WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has never been known for flattering his opponents, but in recent months he has come out with even more aggressive language that gives a hint as to what his second term might be like if he returns to the White House.

The former president, who is miles ahead of his rivals in the race for the Republican nomination and easily won the Iowa caucuses on Monday, has made very clear that vengeance is a powerful motivating force for him. If he wins the November election he has said he will go after his critics, President Joe Biden, and others he feels have hurt him.

“In 2016, I declared: I am your voice. Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice,” Trump said in March. “And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution,” said Trump, who still insists baselessly that the 2020 election he lost to Biden was stolen from him.

A few months later, he got more specific. “I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, the entire Biden crime family,” Trump said in June. “I will totally obliterate the deep state, and we know who they are,” he said.

Trump faces four criminal indictments, including over his efforts to thwart the transfer of power to Biden — a concerted drive that culminated in the violent attack on the US Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters. For his part, Trump insists he is a victim of political persecution and accuses Biden of trying to block him from winning another term.

‘Vermin’

Trump’s opponents are warning Americans to take his language very seriously, recalling how his fiery rhetoric before and after his election loss helped lead to the stunning attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump is now referring to people jailed for taking part in the assault as “hostages” and has said that he is “inclined to pardon many of them.”

In December 2022 he charged that the fraud he insists took place in the 2020 election “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the constitution.” This remark caused an uproar as many in America came to fear Trump might suspend the constitution that US presidents pledge to uphold.

“We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections,” Trump said in November. Biden slammed Trump’s use of the term “vermin” as language echoing Nazi Germany and added: “Damn, he shouldn’t be president.”

Muslim ban, tariffs and Ukraine

On immigration Trump has said those arriving in the United States are “poisoning the blood of our country,” prompting more comparisons with Hitler’s rhetoric. If reelected, Trump also vows to sign a decree denying automatic citizenship to babies born of undocumented migrants as well as to carry out “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”

Trump also pledged to reinstate his controversial travel ban, which imposed restrictions on entry to people from seven Muslim-majority nations. “We will keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country,” Trump said. Trump’s order in 2017 was quickly challenged in court as discriminatory and Biden reversed it in 2021.

On the economy, Trump has said he is considering imposing a 10 percent tariff on almost all imports into the United States and stripping China of special trade rights. Trump said he would manage to end the war in Ukraine “in 24 hours” but gave no details on how he would accomplish this.

Trump’s supporters in Congress are vehemently opposed to open-ended, no-strings-attached US military aid to Ukraine as it fights the Russian invasion. During his first term Trump repeatedly criticized NATO as freeloading off American largesse, and, asked recently if he would be committed to NATO in a second term, he said: “Depends on if they treat us properly.” — AFP