“The lying Biden campaign and the fake news media have a new hoax – it’s called the ‘Bloodbath’ Hoax, taking my words completely out of context,” said former President Donald Trump in a video posted to Truth Social this weekend.
He was referring in part to comments he made last weekend during a rally in Dayton, Ohio.
“If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath,” he said, according to CBS News. “It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”
In response, a spokesperson for the campaign of current President Joe Biden said that Trump “wants another January 6, but the American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge.”
Trump’s actions on the day of, and after, the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot – related to his unfounded claims that election interference impacted the election – have landed him in legal trouble. Cases connected to the incident make up just some of the legal challenges he faces going into the 2024 presidential election as the presumptive GOP candidate.
However, Trump said in his video that his “bloodbath” comment was actually about the U.S. auto industry.
“I said that if we don’t win, it will be a bloodbath for the U.S. Auto manufacturing industry, and that is 100% true,” said the former president. He went on to say that he is concerned about Mexico and China “are going to kill our industry,” and that he wants to stop it.
Last year, auto workers in the U.S. went on strike. Biden visited auto workers on the picket lines in September, and POLTICIO reported that Trump criticized that decision. Per the report, he said the union would be “toast” if it didn’t support him and slammed Biden administration electric vehicle policies.
In his Friday video, Trump said that he plans to impose new tariffs on at least some cars manufactured outside of the U.S. to protect the domestic auto industry.
“It is indeed going to be a bloodbath, but it will be on the opposite side,” he said, before pivoting to another talking point – the U.S. Mexico border.
Trump used “bloodbath” again to describe Biden’s border policies.
“When I’m your president, we’re going to end this disgrace and we’re going to stop Biden’s border bloodbath. It is a bloodbath indeed, and we’re going to get it stopped,” he said.