Published 18 March 2024 at 11.13
Foreign. A long line of media – including Swedish – have taken a comment from Donald Trump out of context to portray it as threatening to cause “a bloodbath” if he loses the election. In fact, the presidential candidate talked about the consequences for the auto industry.
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“Trump threatens with 'bloodbath' – if he loses the election”, reads a headline in Expressen which is similar to a very large number of other articles published in the Western media.
The background is that Trump warned in a speech about ” a bloodbath for the whole country”.
The reader is given the impression that he said this as a threat of political violence in the event of an election loss. Expressen quotes, for example, James Singer, spokesperson for President Joe Biden's campaign, who claims to have reacted “directly to the violent message in the speech”.
– This is who Donald Trump is. A loser who gets beaten by seven million votes and instead of trying to reach a wider audience, he bets even harder on threats of political violence, says Singer.
– He wants a new January 6, but that the American people will hand him another election loss in November. They will continue to reject his extremism, penchant for violence and his thirst for revenge.
If you listen to the comment in its context, however, it becomes clear that Donald Trump did not all threaten to cause some bloodbath. Instead, he referred to the risk of “a bloodbath” for the auto industry with Joe Biden's policies, which is very clear:
The media is lying about Donald Trump with this narrative about a “bloodbath” if he loses the election. He was very clearly talking about the car manufacturing industry—before and after he used the word.
You have to be extremely disingenuous to take what he's saying out of… pic.twitter.com/qhctYGpi7K
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 17, 2024