Trump’s ‘Bloodbath’ Comment

As all of us have heard by now, in his Ohio campaign rally speech on Saturday, Trump said there will be a “bloodbath” if he loses the November election. The Biden campaign pounced on the remark as proof that Trump is calling for political violence.

First, here’s the video of Trump talking about a bloodbath, and then we’ll break down what Trump meant by it, and it there might have been another remark in his speech that is even more concerning. Here he is with the bloodbath comment.

Almost immediately after the rally, the Trump campaign attempted to clarify his remarks by stating Trump was actually referring to the automobile industry. Trump himself posted the following statement on Truth Social earlier today.

“The Fake News Media, and their Democrat Partners in the destruction of our Nation, pretended to be shocked at my use of the word BLOODBATH, even though they fully understood that I was simply referring to imports allowed by Crooked Joe Biden, which are killing the automobile industry. The United Auto Workers, but not their leadership, fully understand what I mean. With the Electric Car Mandate being pushed by Biden, there soon won’t be any cars made in the USA – UNLESS I’M ELECTED PRESIDENT, IN WHICH CASE AUTO MANUFACTURING WILL THRIVE LIKE NEVER BEFORE!!! MAGA2024”

So, let’s take a look at what Trump said immediately leading up to the bloodbath comment. Here’s that video.

There’s the full context, and if we objectively listen to what Trump said leading up to the bloodbath comment, then it is clear that he WAS referring to the automobile industry. That was the topic he was discussing, and that is what led into his “bloodbath” remark.

After saying “If I don’t get elected there’s going to be a bloodbath,” Trump added “that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country, that’s going to be the least of it.” Here’s that part of the video.

One could infer that he was talking about different kinds of “bloodbaths” in addition to the automobile industry, but that’s a bit of a stretch as well. More than likely, it was simply Trump’s usual rambling way of speaking. To put it another way, his train of thought is constantly jumping the tracks.

Ironically, the reaction of those who claimed Trump was talking about political violence has had the net effect of reinforcing the perception among Trump supporters that he is always treated unfairly. They see the media taking part of his quote out of context as more confirmation of them being fake news.

The reality is, though, that Trump doesn’t have to overtly call for political violence should he lose. It’s going to happen anyway, and we know that because we’ve seen it before.

On January 6^th we saw Trump supporters break into the capitol, destroy property, threaten lawmakers, and chant about hanging Mike Pence. Trump didn’t ask them to do those things in so many words, but he had already ginned up such anger in them that the result was inevitable.

Likewise, should Trump lose the election this November, he won’t have to call for political violence. All he will have to do is scream about how another election was stolen from him – which we absolutely know he will do – and his hardcore supporters will take that as a call to arms.

The truth is that, regardless of whether or not Trump actually calls for it, political violence stemming from him losing the election is inevitable. We can see it coming from a mile away.

One thing Trump’s “bloodbath” comment did do was overshadow how he once again dehumanized some of those who cross the border. He said, “In some cases, they’re not people, in my opinion.” But these kind of comments are nothing new for him.

For many years Trump has used incendiary rhetoric about immigrants to fire up his base, and in recent weeks he has repeatedly warned about “migrant crime” and even made the nonsensical claim that they were speaking languages “nobody has ever heard of.”

During a recent conversation with the Right Side Broadcasting outlet, Trump even claimed that the surge in immigration was so extreme that it has overrun New York City to the point that “there’s no more Little Leagues. There’s no more sports. There’s no more life in New York and so many of these cities.”

Trump’s continued rhetoric dehumanizing other people puts us on a very ugly path to treating others as animals. And history is rife with examples of what happens when certain groups of people are thought of in terms of being animals.

In the last few years, Trump has even used similar rhetoric even when describing his political adversaries, referring to them as “human scum” and how they were sick and evil people. How much longer will it be before they, too, are referred to as less than human.

But just like Trump doesn’t need to overtly call for political violence, because that powder keg already exists thanks to his rhetoric, there is also a rapidly growing and palpable hatred of those Trump demonizes as less than human, or of poisoning the blood of the country.

Even many of those who profess to be Christian have latched onto Trump’s rhetoric about how the “other” is poisoning the blood of the country. What they fail to understand is that there really has been a poisoning: Donald Trump has poisoned Christianity.