election — is part of a strategy that Trump and his embracing allies ahead of the 2024 presidential election. .
The public relations strategy turns Trump’s anti-democratic tendencies back on his critics — “enemies,” in the former president’s parlance — as accusations. In communications widely shared with his followers, it is the Justice Department, the media, Democrats and Rinos – Republican in name only – who dare to criticize him who threaten democracy.
Trump, who has warned of “death and destruction” if accused of crimes and defended supporters who called for the assassination of former Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to join the plot to overturn the election, urges his supporters to see him as the victim .
“NOW WE KNOW,” Trump added in his post accusing the D0J of preparing to use lethal force, “THAT JOE BIDEN IS A SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY.”
