If asked to identify the one quality they admire most in former President Donald Trump, many of his supporters would cite his defiant courage.
Trump put that quality on display Monday following Judge Tanya Chutkan’s issuance of a partial “gag order” in the former president’s ongoing election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.
At a campaign rally in Clive, Iowa, Trump pledged that he would suffer incarceration before yielding to his persecutors.
The former president first told his supporters that his political enemies use legal warfare because they cannot defeat him electorally.
“The only way they can catch me is to stop me from speaking,” Trump said. “They want to take away my voice.”
He then referred to the partial gag order from a judge who has shown hostility toward him.
“But this is weaponry all being done because Joe Biden is losing the election and losing very, very badly to all of us in the polls. He’s losing badly,” Trump said.
At the words “all of us,” the former president moved his finger in a circle to signify everyone in the room.
Then came the pledge to suffer any cost.
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“But what they don’t understand is that I am willing to go to jail if that’s what it takes for our country to win and become a democracy again,” Trump said.
A full 20 seconds of wild cheering and whistling ensued.
Finally, Trump continued his speech and maintained similar themes.
“We’re being laughed at all over the world. We have become a fascist state run by incompetent people that want to see us fail. We’re not going to let it happen,” Trump said.
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The prospect of failure, coupled with lack of international respect, looms large in many of Trump’s speeches. Veteran observers know that the former president found America’s disgraceful 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan particularly galling.
Likewise, Trump always credits his supporters. He uses “we” and “our” in reference to his campaign and broader movement. Thus, the circling-finger gesture should have surprised no one.
His promise to endure jail, however, expressed a specific conviction that — to my knowledge, at least — he had never articulated.
Of course, the threat of intensified persecution has followed the former president everywhere.
Following Trump’s August indictment in Georgia, for instance, some noted that Atlanta’s own Martin Luther King, Jr., also suffered at the hands of a hostile regime. King endured jail and urged his peaceful followers to do likewise.
Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson and others have openly speculated that the desperate establishment regime might resort to assassination. Surely, Trump’s enemies will not see him re-elected without attempting continued drastic measures of some kind.
In short, Trump’s “jail” pledge felt like the furthest thing from false bravado. In these dystopian times, he knows that anything could happen.
