Donald Trump just can’t stop saying the wrong things

Donald Trump announced to the world that he would lock up his political opponents if he was elected to the presidency again in a brazen display of his readiness to attack his rivals. 

During an interview with Trump, right-wing political commentator Glenn Beck brought up Trump’s old 2016 campaign promise to lock up Hillary Clinton and asked if he’d do the same to others. 

“You said in 2016, you know, ‘Lock her up,'” Beck told the former president while talking about how Trump handled the Clinton situation after he was elected to office in 2016. 

“And then when you became president, you said, ‘We don’t do that in America. That’s just not the right thing to do,'” Beck continued according to a quote from The Hill. 

Beck went on to allude that the Democrats were locking up their political rivals now that they were in power before he asked the former president a very consequential question. 

“Do you regret not locking her up?” Beck asked Trump before going on to inquire if he’d lock other people up if he was elected to the presidency for a second term in office. 

Trump didn’t even skip a beat before replying to Beck with one of the most cynical takes a former president could have when it came to tit-for-tat retribution against political foes. 

“Well, I’ll give you an example, the answer is you have no choice because they’re doing it to us,” the former president replied, and he didn’t stop at saying he’d lock others up. 

Trump said he always had “great respect” for the “president and presidency” and that he “never hit Biden as hard” as he could have The Guardian quoted him as saying to Beck. 

“And then I heard he was trying to indict me, and it was him that was doing it,” he said. But Trump’s claim lacks evidence to prove his indictments are being directed by Biden. 

“I don't think he's sharp enough to think about much but he was there, and he was probably the one giving the order,” Trump told Beck according to The Daily Mail.

The former president has been indicted four times for alleged crimes he committed over the course of his time outside the Oval Office, only two of which are at the federal level. 

While Biden’s Justice Department may be handling Trump’s classified documents case and his case regarding his alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election, the other two cases have been brought against him by state prosecutors. 

Regardless of Trump’s feelings about his legal troubles, the idea he would be willing to “lock up” his political rivals was one that certainly riled a few feathers across America. 

More importantly, Trump’s comments revealed the reality of the ‘us vs. them’ politics that have come to dominate American politics in the era of reality star presidents like him.

“You know, so many of these days, I have a couple of other lawsuits all funded against me by the Democrats. But these are sick people. These are evil people.” Trump told Beck in what might be the clearest sign that politics in America are in a dangerous place.