Donald Trump claims the FBI ‘stole’ his three passports

Donald Trump has vented his anger over the “sneak attack” FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago home, warning “terrible things are going to happen”.

Former US President Donald Trump has accused the FBI of a “sneak attack” raid on his Florida estate last week, including taking his passports.

“The country is in a very dangerous position,” Mr Trump told Fox News Digital in his first interview since the August 8 search of his palatial home and resort.

“There is tremendous anger, like I’ve never seen before, over all of the scams, and this new one — years of scams and witch hunts, and now this.”

“Wow! In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else,” Mr Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

“This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!” the 45th president added.

Former US President Donald Trump speaks out about the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago resort and home which retrieved classified documents that he said he had returned. Picture: AFP

Federal agents seized more than two dozen boxes of items, including 11 sets of classified documents, from Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

According to an inventory that was unsealed by a federal judge on Friday, four sets of documents were marked “Top Secret,” the highest level of classification the government can give information.

Three were marked “Secret,” the second-highest level, while the remaining three were marked “Confidential”.

Another set was marked “Various classified/TS/SCI documents,” which is the abbreviation for “top secret/sensitive compartmented information.”

News of the raid caused outrage among the former president’s supporters, with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warning this weekend of a spike in threats to law enforcement.

A vehicle carrying former US President Donald Trump has he leaves the office of the New York Attorney General in New York City on August 10, 2022. Picture: AFP

“People are so angry at what is taking place,” Mr Trump warned.

“Whatever we can do to help — because the temperature has to be brought down in the country. If it isn’t, terrible things are going to happen.”

“The people of this country are not going to stand for another scam,” he continued.

Mr Trump went on to claim that he and his legal team had contacted the Justice Department and offered to assist in their investigation into whether the former president violated three federal laws dealing with government information.

“I think they would want the same thing — I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. “It is a very dangerous time for our country.”

“There has never been a time like this where law enforcement has been used to break into the house of a former president of the United States, and there is tremendous anger in the country — at a level that has never been seen before, other than during very perilous times.”

A gardener working outside former US President Donald Trump's residence Mar-A-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida, which was searched by FBI agents. Picture: AFP

Mr Trump moaned to Fox: “years of fake witch hunts and phony Russia, Russia, Russia schemes and scams.”

“And then they break into a president’s house — a sneak attack where it was totally — no one ever thought a thing like this would happen,” he added.

The 45th president reacted angrily to the raid, even suggesting that agents may have planted evidence during their search.

On Monday, he claimed that the searchers told his team to turn off security cameras and remain outdoors while the raid took place.

“They could take anything they want, and put anything they want in,” Mr Trump told Fox News Digital Monday. “My people were asked to stand outside.”

On Sunday, the former president called on the Department of Justice to return the seized documents, citing a Fox News report that at least five of the 27 boxes removed from Mar-a-Lago contained information covered by lawyer-client or executive privilege​.

“Oh great! It has just been learned that the FBI, in its now famous raid of Mar-a-Lago, took boxes of privileged ‘lawyer-client’ material, and also ‘executive’ privileged material, which they knowingly should not have taken,” Mr Trump said on his Truth Social site.

“By copy of this TRUTH, I respectfully request that these documents be immediately returned to the location from which they were taken. Thank you!,” he wrote.

People walk by Trump Tower in Manhattan. According to a recent report, the FBI was looking for nuclear-related documents when they searched Mar-a-Lago. Picture: Getty Images/AFP

The three statutes at issue ban the gathering, transmission or loss of defence information (a law commonly known as the Espionage Act); the concealment, removal or mutilation of documents; or the destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal probes.

Trump’s team is arguing that the documents were in fact declassified, citing a “standing order” the former president had while in office that deemed sensitive documents “declassified the moment he removed them” from the White House.

Despite the claim, the New York Times reported this weekend that a member of Trump’s legal team​ signed a written statement during a visit by Justice Department officials in early June — two months before the raid — contending that all classified material once held at Mar-a-Lago had been returned to the government.

This combination of pictures shows Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Picture: AFP

EXPERTS SAY BIDEN V. TRUMP REMATCH LIKELY

Leading American political experts are predicting that Joe Biden and Donald Trump will go head to head in the 2024 presidential race.

If you think you’ve seen this movie before, it’s because you have — except the second time will be even more nerve-racking. Yes: get ready for Biden vs Trump, Part 2.

That’s a potential takeaway from the scandal embroiling Mr Trump over his alleged hoarding of secret government documents almost two years after losing re-election to Mr Biden.

If Mr Trump was previously considered likely to announce a 2024 comeback bid, one school of thought is that the FBI search of his Florida estate, allowing Mr Trump to depict himself as a martyr, makes that decision almost certain.

Former US President Donald Trump could have his comeback bid strengthened by the FBI raid on his Florida resort and home. Picture: AFP

“I believed he was gonna run before — I’m stronger in my belief now,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News.

If Mr Trump does run, goes the theory, then Mr Biden will, too. Despite being the oldest man ever in the job at 79, Mr Biden sees it as his historic mission to rid the United States of Trump.

And so, after surviving the nightmarish 2020 election, Americans may have to do it all over again.

This time it would be in reverse — the incumbent by then 81-year-old Mr Biden and the challenger, 78-year-old Mr Trump.

Experts say that if Mr Trump runs for president again, so will Mr Biden, despite being the oldest candidate to ever run for office. Picture: AFP

Given Mr Trump’s constant lies that he won the 2020 election and searing evidence of his role in stoking the violent January 6 assault on Congress, a rematch would be ugly.

“If you think Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns were nasty, you ain’t seen nothing,” said American University history professor Allan Lichtman, a leading authority on US presidential elections.

Analysts say that the FBI raid on Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort is a game-changing moment that, ironically, could benefit either side.

Local law enforcement officers are seen in front of the home of former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. The raid was a game changer, say analysts. Picture: AFP

Mr Trump is facing not only the FBI probe, but legal cases linked to allegations of everything from subverting the election, to fraud and rape.

That’s embarrassing for Republicans and energising for Mr Biden’s Democrats, who increasingly dream of avoiding a brutal loss, or even scoring their own surprise victory, in November midterm elections to decide control of Congress.

“Trump is like a steroid boost for Democrats,” Jim Kessler, at the Democratic think tank Third Way, told The Hill.

But Mr Trump is again dominating the national psyche, while his fervent base has a new conspiracy theory to feed off, lighting up right-wing social media with calls to arms and threats of Civil War 2.0.

Supporters of former US President Donald Trump gather near his residence at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. Picture: AFP

“Donald Trump has more than $100 million ($A140m) in his political war chest. But he has something even more valuable — an active FBI investigation against him,” wrote Richard Lowry, editor of the conservative magazine National Review.

“It has put him front-end-centre again. It has made it easy for him to portray himself as an embattled victim.”

“If Trump wants it at this point, I don’t see how it’s not his,” Republican political strategist John Thomas told Politico. “It’ll be a coronation.”

People walk by Trump Tower in New York City. According to a recent report, the FBI was looking for nuclear-related documents among other things when they searched Mar-a-Lago. Picture: Getty Images/AFP

And Mr Trump getting in would also essentially trigger Mr Biden’s decision to follow — scotching any thoughts he may privately have of stepping aside for a younger figure before 2024.

“Trump is the critical first mover in whether or not there is a rematch,” said Lara Brown, director of the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University.

“I do believe that President Biden is waiting to see if Trump declares and if he does, I believe he will also declare very quickly after.”