Former United States President and current Republican front-runner for the White House, Donald Trump warned in an interview broadcast on Sunday that if he is sent to prison after his historic conviction, it could become a "tipping point" for his supporters, reports AFP.
Trump told Fox News that he personally has no concerns about being jailed on the 34 felony charges in his buy-his-silence trial, but warned: "I think it will be difficult for the public to accept it. You know there's always a limit."
His comments came as porn actress Stormi Daniels, who testified against him in the falsification trial for secretly paying large sums of money to buy the silence of witnesses inconvenient to Trump in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, said he should be jailed in an interview with the British "Sunday Mirror".
She broke her silence after testifying against Trump at his trial in New York, in which he was found guilty.
Daniels herself, according to the indictment, was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about her intimate relationship with Trump in 2006.
Trump himself denies all the accusations leveled against him.
Trump also said the process was more difficult for his wife, Melania, than for himself.
However, the media reported Melania's notable absence from the cases and his election campaign, unlike other family members who were also present in court in support of the former president.
"She's fine, but I think it's very difficult for her, Trump said. She must be reading all this crap. "I think it's probably harder on my family in many ways than it is on me," he added.
We recall that Trump previously stated that he would appeal the verdict.
The team running former US President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign says it has raised $52.8 million since the former head of state was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business documents in the first degree.
In social media posts, the campaign dismissed the trial as "a bogus trial of President Joe Biden.
Trump took to the "Truth" social network to comment on his guilty plea to 34 counts of first-degree falsification of business documents, saying he was a "political prisoner of a nation in decline".
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"But I'll be free soon, on November 5th, and I'll make America great again!" - he added in all caps.
Supporters of the former president, angered by his 34-felony conviction by a New York jury, flooded pro-Trump websites with calls for riots, revolution and violent retribution.
Some called for attacks on jurors, the execution of the judge, Judge Juan Mercan, or outright civil war and armed insurrection.
"Someone in New York with nothing to lose should look after Murchan, wrote one commentator on Patriots.Win. Hopefully he will meet someone illegal with a machete,'' the post said in reference to illegal immigrants.
Comment posted on Gateway Pundit calls for shooting liberals after verdict. "It's time to start curbing some leftists," the post said. "This cannot be decided by a vote."
Threats of violence and intimidating rhetoric have increased since Trump lost the 2020 election and falsely claimed the vote was stolen. While campaigning for a second term in the White House, Trump portrayed the judges and prosecutors in his trials as corrupt tools of the Biden administration.