Former President Donald Trump‘s latest social media posts reveal his “desperation,” said former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner.
Trump, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, is facing growing legal pressures amid several investigations. Two of the probes—led by the Department of Justice (DOJ) as well as Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis—involve his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which he has claimed was stolen by widespread voter fraud, despite substantial evidence to the contrary.
The DOJ is also investigating the classified documents seized from the former president’s Florida Mar-a-Lago home over the summer.
As these investigations progress, Trump has taken to social media to attack prosecutors. These attacks make it “pretty clear” that Trump “knows what’s coming” in these legal battles, Kirschner said during an episode of his Justice Matters podcast on Tuesday, warning the posts could be a signal to his supporters.
“Based on Donald Trump’s new unhinged rants, his rhetoric, his name-calling regarding Special Counsel Jack Smith, it’s pretty clear he knows what’s coming, and his desperation is showing,” Kirschner said.
Trump’s latest “rant” came on Monday night, in which he lashed out against Smith, assigned to oversee the two DOJ investigations. In a lengthy post, the former president accused Smith of being a “Trump Hating Monster.”
“The Psycho ‘Prosecutor’ assigned to me for the Documents Hoax, ‘Jack Smith(?),’ is not only, together with his wife, family & friends, a massive Trump Hater (of historic proportions!), but also someone that Viciously & Unscrupulously pursued others, only to be overturned unanimously by the U.S. Supreme Court,” Trump wrote.
Kirschner warned that these posts are likely Trump’s attempt to “inflame and enrage his supporters.” He compared the former president’s rhetoric to his ranting before the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which some accuse Trump of inciting by his denial of President Joe Biden‘s victory.
“These nonstop, unhinged rants are basically the present-day version of ‘Stand back and stay by,’” he said, referring to Trump’s infamous tweet before the Capitol riot. “Once Donald Trump has his first court appearance set, once he has earned the title ‘defendant,’ after he has inflamed, after he has enraged his supporters, he will incite them to violence.”
Trump, meanwhile, has maintained his innocence in each investigation, accusing prosecutors of unjustly targeting him for political reasons. He has not faced any formal charges.
Kirschner over the weekend warned that Trump is facing a “one-two” punch from Willis and Smith.
“I’m not prepared to say we have a three-punch combination working at this point, but we’ve got a one-two justice punch,” Kirschner said. “And I am feeling better today about the prospects of Donald Trump and his criminal associates being held accountable than I have felt in a very long time, because justice matters.”
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s office for comment.
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