Donald Trump tells supporters at rally: ‘You’re headed to WWIII’
Trump loyalists turned out in droves to support the former US president at his first rally since being convicted, as he made a chilling threat if not elected.
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Thousands of Donald Trump supporters rallied in baking heat to cheer on the Republican presidential candidate in Nevada, a key battleground state for the US election in November, as he warned of “World War III” if he is not re-elected.
“It’s not too hot out here, right?” the 77-year-old told a cheering crowd in Las Vegas as he stepped onto the stage.
“If you start going down, we have people. They’ll pick you up right away. They’ll throw water.”
The gathering was Mr Trump’s first major rally since he was found guilty late last month of falsifying business records to hide a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election.
Mr Trump, who faces three other criminal cases which are unlikely to be heard before the November election, spoke for just under an hour and attacked Mr Biden as “the worst president in the history of our country.”
The Republican repeated conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was “stolen” by Democrats – despite exhaustive investigations finding no such evidence, and him being charged in relation to his alleged attempts to overturn the ballot result.
He also spoke ominously of the consequences if he is not elected in November, telling supporters: “If it doesn’t happen, you’re headed to World War III.”
But for his most loyal followers, the verdict only strengthened Mr Trump’s position against his Democratic rival, President Joe Biden.
“I don’t care about what happened to him in the trial … it doesn’t change my mind about him at all,” Lindsay Elliott, who came to the Trump event with her family, told AFP.
“I think it’s going to help him. I think that the American people are done with this crap,” the 40-year-old added.
Her daughter Mackenzie, 19, agreed: “It sucks what happened but I think it’s just going to make him stronger and make voters more encouraged to vote (for him).”
People wearing the traditional red of the Republican Party were queuing to hear Mr Trump speak at midday, when temperatures exceeded 34C.
Vendors sold T-shirts reading “I’m voting for the convicted felon” along the mile-long line.
Beth Matthews, wearing a Trump T-shirt, said she “contributed right away to the campaign as soon as they came out” with the guilty verdict, she said.
Near the end of the rally, at least one person overcome by the heat was seen being attended to by paramedics.
The crowd also chanted “Happy Birthday” ahead of Mr Trump’s 78th on 14 June.
A Chilean who lives in the United States but is not a citizen said illegal migration is an important issue for her.
“I’m an immigrant and I had to wait years to get my visa and arrive legally, and it bothers me that so many immigrants arrive illegally and pass through like it’s nothing. That bothers me a lot, that’s why I support president Trump,” she said.
‘OUT OF HIS MIND’, ‘TRUE SOCIOPATH’: TRUMP SLAMMED
US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed she’s worried former President Donald Trump would throw her in jail if he wins the November election.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez spoke with podcast host Kara Swisher for her show and touched on the upcoming presidential election.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy threw me in jail,” she said. “He’s out of his mind. I mean, he did his whole first campaign around ‘lock her up.’ This is his motto.”
“I take him at his word when he says that he’s going to round up people. I take him at his word when he threatens journalists. I take him at his word,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez said.
“I feel like what we saw in his first presidency was an amuse-bouche to what his intentions are. He has learned from his mistakes of appointing professionals, and he will not make that mistake next time.”
Swisher asked the New York Democratic politician if she thought Mr Trump really had a chance at winning the election now that he’s a convicted felon.
“Trump does absolutely have a chance to win. That is why I have thrown my support behind Biden early and I support it vociferously,” she said.
“It is unequivocal that if Donald Trump wins, we are looking at the potential dissolution of democracy in the United States of America and the question about what would happen to me or the Democratic Party is a joke compared to the question of what is going to happen to our country.”
Meanwhile, American musician and vegan activist Moby, called Trump a “sociopath.”
“Donald Trump is a true sociopath. He famously hates animals. His ex-wife says she brought home a dog and he threatened to kill it.
“He hates animals because they can’t do anything for him,” he said to media while on his European tour.
It comes as Mr Trump was interviewed by New York probation officials on Monday, local time, a required step before his July sentencing in his criminal hush money case, according to three people familiar with the plan.
