News
Trump Just Suggested Jailing His Political Opponents – and MAGA Has a Plan in Place
Donald Trump once again is threatening to jail his political opponents, including President Joe Biden. And unlike his 2016 presidential debate remark to Hillary Clinton, this time there’s an actual plan in place to do just that.
In addition to saying, “lock her up,” Trump has a history of repeatedly threatening or calling for Clinton to be thrown in prison. One month before the 2016 election Trump told a Florida crowd, “she has to go to jail.” That was just days after the second presidential debate, when Trump told Clinton she would “be in jail” if he were president.
Trump has been strongly focusing on prosecuting and putting President Joe Biden in prison.
“Since the start of last year, Trump has issued direct or implied threats on Truth Social to use the powers of the federal government to target Joe Biden during a second Trump administration 25 times. Specifically, Trump has threatened him with FBI raids, investigations, indictments and even jail time,” government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) wrote last month.
Tuesday night on the right wing media outlet Newsmax, Trump again threatened to jail his political opponents.
“So, you know, it’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us to,” he said, NBC News reported, blaming Democrats for his criminal conviction, “and it’s very possible that it’s going to have to happen to them.”
READ MORE: ‘Utterly Horrible’: Trump’s Putin Claim Ignites Anger, Again
Trump, according to Newsmax, also called his New York criminal conviction last week on 34 felony counts, “a terrible precedent for our country. Does that mean the next president does it to them? That’s really the question.”
“It’s very possible it’ll have to happen to them” — Trump threats to imprison his political opponents pic.twitter.com/7X1JjBJyUA
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 5, 2024
“One of Trump’s most consistent talking points on the trail centers on his intention to prosecute Biden if he regains executive power,” NBC News reported in February.
“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of America, Joe Biden, and go after the Biden crime family,” Trump said last year in June. That was “just hours after being arraigned at a federal courthouse in Miami on charges alleging willful retention of classified documents.”
When Trump first entered the Oval Office, he had institutional guardrails, as many experts have noted. He appointed former government officials, including his “generals,” to top posts and they worked to steer him away from his most extreme desires.
Over time, those institutionalists resigned or were fired.
Now, thanks to a massive multi-million dollar enterprise funded in part by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, Project 2025, there’s a plan in place to jail Trump’s political opponents, should he win back the White House.
Project 2025 is the far-right’s plan to entirely remake the Executive Branch to hand Trump massive, unchecked power, via a 920-page policy “mandate.”
“Trump and his aides are reportedly assembling a list of people to be investigated, prosecuted, and possibly jailed,” The Atlantic‘s Tom Nichols wrote last year. Nichols is a former U.S. Naval War College professor and expert on Russia, nuclear weapons, and national security affairs.
“Trump also wants to go after President Joe Biden for ‘corruption,’ which (like so many of Trump’s accusations) is pure projection,” Nichols continued. “If Trump follows through on all of this lunacy, half the government will spend its days investigating the other half, while the military is put on alert in case too many Americans object to Trump’s destruction of their constitutional rights.”
READ MORE: Johnson Says GOP Will Defund DOJ in Retaliation for Trump Conviction
“If you’re wondering how Trump plans to accomplish all of this, he likely has no idea. But his cronies at the Heritage Foundation (including former administration officials) do, and they are busily making plans. They’ve even written them down in something called Project 2025, a detailed blueprint for a right-wing takeover of the United States government. Trump, who seems to be losing his grip on reality more each day, might be devolving into a flaming piñata of offensive nonsense, but his enablers and the authors of Project 2025 know exactly what they’re doing.”
Take Steve Bannon.
Last year Media Matters called Bannon’s “War Room” podcast “the media home of Project 2025 and Trump’s retribution plans.”
Last week, Bannon made the right’s plans clear.
“The DOJ is completely corrupt from top to bottom,” he said on his podcast in video reposted by The Recount. “It’s going to have to be purged, it’s going to have to be restructured,” he said, insisting “they’re going to have to get rid of lots of personnel on the afternoon of January 20, 2025.”
“The FBI is the American Gestapo,” Bannon added, also insisting it be “totally restructured.”
Steve Bannon calls for the Justice Department and the FBI to be “purged” starting “on the afternoon of January 20, 2025.” pic.twitter.com/oU9AOAngaT
— The Recount (@therecount) May 28, 2024
Axios on Wednesday reported on “MAGA’s jail plan.”
“If former President Trump wins in November, top supporters will push him to investigate, prosecute — and even try to imprison — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), who won Trump’s conviction in the hush-money case,” the news outlet reported.
“‘Of course [Bragg] should be — and will be — jailed,’ Steve Bannon, one of the top voices of the MAGA movement, told us — saying for the record what many Trump supporters are privately plotting.”
Watch the videos above or at this link.
READ MORE: ‘I Worship God’: Greene Melts Down Again After Attacking Fauci in Profane Lie-Filled Rant
Enjoy this piece?
… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.
NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.
Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.
 |
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is facing criticism from a group of hundreds of national security experts for his attack on First Amendment-protected speech and protest after he lashed out at next week’s “No Kings” rallies, which are expected to attract millions of Americans across the nation.
“The theory we have right now,” Speaker Johnson told Fox News on Friday, “they have a hate-America rally that’s scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It’s the pro-Hamas wing and Antifa people, they’re all coming out.”
Calling the protests against authoritarianism an “outrageous gathering for outrageous purposes,” Johnson later said attendees would include “the Antifa crowd, and the pro-Hamas crowd, and the Marxists.”
Other Republicans on Friday went even further, with one, House Republican Majority Whip Tom Emmer, baselessly invoking a “terrorist” claim.
READ MORE: ‘I Know People. They Don’t Believe That’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Scorches Johnson
Emmer told reporters that the “terrorist wing” of the Democratic party, “is set to hold … a hate-America rally in D.C. next week.”
The Steady State, a group that includes more than 330 former ambassadors, inspectors general, flag officers, Defense and Homeland Security officials, and senior intelligence officers, blasted the Speaker’s remarks.
“Johnson is branding the planned No Kings rally a ‘hate America rally,’ warning that all the ‘Antifa people’ will be there,” the group wrote. “He calls it ‘serious business’ and claims it’s ‘hurting real people.'”
“But Johnson, a constitutional lawyer, knows better,” they said. “Peaceful protest is not only protected under the First Amendment—it is a core democratic right and a cornerstone of American freedom.”
The No Kings coalition, responsible for the upcoming rallies, also responded to Speaker Johnson.
“After a few moments of laughter, the No Kings coalition issued the following statement: ‘Speaker Johnson is running out of excuses for keeping the government shut down. Instead of reopening the government, preserving affordable healthcare, or lowering costs for working families, he’s attacking millions of Americans who are peacefully coming together to say that America belongs to its people, not to kings.'”
READ MORE: ‘Unfolding Rapidly’: Trump Wants to ‘Stoke Violence’ to Invoke Insurrection Act Says Expert
Image via Reuters
As the nationwide anti-authoritarian “No Kings Day” protests approach, Republicans are attempting to link “Antifa” — which President Donald Trump has claimed to have designated a “domestic terrorist organization” — to Democrats, and are even claiming there is a “terrorist wing” of the Democratic Party. The apparently coordinated messaging, likely an effort to shift the national conversation, comes amid mounting anger toward the GOP over the federal government shutdown.
“The theory we have right now,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told Fox News on Friday, “they have a hate-America rally that’s scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It’s the pro-Hamas wing and Antifa people, they’re all coming out. Some of the House Democrats are selling T-shirts for the event.”
Later, speaking at a press conference, Johnson doubled down, saying, “this hate-America rally that they have coming up for October 18th, the Antifa crowd, and the pro-Hamas crowd, and the Marxists, they’re all gonna gather on the mall.”
“It is an outrageous gathering for outrageous purposes,” he said, calling participants “an angry mob that’s a big chunk of their base.”
READ MORE: ‘I Know People. They Don’t Believe That’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Scorches Johnson
Antifa, as former FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress in 2020, is “not a group or an organization. It’s a movement or an ideology.” Antifa stands for “anti-fascist.”
Yet, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has gone even further, calling the entire Democratic Party a “domestic extremist organization.”
“There is a large and growing movement of leftwing terrorism in this country,” Miller also claimed last weekend. “It is well organized and funded. And it is shielded by far-left Democrat judges, prosecutors and attorneys general. The only remedy is to use legitimate state power to dismantle terrorism and terror networks.”
U.S. Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) on Friday told Newsmax, “October 18th is when the protest gets here, this will be a Soros paid for protest where his professional protestors show up, the agitators show up. We’ll have to get the National Guard out. Hopefully, it’ll be peaceful. I doubt it as well.”
Like Speaker Johnson, Marshall — without offering any proof — claimed that the “No Kings” protests are a prerequisite for Democrats to vote to end the federal government shutdown. He did not explain why the National Guard would be required to be deployed for First Amendment-protected speech events.
READ MORE: ‘Angry’ Johnson Lashes Out — Says Dems Need to Be ‘Physically Separated’ From Republicans
“So I think that they have to get that march done,” he said. “They have to show their protests. They have to fight like they’re saying here. This is all a political show. It’s all a political scam right now.”
House Republican Majority Whip Tom Emmer baselessly invoked the “terrorist” claim.
“This is about one thing and one thing alone — to score political points with the terrorist wing of their party, which is set to hold … a hate-America rally in D.C. next week.”
Responding to Emmer, U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) wrote: “The very people who were loudest in lecturing us on political rhetoric now label millions of Americans peacefully exercising their constitutional right to free speech ‘terrorist’ because they don’t hold conservative views. Disgraceful and unacceptable.”
Semafor’s David Weigel added: “Republicans getting very comfortable accusing nonviolent liberal groups of being ‘terrorist.'”
