Former President Donald Trump didn’t want to include a line encouraging his loyalists to be “peaceful” in a tweet he sent on the day of the Capitol attack, a former White House aide recently said.
The mob of Trump loyalists attacked the building minutes after the former president delivered an incendiary speech pushing false claims of election fraud. During the speech, Trump told his followers that they could “never take back” the country “with weakness.”
“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Trump went on.
The aide, who recently spoke to CNN, was working in the West Wing on January 6, 2021, and was “close” to the White House messaging team during the attack. The individual, who chose to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation, said that Trump was “very reluctant to put out anything when it was unfolding,” preferring instead to let the attack “play out.”
At 2:38 p.m. Eastern Time, Trump issued a tweet from his now-deleted Twitter account.
“Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country,” Trump wrote. “Stay peaceful!”
According to the aide, Trump did not want to include the words “stay peaceful” in his tweet. The aide also said that they have shared this information with the House select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol.
Notably, Trump’s tweet did not instruct the mob of his loyalists to stop attacking the Capitol so that Congress could certify the Electoral College results from the 2020 presidential election. Trump finally sent a video message to his followers several hours after the attack began, telling them that he “loved” them and that they should leave.
The unnamed aide’s account of Trump’s attitude on the day of the Capitol attack aligns with another former White House official’s comments about Trump’s feelings as the attack took place. According to Stephanie Grisham, who served as Trump’s press secretary, the former president was happy with what was unfolding as his followers breached the Capitol.
Trump “was in the dining room, gleefully watching on his TV as he often did, [saying] ‘look at all of the people fighting for me,’ hitting rewind, watching it again,” Grisham recounted in an interview this week.
A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll shows that a majority of Americans – 58 percent – believe that Trump bears “a great deal” or “a good amount” of the responsibility for the Capitol attack. That number is unchanged from a year ago, when an ABC News/Washington Post poll, conducted a week after the attack occurred, found that 57 percent of Americans believed that Trump was responsible.
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $150,000 in one-time donations and to add 1,500 new monthly donors.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!
With gratitude and resolve,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy