Brian Cahn/ZUMA
More than a year after his supporters attacked the US Capitol, Donald Trump is finally voicing regret. No, not for pushing to overturn the 2020 presidential election or inciting violence. Instead, the former president is sad that he did not join his throng of supporters as they marched to the Capitol.
“Secret Service said I couldn’t go,” Trump claimed in a new interview with the Washington Post. “I would have gone there in a minute.”
He then deflected blame for the violence that eventually overtook the Capitol building, claiming that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and DC Mayor Muriel Bowser should have done more to stop his supporters. That assertion, of course, is wildly untrue; Republican leaders, along with his own daughter, had reportedly begged Trump to intervene—and he declined to do so for hours, instead “gleefully” watching his supporters unleash violence on his White House television.
Trump’s admission that he wished he had marched to the Capitol—which contradicts Mark Meadows’ book that Trump never intended to march and that the entire thing had been planned “metaphorically”—is the latest evidence that the former president doesn’t have much contrition for the events of January 6. In fact, as the Justice Department has remained mum on whether it’s investigating Trump over the attempted coup, he’s appeared increasingly defiant. That emboldened stance was once again on display in the Post interview, where he also bragged about how many people participated in the Stop the Steal rally.
If Trump’s account here is true, then we have the Secret Service to thank for keeping Trump inside the White House. One can only imagine the significant escalation his presence would have sparked if his supporters saw the big man.
