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By blatantly misrepresenting what Donald Trump said, his opponents have
played right into his hands

Donald Trump is constantly telling voters that his opponents are lying
about him. Naturally, his opponents deny this.

At the same time, however, they seem to be doing all they can to prove him right.

On Sunday, a spokesman for Joe Biden's re-election campaign accused Trump
of wanting “another January 6”, of having an “affection for violence”, and
of “doubling down on his threats of political violence”.

These accusations were made in response to a speech that Trump had made in
Ohio the previous day. According to horrified headlines in the US media,
Trump had warned the American people that, if he didn’t win the election,
“It’s going to be a bloodbath.”

What a chilling pronouncement. It sounds unmistakably like a call for
armed insurrection. But only if you ignore what he said directly before
it.

Watch the relevant passage in full, and you discover that Trump was
actually referring to the prospects of the American car industry.

If he won the election, he said, he would protect the car industry, and
ensure its success. But if Biden won, he went on, the industry would be
wiped out by Chinese competitors. Not just weakened by them, but utterly destroyed. In other words: “It’s going to be a bloodbath.”

Characteristic hyperbole, yes. But incitement to violence? No. From the
point view of Biden, and everyone else who wants to avert a second Trump presidency, misrepresenting him in this manner could prove a big mistake – because it plays right into Trump’s hands.

Ordinary American voters are likely to notice that, on this occasion,
Trump’s opponents have misrepresented him. And that will make these voters start to wonder if his opponents have misrepresented him on other
occasions, too.

As a result, they may become inclined to distrust negative coverage of
Trump – even when that coverage happens to be accurate. Of course, it’s possible that Trump’s opponents aren’t being dishonest, just wildly melodramatic.

Rather like supporters of Jeremy Corbyn in 2015, after Jess Phillips, the anti-Corbyn Labour MP, said that if his leadership damaged the party, “I
won’t knife [him] in the back, I’ll knife [him] in the front.”

Scandalised Corbynistas responded as if this were an actual death threat.
Mrs Phillips ended up having to explain to them that it was “never my
intention to threaten Jeremy”.

Goodness knows how these poor literal-minded creatures react when someone
tells them it’s raining cats and dogs. They probably ring the RSPCA in a
panic.

In any case, to return to Trump, Biden himself must surely know that he
was using “bloodbath” in a figurative sense. After all, Biden has used it
in this sense, as well.

In March 2020, he warned his political rivals that, if they weren’t
careful, the contest to become the Democrats’ candidate could turn into a “bloodbath”.

Then again, perhaps Biden has forgotten he said that. Since, in recent
months, he’s apparently forgotten what years he served as vice president,
the names of Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel, and even, bizarrely, what
a fax machine is, his use of “bloodbath” may well have slipped his memory,
too.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/19/donald-trump-bloodbath- warning-joe-biden-hypocrisy/

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