On Thursday, Patrick Jaicomo, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice wrote: “Less than a year in, and almost everybody is already a terrorist?”
He listed: Illegal Immigrants, Drug Dealers, Muslims, Democrats, Antifa, Palestinians, and Federal Judges.
Former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh, responding to Emmer’s remarks, wrote: “Looks like everyone in my former political party has signed on to the Donald Trump/Stephen Miller game plan, which means calling Democrats ‘terrorists.’ Terrorists? Despicable. Shameful.”
“Very straightforward, they’re portraying all dissent as inherently illegitimate protest by terrorists and criminals,” observed Media Matters’ senior fellow Matthew Gertz. “What this means is that No Kings rally attendees need to triple down on being disciplined. They’re going to paint you as America-hating terrorists anyway, but don’t make it easy for them.”
“The plan seems very obvious,” Gertz added. “Find some violence anywhere near any of the No Kings protests and use it to go after the organizers and their funders.”
Emmer: “This is about one thing and one thing alone — to score political points with the terrorist wing of their party, which is set to hold a hate America rally in DC next week.” pic.twitter.com/FKnIpFMSUY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 10, 2025
READ MORE: ‘Unfolding Rapidly’: Trump Wants to ‘Stoke Violence’ to Invoke Insurrection Act Says Expert
Image via Shutterstock
Facing growing backlash from Democrats and even lawmakers from his own party — as well as GOP voters — for sending the House into recess during the shutdown, Speaker Mike Johnson is turning his anger toward Democrats and the broader left.
As Politico reported on Friday, Johnson is “dead set on keeping the House out of session as long as it takes to pressure Senate Democrats” on the shutdown, to pass the House’s continuing resolution to fund the government.
The Speaker suggested tensions are so high in the halls of Congress right now that he thinks Democrats need to be “physically separated” from Republicans.
“Emotions are high. People are upset — I’m upset,” Johnson said on Thursday. “Is it better for them, probably, to be physically separated right now? Yeah, it probably is, frankly.”
READ MORE: ‘Unfolding Rapidly’: Trump Wants to ‘Stoke Violence’ to Invoke Insurrection Act Says Expert
Johnson, who was set to host a now-postponed private Palm Beach, Florida “retreat” and fundraiser this weekend, went even further on Friday morning.
“We’re so angry about it,” he told Fox News. “I mean, I’m a very patient guy, but I have had it with these people,” the Speaker said, emphatically, of Democrats. “They’re playing games with real people’s lives.”
“The theory we have right now — they have a hate-America rally that’s scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It’s the pro-Hamas wing and Antifa people, they’re all coming out. Some of the House Democrats are selling T-shirts for the event. ”
READ MORE: ‘Twice the Size of a Glass of Water’: Trump Invents Wild Claim on Babies’ Vaccines
“And it’s being told to us that they won’t be able to re-open the government until after that rally, ’cause they can’t face their rabid base,” Johnson said, adding that he is “beyond words.”
Johnson appeared to be referring to the “No Kings” rally, a protest against authoritarianism, which is not only being held in Washington, D.C. on October 18, but nationwide.
Mike Johnson: “We’re so angry about it. I mean, I’m a very patient guy, but I’ve had it with these people. The theory we have right now — they have a hate America rally that’s scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It’s the pro-Hamas wing and antifa people … ” pic.twitter.com/QKlHo9zRq2
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 10, 2025
READ MORE: ‘I Know People. They Don’t Believe That’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Scorches Johnson
Image via Reuters
‘Cornerstone of American Freedom’: National Security Group Blasts Johnson Attack
‘Terrorist Wing’: GOP Links Democrats to Antifa Ahead of ‘No Kings Day’
‘Angry’ Johnson Lashes Out — Says Dems Need to Be ‘Physically Separated’ From Republicans
‘Show Up and Do Your Job’: Some Republicans Join Dems in Demanding Johnson Bring House Back
‘Twice the Size of a Glass of Water’: Trump Invents Wild Claim on Babies’ Vaccines
News3 days ago‘Show Up and Do Your Job’: Some Republicans Join Dems in Demanding Johnson Bring House Back
News3 days ago‘I Know People. They Don’t Believe That’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Scorches Johnson
News3 days ago‘Unfolding Rapidly’: Trump Wants to ‘Stoke Violence’ to Invoke Insurrection Act Says Expert
News3 days ago‘I’m Begging You — My Kids Could Die’: GOP C-SPAN Caller Slams Johnson Over Shutdown
News3 days ago‘Twice the Size of a Glass of Water’: Trump Invents Wild Claim on Babies’ Vaccines
News2 days ago‘Angry’ Johnson Lashes Out — Says Dems Need to Be ‘Physically Separated’ From Republicans
News2 days ago‘Cornerstone of American Freedom’: National Security Group Blasts Johnson Attack
News2 days ago‘Terrorist Wing’: GOP Links Democrats to Antifa Ahead of ‘No Kings Day’
