Trump Fantasizes About Guns Pointed at Liz Cheney’s Face
Donald Trump fantasized about former Rep. Liz Cheney staring down gun barrels during a campaign event in Arizona. The former president’s remarks have led to widespread condemnation, and even an investigation from the state attorney general’s office.
“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?” Trump told Tucker Carlson on Thursday night. “Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.
“They’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building, saying, ‘Oh gee, let’s send 10,000 troops right in the mouth of the enemy,’” he said of his critics.
Cheney — who has campaigned with Vice President Kamala Harris as one of the most vocal Republican detractors of the former president — responded to the comments on Friday morning. “This is how dictators destroy free nations,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”
Vice President Kamala Harris called Trump’s remarks “disqualifying” while speaking to reporters later on Friday. “Anyone who wants to be president of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president,” she said.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, said her office will investigate whether the comments violate state law against death threats. “I have already asked my criminal division chief to start looking at that statement, analyzing it for whether it qualifies as a death threat under Arizona’s laws,” she said on 12NEWS in Phoenix.
Cheney has firsthand knowledge of Trump’s desire to weaponize the military against his critics. In July, the former president reposted an image on Truth Social accusing Cheney of treason and demanding she be subjected to a “military tribunal.”
“Elizabeth Lynne Cheney is guilty of TREASON. Retruth if you want televised military tribunals,” the post read. The standard penalty for treason is death.
In the final weeks of the campaign, Trump has delivered increasingly fascist rhetoric while leveling threats against his political opponents. Earlier this month, he suggested that “radical left lunatics … the enemy from within … should be very easily handled, if necessary, by the National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”
Cheney is not the only Republican publicly warning that Trump will govern as an authoritarian. Former Trump White House Chief of Staff John Kelly stated recently that the former president fits the definition of a fascist, and as president repeatedly expressed a desire to have generals as loyal to him as Adolph Hitler’s.
As previously reported by Rolling Stone, ahead of his 2024 campaign Trump repeatedly asked his close advisers how they felt about bringing back firing squads as a method of execution.
The [former] president believes this would help put the fear of God into violent criminals,” one source told Rolling Stone. “He wanted to do some of these [things] when he was in office, but for whatever reasons didn’t have the chance.”
With his latest attack against Cheney, it seems that alongside fantasizing about lording over a cadre of blindly loyal military leaders, Trump is also mulling over exactly how he would put them to use.
More from Rolling Stone
Best of Rolling Stone
Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.