On Friday afternoon, former President Donald Trump posted a video to his Truth Social account of two trucks driving on a highway decked out in pro-Trump flags and stickers. One truck had a decal spanning its entire back gate made to resemble a truck bed carrying President Joe Biden, bound and gagged like a kidnapping victim.
Trump posted the 20-second video without any commentary other than the caption "3/28/24 | LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK…," though the video ended by zooming in on the decal showing a kidnapped Biden. The video prompted outrage on social media, with numerous legal experts, journalists and political commentators calling on the justice system to rein in the former president.
"I know from experience how the Secret Service interacts with people who make threats against POTUS, even ones they can't carry out," former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance posted to X/Twitter. "This, from a former President, is totally out of bounds. It's time to stop letting Trump break the rules. Long past time."
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Elizabeth de la Vega, another career federal prosecutor, quote-tweeted Alene's post, saying she "entirely agree[d]" with her assessment.
"The Secret Service (not Trump's protection detail but criminal investigative agents) should be knocking on Trump's door with a complaint and arrest warrant," she tweeted. Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch called on judges to "revoke his bail."
"He’s threatening the president’s life. That’s a felony," tweeted Harvard law professor emeritus Laurence Tribe. "If anyone else did it, the feds would arrest him. What now?"
MSNBC contributor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who is a scholar of authoritarian movements around the globe, tweeted that Trump's posting of the video showing a kidnapped Biden was "an emergency," writing that "This is what authoritarian thugs and terrorists do. Trump is targeting the President of the United States."
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The former president has doubled down on his rhetoric celebrating political violence carried out in his name — particularly in his praise of his supporters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump has repeatedly referred to federal inmates incarcerated for their actions during the deadly insurrection three years ago as "hostages" and has pledged to pardon them if elected to another term in the White House this November.
Author Bruno Amato warned that Trump's most committed supporters could view his post as an implicit endorsement of future political violence. He then named numerous hate crimes and mass shootings that were carried out by far-right extremists during the Trump presidency as examples.
"Trump incited AT LEAST 2 mass shootings, an El Paso Walmart and a Pittsburg synagogue resulting in the murders of 33 innocent people AND incited the deadly Jan. 6th Insurrection. Unlike Charles Manson who also inspired killings, THIS criminal has yet to serve ONE day in prison," Amato wrote.
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