Donald Trump, who was impeached for inciting supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol in an effort to overturn his 2020 electoral loss, warned on Saturday that there will be a “bloodbath” for the auto industry if he doesn’t win the election this November.
In his first campaign appearance since officially becoming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, the former president headlined a rally in Ohio to whip up support for Bernie Moreno ahead of Tuesday’s GOP Senate primary. Moreno, a hardliner endorsed by Trump, is locked in a three-way primary race with state Sen. Matt Dolan and Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
However, Trump was far more interested in airing his grievances about the dozens of criminal indictments he’s currently facing, and the decisive election he lost to President Joe Biden than in campaigning for Moreno. Furthermore, he painted an extremely dark, dystopic vision for the nation if he were once again to lose to Biden this fall.
Complaining about automobile manufacturing plants in Mexico and China, Trump said that if he gets back into the White House he will impose massive tariffs on any Chinese-built vehicles imported into the United States.
“Let me tell you something China. If you’re listening President Xi, and you and I are friends, but he understands the way I deal,” Trump exclaimed before grousing about China building auto plants in Mexico. “We’re going to put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the line. You’re not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected!”
Trump, however, issued a stark warning for America if he doesn’t win the 2024 election.
“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 gonna be a bloodbath for the country,” he declared.
Trump went on to reiterate that China will not be able to sell any of its vehicles in the United States if he emerges victorious this November.
Notably, Trump’s rally comes just a day after his former Vice President Mike Pence said that he could not “in good conscience” endorse the former president this year. Pence has come under fire from his ex-boss for certifying Biden’s electoral victory and refusing to help steal the 2020 election.
“During my presidential campaign, I made it clear that there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues—and not just our difference on my constitutional duties that I exercised on January the 6th,” Pence stated on Friday.
Furthermore, in a somewhat ironic twist, the ex-president’s troubling remarks about the country’s future sans Trump come just days after GOP officials described the MAGA takeover of the Republican National Committee in similarly stark terms. With the RNC expected to fire roughly 60 staffers after the former president’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump was installed as co-chair, sources told The Guardian that the move represented an “absolute bloodbath.”