Having already called for protests, Donald Trump is now deliberately raising the threat of “death and destruction” in the event that he is indicted.

In a Truth Social rant posted after 1 a.m., Trump wrote:

Following Trump’s initial call for protests, many of his defenders insisted that he obviously meant peaceful protests. Now they’ll pivot to the argument that he wasn’t saying “death and destruction” would be a good thing, just making this observation about the state of play.

But it’s pretty obvious what he’s doing here. It’s a game he’s played before. He’s trying to use his ability to whip up supporters into a frenzy as an intimidation tactic to further his own aims while absolving himself from responsibility for anything that happens. He did that in the wake of his 2020 election defeat, and we ended up with the Capitol Riot. Instead of taking January 6th as a lesson against using rhetoric so loosely, Trump is instead using people’s memories of the event to make his warnings of “death and destruction” more credible.

Once again Trump is acting as a dangerous, destructive, force.