Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz (D) declared Sunday that former President Trump is having a “thermonuclear meltdown” in the final days of the campaign, citing what he called “violent talk, paranoid fantasies and promises of retribution.”
Schatz, who often posts his political observations on social media, suggested that the media is largely glossing over Trump’s behavior, such as his remarks about the size of the late golfer Arnold Palmer’s genitalia, floating a scenario in which former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) would face loaded rifles, and vowing to prosecute political opponents who “cheat” in the election.
“I sure hope no one on social media or in the traditional media sugarcoats the thermonuclear meltdown Trump is having. He’s indulging in a fair amount of violent talk, paranoid fantasies, and promises of retribution,” he posted on the social platform X.
“Please not ‘candidates trade barbs in final hours,’” he advised media outlets.
Trump made headlines over the weekend when he mused he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after losing the 2020 election and remarked he wouldn’t mind if members of the press were shot if there was another assassination attempt at one of his rallies. His campaign denied he was insinuating the media should be harmed.
“I have this piece of glass here,” he said of the ballistic glass protecting him at a recent rally in Lititz, Pa. “But all we have really over here is the fake news. And to get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news. And I don’t mind that so much.”
Trump at the same event called the Democratic Party “demonic” and accused it of wanting to imprison his supporters.
“It’s a crooked country,” he said. “They’ll want to put you in jail because you want to make it straight. Think of it, think of it. They cheat in elections, and you call them on it and they want to put you in jail.”
Trump’s behavior also drew scrutiny at a Friday night rally in Milwaukee when he vented his frustration over a malfunctioning microphone, asking the crowd: “Do you want to see me knock the hell out of people backstage?”
“It’s a pretty stupid situation, but that’s OK,” Trump fumed on stage. “I get so angry. I’m up here seething. I’m seething. I’m working my a‑‑ off with this stupid mic.”
While wrestling with the glitchy mic, Trump at one point simulated performing oral sex, drawing a huge cheer from his crowd of supporters.
On Thursday, Trump criticized Cheney — former Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter — as a “radical war hawk” and painted a picture of her facing enemy fire on a battlefield.
“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face,” he said during an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Trump caused another firestorm last month when he described Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who served as the lead prosecutor for his first impeachment trial in 2020, and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as “enemies within.”
“These are bad people. We have a lot of bad people. But when you look at ‘Shifty Schiff’ and some of the others, yeah, they are, to me, the enemy from within,” he told Fox News’s “Media Buzz.”
Trump last year vowed to avenge his supporters “who have been wronged and betrayed.”
“In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice,’” Trump told supporters at the Conservative Political Action Conference last year. “Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
