Trump issued the following statement on Truth Social: “We will very strongly defend any federal building under attack by highly paid lunatics, demagogues and insurgents. There will be no spitting in the faces of our officers, there will be no punching or kicking in the headlights of our vehicles, and there will be no throwing of rocks or bricks at our vehicles or our patriotic warriors. If so, those people will face equal or greater consequences. You will experience it.”
What about the U.S. Capitol and the rioters on January 6th? Trump has repeatedly argued that he got a bad rap because the Jan. 6 rioters were really “political prisoners” and “patriots.” In fact, he forgave them. Trump kicked off his first rally of the 2024 presidential campaign by playing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which was recorded on a phone Jan. 6 by jailed defendants, including an alleged Nazi sympathizer. During his 2024 presidential campaign, he called January 6 “the day of love,” even though 140 police officers were injured that day, according to prosecutors.
Trump and his allies — including Republican senators who have blocked the creation of a national commission to investigate Jan. 6 — argue that the Jan. 6 rioters were denied due process and that the Justice Department under Biden has weaponized the case. For Trump, the victims of the January 6th riots (including police officer Brian Sicknick, who was hit with pepper spray that day and died from rioter injuries) were the perpetrators, and the perpetrators (i.e. the rioters) were the victims. Therefore, President Trump said, “The police should be prosecuted and the protesters should be released.” Moreover, Trump criticized the FBI for infiltrating 274 agents into the crowd of rioters who allegedly incited the violence.
Trump and his allies’ shift from defending the rioters on January 6 to denouncing peaceful protesters as “terrorists” can only be seen as cynical. Talking to people, I realized I wasn’t the only one asking, ‘Does this person really believe what they’re saying?’
