Former President Donald Trump warned during an Ohio speech that there will be an economic “bloodbath” if he isn’t reelected while campaigning for a Republican Senate candidate, while his campaign said that a number of news outlets misled the public by taking the term out of context.
In the speech, President Trump said that the Chinese communist regime is “building a couple of massive plants where they’re gonna build the cars in Mexico, and they think that they’re gonna sell those cars into the United States, with no tax at the border.”
“If you’re listening, President Xi,” he told the crowd, “… those big monster car manufacturing plants that you’re building in Mexico right now, and you think you’re going to get that, you’re going to not hire Americans, and you’re going to sell the cars to us — no, we’re going to put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those guys if I get elected.”
The former president then warned about the potential economic consequences if he doesn’t win in 2024. “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country,” he said.
He then went back to speaking about how China will not be able to sell any cars in the United States if he’s reelected.
After the “bloodbath” comment, media outlets including NBC News, CBS News, ABC News, NPR, the Guardian, and Yahoo, failed to mention that he was speaking within the context of the auto industry in the United States. Some, like Politico, even stated that it “was unclear what the former president meant.”
Some Democratic politicians, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), also claimed his comments will spark another breach of the U.S. Capitol.
The Biden campaign seized on his remarks in Ohio on Saturday. “This is who Donald Trump is: a loser who gets beat by over 7 million votes and then instead of appealing to a wider mainstream audience doubles down on his threats of political violence,” Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer said in a statement to news outlets.
However, Republicans pointed out that the word was taken out of context and that legacy news outlets were misleading the public.
“Here we go again folks. The propaganda campaign is in full effect against Trump taking the bloodbath statement out of context,” wrote Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) on X on Sunday.
One Republican who has been critical of the former president came to his defense on Sunday morning, noting the context. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) noted to NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that the word bloodbath has multiple meanings.
“You could also look at the definition of bloodbath and it could be an economic disaster. And so if he’s speaking about the auto industry, in particular in Ohio, then you can take it with a little bit more context,” he said.
Former Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday also told CBS News that President Trump “was clearly talking about the impact of imports devastating the American automotive industry.”
And X owner Elon Musk posted the entire video of President Trump’s remarks about the auto industry’s problems on his platform, later writing: “Easy to tell who is an NPC today,” referring to people who didn’t question the “bloodbath” narrative pushed by those outlets. NPC, a term that originated from video games that means “non-player character,” refers to people who cannot think for themselves and cannot make their own decisions.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told outlets on Sunday that the former president was talking about the auto industry and broader economy.
“Crooked Joe Biden and his campaign are engaging in deceptively, out-of-context editing,” he said.
Also on Saturday, President Trump said that President Biden poses a threat to Social Security after he made comments earlier this week that suggested he would look at reforming the program.
“You will not be able to have Social Security with this guy in office because he’s destroying the economics of our country. And that includes Medicare, by the way, and American seniors are going to be in big trouble,” he warned, adding, “I made a promise that I will always keep Social Security, Medicare. We always will keep it. We never will cut it.”
He was in Ohio to stump for Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, who is running for the seat that is currently occupied by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).
