"BLOODBATH": TRUMP WASN'T REALLY TALKING ABOUT THE AUTO INDUSTRY OR PROMISING MAGA VIOLENCE

Donald Trump and his Republican friends, along with some people who aren't Republicans, insist that Trump's reference to a "bloodbath" in an Ohio speech over the weekend was merely a reference to the future of the U.S. auto industry if President Biden wins again and foreign-built electric vehicles make inroads in the U.S. car market. Here's Trump on Truth Social:

Here are some Trump surrogates:

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.

All other reporting about his "bloodbath" comment is complete propaganda. The media should be ashamed.

— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) March 17, 2024

President Trump said the AUTO INDUSTRY faces a bloodbath if Biden wins and he’s right!

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! https://t.co/zkt9rv0liA

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) March 17, 2024

Mediaite founder Dan Abrams said this on NewsNation:

He’s talking about it in the context of cars, right? Is it a great idea to be using phrases like “bloodbath” considering what happened on January 6th? No. But do I think he’s calling for another January 6th-type event there, as many in the media have been claiming? No. The context matters. Right out of the gate, the word “bloodbath” blew up in the media. The Trump campaign put out a statement repeating it was talking about the automobile industry in China, but the left-leaning media dug in.

Here's what Trump said while talking about electric vehicles built in Mexico by Chinese firms:

Now, 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.

Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole. That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it.

Timothy Snyder says this isn't just about cars, and he's right about that:

Yes, Trump spoke for a moment about cars. He was saying that we should elect him so that he can put tariffs on Chinese cars. At this point he is presumably still on script. And then he starts to say that it will be bad for the auto industry if he is not elected. He never quite gets to that, since in the middle of the sentence he has another idea.

The auto industry, he says, is "the least of it." If he is not elected, "it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole" and "it's going to be a bloodbath for the country." He repeats that the auto industry is "the least of it." So, yes, the words about cars are part of the context, in the sense that if you pay attention to them you know that he does not mean an automotive bloodbath.

The auto industry is "the least of it." Trump is promising, as he says, a "bloodbath for the country."

But is Trump promising a bloodbath? Is he, as Snyder believes, promising to unleash more January 6-style violence?

I don't think so, even though, starting at the very beginning of the speech, he lavished praise on the January 6 rioters (whom he now invokes using the conservatively correct term "hostages"). I think Trump was predicting that a second Biden term will turn America into an unlivable hellscape, because sinister foreigners will make it one.

Here's some of what Trump said in the speech:

This is the worst border in the history of the world. There’s never been anything, millions and millions of people are pouring into our country, probably 15 or 16 million people. That’s almost larger than any state we have in the union.

... among my very first actions upon taking office will be to stop the invasion of our country and send Joe Biden’s illegal aliens back home. These are the roughest people you’ve ever seen. Now we have a new form of crime. I call it Biden migrant crime, but it’s too long. So let’s just call it migrant crime. We have a new category. You have vicious crimes, you have violent crimes, you have all these, now we have migrant crimes and they’re rough. They’re rough and it’s going to double up....

They’re sending from all over the world, not just South America, Latin America. They’re sending them from Asia. They’re sending them from Africa. The Congo, last night, 22 people arrived from the Congo. Now, the Congo is a very nice place I would imagine, but they arrived from the Congo and they came from prison. Where are you from in the Congo? What’s your address? Prison. Now these are rough people....

And these are tougher than anybody we’ve got in the country. These are hardened criminals and we’ve got hundreds of thousands of them and we’re not going to take it. We’re just not going to take it. They are destroying our country.

One week ago I met with a family of 22-year-old nursing student, incredible person, Laken Riley, who was brutally murdered in Georgia last month while out on a morning run. She was so badly beaten up, unrecognizable, can you believe it? Laken’s killer was set loose into the United States through Joe Biden’s program of releasing military-aged males into our communities after they’ve illegally crossed our southern border.

And that’s what happened, that this animal came in. Laken Riley would be alive today if Biden had not unleashed his savage attack on America, and that’s what he’s done....

I think they hate our country. So now they have a new term for people like this. They call them neighbors. Neighbors. They want to call them neighbors so that people coming into our country illegally, “Hi, neighbor. How you doing, neighbor? How’s everything?” Then they punch you in the face and whack you. What a group of idiots we have. This country has never seen anything like what’s happening to it now. And it’s true. We have never seen what’s happening to our country right now. They’re destroying our country. They’re ruining our country.

In the Republican party, we believe that Laken’s killer is an illegal alien criminal. He is an illegal monster. He should never have been in our country and he would’ve never been in our country, never ever would he have been in our country if the election weren’t rigged because we didn’t allow people like that into our country. We didn’t welcome them and they knew it....

Not one more American life should be lost to migrant crime. When I’m President of the United States, we will demand justice for Laken. On day one my administration will terminate every open border policy of the Biden administration.

If there's a throughline in this speech, it's this: Evil foreigners want to kill you, and Joe Biden is letting them do it. And these evildoers aren't just evil because they commit acts of physical violence. It's economic, too, according to Trump:

No one has been hurt by Joe Biden’s migrant invasion more than our great African American and Hispanic American communities. You know that, right? Because they’re taking your jobs and they’re creating lots of problems.

And you know who else it hurt? People on social security, because your social security will be destroyed by the people coming in. There’s too many of them, it’s not sustainable. Joe Biden is costing you Medicare and he’s costing you your social security as sure as you are sitting or standing....

With his open border policy Joe Biden has repeatedly stabbed African American voters in the back, including by granting millions and millions of work permits, taking their jobs. The African American community, the Hispanic community, are going to be the ones that suffer the most. And you know who else? Unions. Because unions are getting good, solid high pay. And guess what’s going to happen? Those unions are going to go out of business because people are owning trucking companies and carpenters and people that employ electricians. And a lot of trades, they’re not going to be able to do this. They’re not going to be able to do it. The unions are going to go out....

Mexico has taken over a period of 30 years 34% of the automobile manufacturing business in our country. Think of it, it went to Mexico. China now is building a couple of massive plants where they’re going to build the cars in Mexico and think, they think that they’re going to sell those cars into the United States with no tax at the border. Let me tell you something to China, if you’re listening, President Xi, and you and I are friends, but he understands the way I deal, those big monster car manufacturing plants that you’re building in Mexico right now, and you think you’re going to get that, you’re going to not hire Americans and you’re going to sell the cars to us. Now, 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. Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole... That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it. But they’re not going to sell those cars.

So that's the context for the word "bloodbath." Never mind the fact that migrants who live in this country are consumers as well as workers, and thus they help create jobs. Never mind the fact that it's good if migrant workers are paying into the Social Security trust fund. Trump thinks migrants are killing Americans literally, and foreign workers, here and in other countries, are killing Americans economically.

That's what he means by "bloodbath." He doesn't want America to find a way to thrive in a global marketplace. He doesn't want to build a rational immigration system. He just wants to wall us off from foreigners. Otherwise, he says, there will be blood.