Trump Denies Promising To Pay Violent Supporters Legal Fees

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:50 pm

In the world according to Donald Trump, if he makes a claim or a promise and subsequently denies having made the claim or promise, it never happened.

The value of archives, video and other methods of preserving previous made statements is they can’t be sent down a memory hole.  When Trump denied knowing who David Duke was, comments he made denouncing Duke’s white supremacy in 2000 resurfaced.

We saw it happen when he incited violence and celebrated it at his rallies.  When the media finally called him out on something that was occurring for months, first he tried to deflect blame, then denied  the existence of violence at all.

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Even if he wants to claim that someone magically and deceptively the abundance of available video of Trump reminiscing about the “good old days” when protesters were taken out on stretcher, Trump can’t escape the fact that violence happens at his rallies.  Among other things, John McGraw faces assault charges for sucker punching a man who was being escorted out of a Fayetteville, North Carolina rally. Trump himself came perilously close to facing charges for inciting a riot.

Everyone who is paying attention knows that when Trump encouraged his supporters to attack protesters, he also promised to pay their legal fees. On Sunday, Trump told Chuck Todd he was considering covering John McGraw’s legal fees, because when a white dude sucker punches a black dude, that’s evidence of the white dude’s love for his country.

Is anyone surprised that Trump now denies he ever promised to pay the legal fees?

According to CNN, Trump made the denial during an interview on Tuesday morning.

“On Tuesday, questioned again if he was “open to that,” and if paying the fees meant rewarding violence, Trump said, “Well maybe so, and maybe that’s why I wouldn’t do it. I don’t condone violence at all, and you know I looked and I watched and I’m going to make a decision.”
 
“I certainly don’t condone violence and maybe you’re right and maybe that’s why I wouldn’t do it,” he said.”

This is part of why fact checking Donald Trump is both exhausting and almost impossible. As Politico noted, Trump lies, on average, every five minutes.

But this lie is telling in another sense. Trumpees are convinced this is a guy who tells them “like it is” and has taken on “political correctness” in his question to make America hate …. er great again. Just as they have his back by screaming “go to Auschwitz” by sucker-punching or beating “the crap” out of protesters, they believe he has their backs too.  

His denial of ever making that promise proves that Trump is the ultimate scorpion and his supporters are the ultimate frogs. By withdrawing his promise to pay violent supporters’ legal fees, Trump proved he would turn on his supporters because it’s in his nature.

Adalia Woodbury

Former contributor.