Former President Donald Trump said Saturday’s “Justice for J6” in Washington, D.C., will be a no-win situation for Republicans.
“That’s a setup,” Trump said of the gathering, intended to show support for people arrested after the Jan. 6 attack, in an interview with The Federalist. “If people don’t show up they’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s a lack of spirit.’ And if people do show up, they’ll be harassed.”
Trump said the treatment of people involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol violence has reinforced that a double standard exists in the country.
“There’s a discontent with everything having to do with politics,” Trump told The Federalist. “People are so disgusted with the way people are being treated from the Jan. 6 situation. It’s a combination of that compared to how antifa and [Black Lives Matter] were treated. When you compare the treatment, it is so unjust, it is so unfair. It’s disgraceful.”
Trump slammed former President George Bush, who during remarks on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks indirectly criticized the former president and Trump supporters by claiming they were “children of the same foul spirit” that inspired the 9/11 hijackers.
“Bush now goes around lecturing everybody about all sorts of things, and he shouldn’t be lecturing anybody, because he’s the one who got us into the mess of the Middle East,” Trump said. “In the 20 years since, it’s been obliterated, and it’s probably in worse shape now than it’s ever been because of him.
“When Bush left the presidency, his approval rating was in the low-20s. I don’t know how he was that high. There must’ve been something wrong with the poll.”
Trump did compliment Democrats for remaining united to achieve their goals.
“The Democrats have become radicalized, and the Republicans don’t have good leadership, because they don’t fight as hard,” Trump said. “The Republicans, the leadership, should have fought harder for the presidential election.
“Democrats have horrible policy; they’re vicious, but they stay together.”
Trump discussed many topics in the interview published by The Federalist on Thursday.
He said he would have made some different choices for his administration if he knew then what he knows now.
“Well, you’d always do things differently,” Trump said. “I would’ve used different people in some cases. There are some people I would not have used who I didn’t think were very good, and that’s because I wasn’t a Washington person. I know everybody now.”
Trump continued to take verbal shots at Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Mark Milley, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and President Joe Biden.
“Milley’s a television general, and he’s not very good at it,” Trump said of the general, who in a new book has been accused of promising to alert the Chinese of any attacks in the final weeks of the Trump administration.
“He’s been a disaster for the current administration. He got weak-kneed.”
Trump, however, said all military leaders were not like Milley.
“We have great generals,” he said. “We took out ISIS, Soleimani, al-Baghdadi, and we did a lot of great work.”
Trump again called for Senate Republicans to fire McConnell and elect a new leader.
“I think Mitch McConnell has proven to be a disaster,” Trump said. “He’s not good for the Republican Party as a leader, and I wish I wouldn’t have endorsed him.
“The Senate has to make a change at some point. I don’t think it’s acceptable having him as a leader.”
Biden’s disastrous troops withdrawal from Afghanistan was “one of the worst things I think I’ve ever seen for our country.”
“To lose the young people [killed in the bomb blast] is so horrible,” Trump said. “It’s a horrible situation.
“What Biden is doing is grossly incompetent. It’s a disgrace.”
