Ahead of the vice presidential debate, Donald Trump held a couple of odd events in Milwaukee, including a news conference in which he reflected on recent assassination attempts. The New York Times highlighted one of the former president’s stranger comments:
Saying that the Secret Service had been burdened by the security needs of the recent U.N. General Assembly, Mr. Trump complained that officials “said that we have to guard the United Nations, which meant the president of North Korea, who is basically trying to kill me.” He added, “So they want to guard him, but they don’t want to guard me.”
It was an odd comment on its face, in large part because Kim Jong Un hasn’t tried to kill Trump and has no reason to do so.
But as curious as the rhetoric was, this was not the only strange thing the Republican has said recently about attempts on his life.
Late last week, for example, the GOP candidate suggested to a Michigan audience that the assassination attempts against him might have been caused by foreign opposition to his tariff proposals.
Two days earlier, Trump suggested — without a shred of evidence, of course — that Iran might have been involved in two recent attempted assassinations against him.
A New York Times report explained that the former president had received an intelligence briefings about threats from Iran, and intelligence officials were tracking a potential Iranian assassination plot against him, “but officials have found no evidence to link Iran to either the Pennsylvania gunman or the man who the authorities say tried to shoot Mr. Trump at his golf course in Florida” last month.
In other words, it appears the Republican might’ve just thrown some relevant details together and started connecting dots in a bizarre and baseless way.
Two days earlier, Trump issued a ridiculous written statement, accusing the Justice Department of “downplaying” an alleged assassination plot, and alleging that federal officials have a conflict of interest “since they have been obsessed with ‘Getting Trump’ for so long.”
The rant, which made odd references to his Russia scandal and referred to Jan. 6 as a “hoax,” went on to say, “OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM IS CORRUPT AND DISCREDITED, especially as it pertains to the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.”
To be sure, the former president’s rhetoric on the subject has long been problematic. In July, for example, after he was shot in the ear, the Republican started blaming his critics for the shooting — again, without any evidence — and amplifying conspiracy theories.
Trump eventually blamed the Biden administration for the attempt on his life — officials “weren’t too interested in my health and safety,” he told television personality Phil McGraw — and after another conservative media ally questioned whether the shooting might’ve been an “inside job,” the former president responded, “You do have to wonder.”
You do not, in fact, have to wonder.
But as Election Day nears, Trump’s comments on the issue appear to be getting even weirder.