With the explicit endorsement of his Attorney General, Pam Bondi, Donald Trump on Friday escalated his lawless campaign against the U.S. constitution itself, calling for the arrest and imprisonment of his political enemies in an angry, dark and frightening speech at the Department of Justice.

Trump, who contrary to minimizing by his supporters and even some media outlets did in fact vow to be a “dictator” if elected, fumed for over an hour about his perceived enemies in terms usually seen in black and white newsreel footage from the 1930s.

Lobbing evidence-free accusations against current and former DoJ employees who worked on the multiple criminal investigations against him, Trump also repeated his lies that the 2020 election was rigged against him.

Referring to himself as the “chief law enforcement officer in our country,” a dire break with literally centuries of United States law and tradition, Trump raged that “these are people that are bad people, really bad people. The people who did this to us should go to jail.”

“We will expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government,” Trump also said. “We will restore the scales of justice in our country.”

Watch footage from the unprecedented, harrowing speech below:

Making a mockery of the Justice Department in which he gave these remarks, Trump also returned to one of his favorite themes — openly praising criminals and murderers. In this case, the prohibition-era gangster Al Capone, who he called “great” and compared to himself in terms that suggested they are both victims of judicial misconduct.

After using the fourth and fifth amendments to the U.S. constitution as toilet paper, Trump turned his sights to the first. Raging against MSNBC and CNN, he implied the threat of legal action against media companies that do not function as propaganda outlets.

Prior to his unexpected victory in 2024, Trump had been federally indicted for his incitement of the deadly Jan. 6 2021 attack on the Capitol, as well as for his illegal retention of classified documents. He was also prosecuted in New York for fraud over his attempts to keep hush money payments to Stormy Daniels secret in 2016, and was sued for defamation and found liable for sexual battery.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump not only vowed, repeatedly, to use the power of the presidency to punish his enemies, he also called for the constitution to be terminated. It would appear concerns about these statements were not “overblown,” as Trump’s defenders claimed at the time.

The post Trump Calls for Opponents to Be Jailed in Dark, Retaliatory Speech at DoJ: ‘We Will Expel the Rogue Forces From Our Government’ appeared first on TheWrap.