Trump says he’s ‘not a terrorist’ before warning of ‘great anger’ in US over criminal probes

‘They want to call us domestic terrorists’, ex-president says at North Carolina rally

Former president Donald Trump scoffed at the suggestion that he and his supporters are dangerous at his most recent political rally in North Carolina on Friday, in response president Biden’s recent pro-democracy speech in which he criticised the Maga movement as extreme.

Mr Trump, who is the subject of multiple criminal investigations in Washington DC and Georgia, accused the Biden administration of taking FBI resources “away from fighting crime and using them for partisan political investigations” in hopes of “falsely label[ing]” his “Make America Great Again” movement.

“They want to call us domestic terrorists,” Mr Trump told the crowd. “Can you believe it? I’m not a terrorist”.

Continuing, Mr Trump said there is now “great anger” in the US because of the multiple investigations into his conduct and the conduct of his supporters, as well as the ongoing FBI efforts to bring to justice anyone who broke laws during the January 6 2021 riot he incited.

“Never forget all of this torment. persecution and oppression is not happening because of anything we've done wrong,” he said.

The ex-president’s remarks at his Wilmington, North Carolina, appeared to be a retort to President Joe Biden’s recent speech in Philadelphia, during which he described Mr Trump’s Maga movement as extreme and dangerous.

“Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal,” Mr Biden said, adding that the man he defeated nearly two years ago — former president Donald Trump — and his “Maga Republican” allies “represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic”.

Mr Biden stressed that “not every Republican” subscribes to the “extreme ideology” of Mr Trump and his acolytes, but he warned that the GOP today is largely “dominated, driven and intimidated” by Mr Trump and “the Maga Republicans,” referring to Mr Trump’s and his “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan.