OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump may be preparing to go “nuclear MAGA” against the Department of Justice and the FBI.
Some people close to the former president are pushing him to release the video footage of the FBI searching his Mar-a-Lago residence, CNN reported.
But some of the aides are not even certain if he has seen the video in its entirety yet.
“I don’t think it’s been shared by anyone outside of the attorneys,” a source close to the situation said.
Some of Trump’s aides and allies have encouraged the former President to make some of the footage available to the public, believing it could send a jolt of energy through the Republican Party’s base. One person familiar with the conversations said there have been discussions about featuring the August footage in campaign-style ads, believing the footage could bolster Trump’s claims of political persecution.
Another person close to Trump said it’s not a matter of if the former President and his team release any of the others in Trump’s orbit have warned of the potential risks to the former President if he does release the tapes. A second person close to Trump cautioned that releasing the footage could backfire by providing people with a visual understanding of the sheer volume of materials that federal agents seized from his oceanfront residence, including classified materials.
“It’s one thing to read a bunch of numbers on an inventory list, it’s another to see law enforcement agents actually carrying dozen-plus boxes out of President Trump’s home knowing they probably contain sensitive documents. I don’t see how that helps him,” the source said.
Ty Cobb, a former White House attorney for former President Trump, commented on the record.
“If someone can persuade him this is somehow good for him and bad for his enemies, he’ll do it,” he said. “He doesn’t have the lawyers to help him sort through these things strategically and is really thinking through them on his own.”
Days ago, Eric Trump appeared on Fox News and spoke to host Sean Hannity where he said that they ignored the FBI’s request to take off the surveillance cameras and they do have video of the search.
“Will you — you still have the surveillance tape, is that correct? Will you — are you allowed to share that with the country?” the host said.
“Absolutely, Sean. At the right time,” the son of the 45th President of the United States said.
“That’s why cops wear body cams. They don’t tell you to turn off cameras. They want transparency. And that’s not what happened here,” he said.
“And you know for a fact they asked for the cameras to be turned off,” the host said.
“They asked for the cameras to be turned off,” Eric said.
He said after the raid that “my father’s poll numbers have absolutely gone through the roof.”
Eric Trump- YES we’re going to release the footage at the right time-and YES they told us to turn off the surveillance cameras. pic.twitter.com/EchjozElDI
— 🇺🇸RealRobert🇺🇸 (@Real_RobN) August 16, 2022
The previous night on the show he said that people “were trying to buy [wife] Lara and I dinner to apologize for what the United States government has done to our family, Sean.”
“I mean, you wouldn’t believe the energy out there,” the former president’s son said. “I’ve been through all these firestorms over the years. I’ve never seen America more mad than it is right now. People are not buying the sham in the country.”
“They’re targeting Donald Trump. They’re targeting his family. They’re targeting everyone around him,” he said.
On Monday the former president made the argument that the raid is not only an issue for him but for the entire nation.
“The country is in a very dangerous position. There is tremendous anger like I’ve never seen before, over all of the scams, and this new one — years of scams and witch hunts, and now this,” he said to Fox News.
“There has never been a time like this where law enforcement has been used to break into the house of a former president of the United States, and there is tremendous anger in the country — at a level that has never been seen before, other than during very perilous times,” he said.
“People are so angry at what is taking place,” he said. “Whatever we can do to help — because the temperature has to be brought down in the country. If it isn’t, terrible things are going to happen.”
