Raw Story

Donald Trump has long openly admired the world's dictators and three weeks before the US presidential election he's taking a page from the authoritarian playbook with escalating threats against the "enemy from within."

One of Trump's hallmarks as president was his constant use of the phrase "enemy of the people" to describe the media -- or at least the media which didn't paint him in a good light.

But as polls show him with a good chance of beating Kamala Harris next month to regain the White House, Trump got attention Sunday when he called for sending the US military to combat a much broader group of Americans.

Asked on Trump-friendly Fox News whether he expected election day would be peaceful, the Republican cited internal enemies.

"We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they're the -- and it should be very easily handled by -- if necessary, by National Guard or, if really necessary, by the military," he said.

"The enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries," he said.

The only specific "enemy" that Trump identified was senior Democratic congressman and Senate candidate Adam Schiff, whom he described as "a sleazebag" and "major lowlife."

Trump would not yet have authority over the National Guard or the military on election day, even if he were declared the winner.

However, the suggestion of using the army against Americans reinforces the billionaire's increasingly dark emphasis on authoritarian messaging.

- China as policing model? -

Trump's claim on Fox News that "internal" foes are more dangerous than major foreign adversaries like Moscow and Beijing builds on years of admiration for leaders like Russia's Vladimir Putin, China's Xi Jinping and North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

Those three are "at the top of their game, they're tough, they're smart, they're vicious, and they're going to protect their country," he said glowingly in August.

What's newer is growing emphasis on emulating authoritarians' domestic crackdowns on US soil.

Last month, Trump claimed the country was awash in crime -- something refuted by official statistics -- then told a rally that the solution would be to allow police to impose a violent crackdown.

"If you had one really violent day," he mused. "One rough hour -- and I mean real rough -- the word would get out and it would end immediately."

It was the kind of language that echoed another of Trump's favorite lines -- that Xi runs China with an "iron hand."

"He controls 1.4 billion people ruthlessly. Ruthlessly. No games," Trump lauded in January this year, calling Xi a "brilliant man."

Democrats -- and a long list of former senior Trump presidential staff -- have sounded dire warnings about a second term. But Trump himself makes little effort to push back.

Asked last December on Fox whether he had any aims to create a dictatorship, he answered: "No, other than day one."

- 'Revenge' -

Trump has run for years on accusations that a shadowy "deep state" is the truly anti-democratic force in the United States and that he is there to defend ordinary voters.

However, he upended democratic norms in 2020 when he refused to recognize his election loss to Joe Biden. He now continues to cast doubt on whether November's election will be fair -- raising fears of unrest similar to the January 6, 2021 assault by his supporters on the Capitol.

As election day approaches, Trump has repeatedly suggested that in his second term the Justice Department would imprison election cheats -- despite no evidence to back his claims that any cheating has taken place.

"WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again," Trump posted in September.

As Trump said in an interview with TV host "Dr. Phil" in June, "sometimes, revenge can be justified."

© Agence France-Presse

Former President Donald Trump lashed out at Fox News on Tuesday in a rant on his personal social media site, TruthSocial.

According to Trump, the conservative cable news network follows any positive reporting of him with "a really negative voice" he claims is lying.

"The problem with FoxNews is that every time they put on someone who is positive and touting all of the good things I have done for the Country, they always feel it necessary to follow up with a really negative voice, often people who are storytellers and willing to outright lie," Trump complained.

Read Also: 'Hugely offensive': Dems blast 'crazy' Trump's new J6 debate claims

He said that the daytime Fox anchors don't counter anything from those he claims are the "negative voice."

"The daytime anchors are no match for these lunatics, and they get away with absolute murder. The net result is NOTHINGNESS, so what’s the purpose in watching?" asked Trump.

The CBS News show "60 Minutes" recently reported that Trump backed out of an interview when he was informed he would be fact-checked to his face.

Fox News host Martha MacCallum questioned Alina Habba, an aide and attorney for Donald Trump, after she claimed there were "babies floating in the water" under the vice presidency of Kamala Harris.

While appearing on Fox News, MacCallum told Habba that Trump had been criticized for allegedly spreading misinformation in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

"You know, there's been criticism about former President Trump, ... and what he has said about the ability for the administration to respond to this issue," the Fox News host said.

"Let's talk about facts," Habba ranted. " ... Let's talk about information that is undisputable. While Helene was happening, Kamala decided it was more important to go on a podcast about sex, Call Her Daddy."

"So I'm talking facts," she continued. "This is not the time to politicize. This is not the time to try and get a point ahead of your other opponent. It's the time to get dirty and go help people."

Habba insisted that Trump "hasn't tried to make phony phone calls to look good to the media."

"And western North Carolina got hit really hard," she opined. "They need help. They need water. There are still people missing.

"There are babies floating in the water. And we're on podcasts. That's what the Harris team is doing."

ALSO READ: Voter exhaustion is part of Trump's grift

MacCallum seemed unconvinced, making the lawyer pause to explain.

"Where did you see that report of a baby floating in the water?" she asked.

