Donald Trump has warned of a “bloodbath” if he loses the presidential election in November.
The former president ratcheted up the tension as he addressed supporters at a rally in Ohio on Saturday.
“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 going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it,” he said.
It was not clear what he meant by “bloodbath”, with his remark coming in the middle of comments about threats to the US car industry.
Mr Trump has still refused to accept that he lost the 2020 election, and has pledged to free supporters jailed for storming the Capitol during the Jan 6 riots.
“You see the spirit from the hostages. And that’s what they are – hostages,” he said, adding that those in jail were “unbelievable patriots”.
The former president is facing a raft of charges in connection with his attempts to overturn his 2020 defeat.
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith has indicted him on four felony charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding – the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
In Georgia, Mr Trump, who is one of 18 defendants, still faces 10 charges including six counts of conspiracy.
As well as resurrecting his claims about Jan 6, Mr Trump appealed to his base with an attack on immigrants crossing into the US from Mexico, claiming some had been deliberately decanted from prisons by Latin American countries.
His speech was punctuated with criticism of “stupid president” Joe Biden and other opponents, including Gavin Newsom, the California governor, who he has dubbed “New-Scum”.
Despite leading in the polls and securing the Republican nomination, Mr Trump’s rhetoric has alarmed many within his own party.
Mike Pence, his former vice-president, has said he will not endorse Mr Trump in November. Nikki Haley, his main challenger for the nomination, has also refused to back her former boss, as has Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor.
Bill Cassidy, the Republican senator for Louisiana, said the former president’s remarks made voters worry about what a second Trump administration might bring.
“The general tone of the speech is why many Americans continue to wonder ‘should President Trump be president?’ That kind of rhetoric, it’s always on the edge – maybe doesn’t cross, maybe does, depending upon your perspective,” he said on NBC News on Sunday.
The Biden campaign wasted little time in seizing on Mr Trump’s remarks. “He wants another Jan 6 but the American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge,” said James Singer, a spokesman.
“This is who Donald Trump is – a loser who gets beat by over seven million votes and then, instead of appealing to a wider mainstream audience, doubles down on his threats of political violence.”
Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, sought to defend the former president’s remarks, saying he was talking about the US economy and not threatening political violence. “Crooked Joe Biden and his campaign are engaging in deceptively out-of-context editing,” he said.
Mr Biden, meanwhile, aimed a few light-hearted barbs at Mr Trump when he appeared at the annual Gridiron Dinner in Washington on Saturday.
“One candidate is too old and mentally unfit to be president,’ he said. ‘The other is me.
“Just yesterday, a defeated-looking man came up and said: ‘I’m being crushed by debt. I’m completely wiped out.’ I said: ‘Sorry, Donald, I can’t help out.”
Underpinning the jokes is a Democratic strategy to use humour to defuse the controversy over Mr Biden’s age, with the majority of voters believing the 81-year-old president is too old to serve another term.
