Who has Donald Trump threatened with death or violence?

Last month, Donald Trump said America has two enemies– “the external enemy” and “the enemy from within”. The latter, he claimed, was the “more dangerous” of the two, adding that the threat could be neutralized by the US military if he were president.

This remark hardly exists in isolation. The former president's often inflammatory rhetoric has taken an increasingly violent turn in the run-up to his face-off against Kamala Harris.

Critics have, louder and more consistently than ever before, called Trump a fascistespecially in the wake of a recent report that he openly praised Adolf Hitler to the White House staff and those of the last week hateful rally at Madison Square Garden– which, in an eerie parallel, was the same location where American Nazis played rallied in support of the German dictator in 1939.

Although he denies being a Nazi or a fascist, Trump has made it clear that, in his view, the “enemy within” includes Democrats and “radical left-wing lunatics,” people who criticize him and anyone whose actions contradict his narrow concept of America.

With the presidential election just days away, here is a partial list of the people and groups Trump has targeted with his violent rhetoric.

Liz Cheney

Trump criticized, among other things, her foreign policy stance and her support for his opponent, calling the former representative from Wyoming, one of his harshest Republican critics, “stupid as a rock” and a “war hawk” at a campaign rally on October 30th. 31 – and then his words became even more tense.

“Let’s put them there with a gun that shoots at them with nine barrels,” he said said. “Let’s see what she thinks. You know, when the guns are pointed at their faces.”

Mark Milley

Milley served as chairman of Trump's Joint Chiefs of Staff for about three years, but that didn't stop the current Republican nominee from proposing to appoint the retired Army general in September 2023 deserved to be executed about a call he made to reassure China after the January 6 uprising.

“This is an act so egregious that once the punishment would have been death!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, even though officials in his administration had agreed to the call.

Joe Biden

Trump in March shared a video supposedly filmed on a highway in Long Island, New York. The video showed two Trump supporters' ostentatiously decorated trucks with a sticker on the tailgate with an image of President Joe Biden tied up as if he had been kidnapped.

Mike Pence

On January 6, 2021, as his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to prevent then-Vice President Mike Pence and the Senate from certifying the 2020 election, Trump made a series of comments that encouraged or condoned violence.

“I don’t give a fuck that they have guns. “You are not here to harm me,” Trump told his team before giving his speech that day. according to witness testimony.

Meanwhile, in a public tweet Trump wrote“Get smart Republicans. BATTLE!”

His rhetoric was no less inflammatory as he told his supporters that afternoon: “You will never take back our country with weakness,” he said told the crowd. “You have to show strength and be strong.”

And when riots broke out, Trump said tweeted“Mike Pence did not have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constitution by giving states a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, and not the fraudulent or inaccurate facts that they had to confirm beforehand.” .”

Footage showed Trump supporters reading the post and chanting “Hang Mike Pence!”

Members of the press

Trump has indicated he would send reporters to prison if they don't reveal their sources.

“It’s very easy to get the information,” Trump said said at a rally in November 2022. “You tell the reporter, 'Who is it?' and the reporter will either tell you or not. And if the reporter doesn't want to tell you, it's goodbye. The reporter goes to prison. And when the reporter finds out that he's going to marry a certain prisoner in two days, that's extremely hard, harsh and mean, then he'll say… “You know, I think I'll give you the information.” Here's it the leaker. Get me the fuck out of here!'”

Racial justice protesters

In May 2022, as crowds in Minnesota – and across the United States – protested the killing of George Floyd by a police officer, Trump called for further violence against them on Twitter. Sharing a slogan with a racist story: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

As protesters filled the streets around the White House, Trump said: according to the memoirs of former Defense Secretary Mark Esper“Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?”

(Trump has denied the statement.)

Illegal immigrants

One of Trump's most repeated campaign promises was his promise to crack down on illegal immigration. Here too, his rhetoric has become downright threatening.

“Getting them out will be a bloody story” said Trump at a September rally in Wisconsin, referring to illegal immigrants in Colorado. “They should never have entered our country. Nobody checked them.”

What could actually happen if Trump is elected?

Trump's aggressive rhetoric comes with promises to prosecute his political opponents, including Biden, Harris and former President Barack Obama, among many others. As noted, he has also threatened to use military force against American citizens.

But how credible are these threats? To what extent could Trump retaliate if he returns to the White House?

Legal experts told NBC News that under a new Trump administration, the Justice Department and FBI could carry out his threats, especially if Trump is able to install allies in key positions within the organizations.

“A corrupt U.S. attorney with a corrupt prosecutor can do tremendous damage,” said NBC legal analyst (and former U.S. attorney) Joyce Vance.

As president, Trump would also be commander in chief of the US military. Former military officials fear that Trump would try to carry out his threat and use the armed forces to serve his domestic political whims.

“Using the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement is not the American way,” said John Kelly, Trump’s former White House chief of staff and a former general The Washington Post. “The fear is that he's telling them to do something illegal, and that's really bad.”