"We have absolutely heard there are children floating," Habba repeated. "There's missing bodies, dead bodies."

Watch the video below from Fox News.

Former President Donald Trump is falling apart as he sees polls, like the latest New York Times/Siena College survey, showing Vice President Kamala Harris tempting Republican voters away from him, Democratic strategist Maria Cardona argued on CNN Tuesday.

Her assertion came after a heated back-and-forth between herself and former Trump administration official Matt Mowers over the former president's repeated lies about FEMA aid to states devastated by Hurricane Helene.

The latest Times/Siena poll, noted anchor Brianna Keilar, "shows Harris gaining ground with Republicans. Do you think the Trump campaign should be worried, Matt?"

"No, I wouldn't be too worried because I think he's still in a margin of error race," said Mowers, adding that in battleground states, "most polling shows a one to two-point race in either direction, depending on the poll, for Trump or for Harris. This is really tight."

Cardona, however, disagreed.

ALSO READ: Busted: Bundy collaborator fueled FEMA conspiracy in Hurricane Helene aftermath

"Here's why this really matters, and why Donald Trump and the Trump campaign are worried," said Cardona. "And in fact, you see, in Donald Trump's demented approaches to his rallies now, in his speeches with upping the lies and completely going off script, is because they are worried about what they are seeing.

"I think the critical piece in this New York Times poll is that voters are now seeing the vice president as the agent for change."

In other words, Cardona continued, "Voters are now seeing her, and I think Donald Trump is helping her do this. And her underscoring this every chance she gets is really important. Voters see her as the one who actually worries about issues that are important to them. They see her as the one representing their needs, and that is something that she's going to talk to every single day between now and the election."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

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Former President Donald Trump appears to be getting into the cryptocurrency business, and the New York Times reports that the "serial entrepreneurs" he has brought in to helm his foray have checkered pasts.

According to the Times, Trump crypto business partners Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman have been "leaving behind a trail of lawsuits and unpaid debt and taxes" in their assorted ventures.

Herro, for one, describes himself as a "dirtbag of the internet" and an ace salesman, whereas Folkman once ran a pickup artist advice firm called Date Hotter Girls.

Despite the shadiness of their business histories, the two men have earned endorsements from Donald Trump Jr., who said recently that, "You could put them in a boardroom at Goldman Sachs, and they're going to smoke the people in the room."

RELATED: Voter exhaustion is part of Trump's grift

Some experts on the cryptocurrency industry who spoke with the Times, however, expressed skepticism that the two men could "smoke" anyone.

Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University, told the Times that Herro and Folkman "did not appear to have the technical or financial savvy to make the venture work."

And John Reed Stark, a former senior Securities and Exchange Commission official, told the Times that Herro and Folkman's pitch for their brand of cryptocurrency is "a bunch of nonsense, and a terrible opportunity for investors."

To back up this point, the Times noted that Herro and Folkman have "a history of jumping from project to project" and "together or separately, they have formed at least 17 companies, gravitating to the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, both tax havens."

Read the full report here.

A bombshell court filing by special counsel Jack Smith includes a key detail that shows Donald Trump is playing right into his prosecutor's hands, a legal expert argued Monday.

In their weekly "Jack" podcast, analyst Allison Gill and former Justice Department Assistant Director Andy McCabe cited a piece of the filing in which Smith points to Trump's "disregard for the truth."

"Jack Smith has all this proof. It's cited in redacted footnotes in this motion," Gill said. "The evidence includes [Mike] Pence, as his running mate, telling him they lost. To 'take a bow.'" He goes on to tell Trump they could run again in 2024."

Read Also: Behind the legal tactics Trump is using to dodge justice for January 6

Smith also said in the filing that he "intends to show a huge pattern of false voter fraud claims," summarized Gill.

"The defendant and his co-conspirators also demonstrated their deliberate disregard for the truth and thus their knowledge of falsity when they repeatedly changed the numbers in their baseless fraud allegations from day to day," Smith wrote.

"At trial, the government will introduce several instances of this pattern in which the defendant and co-conspirators' lies were proved by the fact that they made up figures from whole cloth," the filing continued.

"It's about the totality of the evidence. The pattern, right?" said Gill.

McCabe wondered how Trump's defense can prepare for that when the case goes to trial.

"How do you defend against that? Do you just say, 'Oh, we were dumb. We didn't know. We were mistaken all six times,'" McCabe speculated.

"I had seen those numbers somewhere," Gill chimed in with her own mock defense. "But they kept changing the numbers."

"From 32,000 to 250,000. I mean, it's that blatant," said McCabe.

"Yeah, and he does it all the time," said Gill before slipping into her Trump impression: "'We have 3 million illegal immigrants. Ten million. Twenty-five million, 345,000 children.' Like, he makes these numbers up. 'I had 107,000 people at my rally in New Jersey.'"

"He just makes them up out of whole cloth and the fact pattern here is what is important," said Gill. "He has a history and a pattern of creating numbers out of whole cloth that Jack Smith says will prove that these allegations of fraud are baseless."

Listen to episode 97 of the podcast here.