Tag

#intent evidence

2 incidents

Grade 1 of 5: Significant Democratic Concern

'Vermin', 'Poisoning the Blood', 'the Enemy From Within': Campaign Rhetoric Against Opponents and Immigrants, 2023–2024

As a candidate, Trump called opponents 'vermin' to be 'rooted out', said immigrants were 'poisoning the blood' of the country, and suggested deploying the military against an 'enemy from within' that included a sitting congressman. Historians compared the language to fascist propaganda. Rhetoric is not an act, and no direct harm is tied to these statements in the sources reviewed; they are recorded as stated intent relevant to later second-term deployments and prosecutions of opponents.

Grade 1 of 5: Significant Democratic Concern

2015–2016 Campaign: Trump Advocates Waterboarding 'and Much Worse' and Killing Terrorists' Families

During the 2016 primary campaign Trump promised to restore waterboarding and harsher methods, and said the US should kill terrorists' families. Both would violate the Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture. As a candidate's statements, they are recorded here as evidence of stated intent, not as conduct.