Mr Trump conducted the virtual interview via a computer video conference from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
In an exception to usual procedure, Todd Blanche, one of Mr Trump’s lawyers, was present for the interview.
People convicted of crimes in New York usually meet with probation officials without their lawyers, but the judge in Mr Trump’s case, Juan Merchan has allowed Mr Blanche to be present.
Defendants are usually asked in pre-sentencing interviews about their conviction and other basic background information such as their employment and criminal history.
“President Trump and his legal team are already taking necessary steps to challenge and defeat the lawless Manhattan DA case,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.
TRUMP THREATENS TO ‘JAIL HIS ENEMIES’ IF RE-ELECTED
Mr Trump has threatened to prosecute his political opponents if he returns to power, saying it is “very possible that it’s going to have to happen to them”.
Days after the presumptive Republican nominee for November’s election became the first president to be convicted of a crime, he unleashed on the case against him in an interview in which he suggested he would pursue retaliatory action.
“It’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us to, and it’s very possible that it’s going to have to happen to them,” he told Newsmax.
“It’s a very terrible thing, it’s a terrible precedent for our country. Does that mean the next president does it to them? That’s really the question.”
Mr Trump is due to be sentenced on July 11 after he was found guilty of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election, silencing her claim that they had a brief affair a decade earlier.
The 77-year-old could be sent to prison, put on probation or slapped with a fine.
US President Joe Biden’s campaign spokesman James Singer said Mr Trump was “a danger to our Constitution, a threat to our democracy, and so consumed by his own failed, diminished state he has gone off the deep end”.
“Reeling and increasingly unhinged from his own felony convictions, Trump raising plans to jail his political opponents is just the latest proof that he will do anything to regain power, preserve his own freedom and seek revenge on anyone who opposes him,” he said.
“The warning signs are clear for all to see.”
If he returns to the White House, Mr Trump has already suggested he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Mr Biden and his family. His allies also want to abandon the Justice Department’s independence, with prosecutions instead directed by the president.
“Wouldn’t it be terrible to throw the president’s wife and the former secretary of state – think of it, the former secretary of state, but the president’s wife – into jail? Wouldn’t that be a terrible thing, but they want to do it.”
BIDEN’S ‘TRUMP MOVE’ AT US BORDER
US President Joe Biden is slamming shut America’s southern border to asylum seekers in a last-ditch bid to stem the record surge of illegal immigration that has imperilled his re-election effort.
The executive order mirrors extreme measures implemented by former president Donald Trump – Mr Biden’s opponent in November’s election – and is set to be challenged in court by furious progressive activists.
Almost eight million migrants have illegally entered the US from Mexico since Mr Biden came to office and relaxed border restrictions. The issue now ranks as one of voters’ top concerns, with Mr Trump promising a mass deportation campaign if he returns to office.
Under Mr Biden’s crackdown, he will be able to suspend asylum claims when illegal crossings average at least 2500 per day for a week – a threshold that has been reached for most of his presidency, even though crossings have slowed this year.
The ban is expected to take effect immediately, giving authorities the power to immediately deport migrants who arrive and prevent them from trying to return for five years. It will only be switched off once illegal crossings fall below 1500 per day for a week.
“We must face a simple truth: To protect America as a land that welcomes immigrants, we must first secure the border and secure it now,” Mr Biden said.
“If the United States doesn’t secure our border, there’s no limit to the number of people who may try to come here.”
Mr Trump hit back by saying his opponent was “pretending to finally do something about the border” after “nearly four years of his failed weak leadership”.
“But in fact, it’s all about show, because he knows we have a debate coming up in three weeks,” he said, referring to their first head-to-head contest in the election later this month.
Mr Biden sought to turn the pressure back on to Mr Trump with his long-awaited announcement, criticising his Republican rival for torpedoing a bipartisan reform package earlier this year that represented the toughest overhaul of border legislation in decades.
A senior Biden administration official argued the crackdown was different to Mr Trump’s border restrictions because there were humanitarian exemptions in place for unaccompanied children and victims of trafficking.
– With AFP.
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