What Trump Says about Minnesota Brings to Mind the U.S. Capitol on January 6…. and, Is the U.S. Capitol a Federal Building?

Trump has issued the following statement on Truth Social: “We will guard, and very powerfully so, any and all Federal Buildings that are being attacked by these highly paid Lunatics, Agitators, and Insurrectionists. There will be no spitting in the faces of our Officers, there will be no punching or kicking the headlights of our cars, and there will be no rock or brick throwing at our vehicles or at our Patriot Warriors. If there is, those people will suffer an equal, or more, consequence.”

 

What about the U.S. Capitol and the January 6 mob? Trump has repeatedly alleged that January 6 rioters were given a bad rap, as they were really "political prisoners" and “patriots.” Indeed, he pardoned them. Trump kicked off his first rally of the 2024 campaign with a rendition of the "Star-Spangled Banner" recorded from a phone by Jan. 6 defendants in prison, including an alleged Nazi sympathizer. During the 2024 presidential campaign, he called January 6 a "day of love," notwithstanding the fact that, according to Prosecutors, 140 officers were injured that day.

 

Trump and his allies (including the Republican Senators who blocked the creation of a National Commission to investigate January 6) claim that January 6 rioters were denied due process and that the Department of Justice under Biden had weaponized the incident. For Trump, the victims of the January 6 riot (including police officer Brian Sicknick who was assaulted with pepper spray that day and died due to injuries inflicted by the rioters) were the perpetrators and the perpetrators (namely the rioters) were the victims. Thus, in Trump’s words: "the cops should be charged and the protesters should be freed." Furthermore, Trump blamed the FBI for infiltrating the crowd of rioters with 274 agents who allegedly provoked the violence.

 

The turnaround of Trump and his allies from defending the January 6 rioters to accusing peaceful demonstrators of being “terrorists” can only be considered cynical. Talking to people I realize I’m not the only one asking ‘does this guy really believe what he says?’