Trump Ally Byron Donalds Pushes Back On His Comments About Using the Military Against Citizens: ‘We’re Not Going to Have That’

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), one of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s top allies in the House of Representatives, pushed back on the former president’s recent comments about using the military against American citizens after the 2024 election during an interview on CNN Tuesday.

Donalds’s dismissal of Trump’s suggestion came after anchor Kasie Hunt played a clip of Trump saying, “We have some very bad people, we have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re — and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary by the military because they can’t let that happen.”

“Sir, do you think it would be appropriate to use the United States military to address any chaos after the election?” Hunt asked Donalds.

“Obviously, we don’t want to have the United States military — we’re not going to have that be deployed in the United States. That’s been long standing law in our country since the founding of the Republic,” replied Donalds before quickly pivoting. “But I think it is important to note that if there is a time where you have to deploy the National Guard like Donald Trump did want to do on January 4 of 2021 when he authorized 10,000 National Guard troops to be at the U.S. Capitol for January 6, that is something where it could be appropriate.”

“Look at the end of the day, the biggest thing we want is a continued use and application of a peaceful transition of power and I think that’s the thing that he is most concerned about. I think every American is concerned about that,” continued Donalds.

“Are you confident he’s going to accept the results of the election if he doesn’t win?” inquired Hunt in a follow-up.

“I think obviously he would accept those results as long as every state follows the procedures of, that are passed by state legislatures. And I think that we need to understand very clearly that one of the main issues in the 2020 elections is that you did have state governments or state jurisdictions that were not following state law when it comes to the procedures of their elections,” answered Donalds. “They were changing those procedures at the eleventh hour using Covid-19 as an excuse. And my view has always been, and many people’s view has always been that’s simply unacceptable. All Donald Trump has ever said is, ‘Look, follow the laws that are on the books, follow the procedures are on the books.’ And as long as that occurs, everything will be fine.”

Watch above via CNN.

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