Former President Donald Trump‘s speech Saturday had a clip go viral when he suggested the automobile industry will undergo a “bloodbath” if he’s not reelected.
Trump was in Dayton, Ohio, when he was disparaging electric vehicles and made campaign promises to maintain the auto industry should he be reelected. The 2024 candidate blasted China for its part in building car factories in Mexico.
“We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected,” Trump said. “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That will be the least of it. But they’re not going to sell those cars. They’re building massive factories.”
However, some Democratic figures zeroed in on Trump’s “bloodbath” comment and raised a red flag.
“Promising a bloodbath is disqualifying. I don’t care what you think about other issues,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) wrote on X. “This guy is promising a bloodbath. He needs to lose. Stand up for America. Please.”
MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough posted footage from Jan. 6, 2021, to X with the caption “Donald Trump’s America. And he is proud of it.”
“Promised another ‘bloodbath’ if he loses again,” Scarborough wrote.
Meanwhile, Trump’s allies rushed online to provide the full context of his speech. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) was with Trump at the rally Saturday.
“Donald Trump said that a bloodbath would happen to the American auto industry if Biden kept on promoting Chinese made EVs. He of course is 100 percent correct,” Vance wrote. “All other reporting about his ‘bloodbath’ comment is complete propaganda. The media should be ashamed.”
“President Trump said the AUTO INDUSTRY faces a bloodbath if Biden wins and he’s right,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wrote. “Democrat mandated switch to EV’s and all the regulatory changes that come with the Green New Deal climate agenda is already hurting car dealerships and auto manufacturers. It will get worse!”
“Interesting,” X owner Elon Musk wrote in response to the full clip of Trump’s speech when compared with other headlines.
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The Washington Examiner’s Byron York also shared a list of times the New York Times has used the word “bloodbath” in a nonviolent way.
Ohio’s primary election comes on Tuesday.
