Donald Trump last week pushed back against the media’s attempts to misrepresent his use of the word “bloodbath” during a March 16 rally in Ohio, ABC News reported.
While speaking at a campaign rally in support of Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno near Dayton, Trump suggested that if Joe Biden was reelected in November, the US auto industry would send manufacturing to Mexico and promised to impose tariffs on auto imports if he was elected president.
Trump then suggested that if he was not elected in November it would “be a bloodbath for the whole country.”
The media quickly seized on Trump’s “bloodbath” comment to suggest that Trump was threatening nationwide violence if he lost in November.
But it wasn’t only the media that latched onto Trump’s remark.
In a March 16 statement, James Singer, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, tied Trump’s use of the term “bloodbath” to his praise for dictators and his support for the January 6 rioters. Singer accused Trump of wanting “another January 6” but said in November, voters would reject the former president’s “thirst for revenge” and “affection for violence.”
President Biden echoed Singer’s statement the following day, saying in a post on X that it was “clear” Donald Trump wanted “another January 6.”
Responding to the blowback last Monday, Trump blasted the media in a social media post for taking his remark out of context. He argued that the media knew he was using the term “bloodbath” to describe what would happen to the auto industry if he was not elected in November and tariffs on imports were not imposed.
In a March 18 fundraising email, the Trump campaign also called out the media for misquoting the former president.
Campaign spokesman Steve Cheung turned the tables on the media in a post on X, saying if the media wanted to “talk about ‘bloodbath,’” then he would talk about the “bloodbath” unleashed by President Biden, including the deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan, the ongoing crisis at the southern border, and Biden’s “feckless foreign policy.”
