President Donald Trump told a reporter on Wednesday that the January 6th insurrection, which Trump instigated to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, was conducted by people who “went there with love.”
After CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins asked Trump to confirm that his $1.8 billion slush fund to insurrectionists is indeed dead, Trump said he’d need to check with his lawyers before attacking the people behind the fund.
“As far as I'm concerned, it was a beautiful thing,” Trump told Collins. “It was something I was — I didn't make it, but I was — I heard that — I thought that was the greatest thing, because people like you have abused our people so badly. The fake news, like CNN, like the New York Times, and like others, have abused our people.”
After telling the assembled journalists to be quiet, Trump claimed that they “have abused our people so badly, and you should be ashamed of yourself. You. You used to be a conservative. She was a conservative from Alabama — can you believe it? But CNN in particular — CNN does such false reporting. But now they have new ownership, so maybe it'll straighten it out. I doubt it, but it's hard to straighten garbage out.”
Trump’s reference to CNN’s “new ownership” involves David and Larry Ellison, the billionaire Oracle founder and his son, who have reportedly promised Trump they would fire journalists he dislikes much as they allegedly have gutted CBS News at his behest.
“These are people that are great people, that would — destroy their families, have been destroyed, many suicides,” Trump wrote. “They committed suicide, people that went there with love. They went there with love.”
He added, “You know, when I made that speech earlier in the day — tremendous crowd. I hate to say it because they'll say, ‘Oh, I was wrong on the number,’ but I believe it's the largest crowd I've ever spoken to, by — by twice. The biggest crowd, I think, bigger than the inaugurations, bigger than anything. And there was so much love and friendship. It was the most amazing thing. People were crying.”
After again insisting that he be allowed to finish, Trump concluded that “those people have been abused by you, and by others, and by the politicians, by the Democrats, and dumb people. They want to have open borders. They want to have transgender utilization of your children. They want to have men playing in women's sports. They want to have high taxes. They turn down — you know, they fought us on the tax bill, and they fought us because they want people to pay high taxes. Because they're crazy. There's something wrong with them. There's something wrong with you. It's a shame.”
Users on X immediately blasted Trump’s statements.
Nothing says "love" like poop on Pelosi's desk, a Capitol Police Officer getting his eye gouged, and a bespoke guillotine for the VP," posted one critic on X, immediately after Trump's claim went live.
Similarly, another critic posted “a day of love” next to a GIF of the insurrectionists breaking down Capitol doors, and @JumboElliott76 posted: “Bragging about an attempted insurrection. We're in the stupidest time.”
While Trump claims that his $1.8 billion slush fund no longer exists, insiders are skeptical. Trump created the fund by suing his own IRS for $10 billion and then having his own Justice Department, which was assigned to defend the IRS, reach a settlement with him. They rushed to do so before May 20th because the presiding judge demanded they appear before her by that date in order to make sure the deal was legal.
“You only need to look at Donald Trump's long history of lies… to disbelieve the notion that the settlement fund and everything associated with it is going to vanish,” Norm Eisen, co-founder and board member of Democracy Defenders Action, said in a statement. “We are fighting to erase the slush fund. It's a disgrace.” Eisen added that forbidding the IRS from investigating Trump or his family is “the worst example of corruption in the history of the American presidency.”