Donald Trump Falsely and Outrageously Claims Biden Was Ready to Shoot Him During Mar-a-Lago Raid

Donald Trump falsely claimed on Tuesday that Joe Biden was ready to shoot him during the 2022 FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago, a reckless assertion that The Washington Post called “an extraordinary distortion of a standard FBI policy on the use of deadly force during such operations.”

The subject line of a fundraising email, which was sent by the campaign and signed by Trump, read: “They were authorized to shoot me!” In reference to the Biden administration, the email claimed, “You know they’re just itching to do the unthinkable… Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger.” Meanwhile, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE.”

“The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light,” Marjorie Taylor Greene outrageously echoed on X.

Trump and Greene, as the Post noted, appear to have been referring—albeit in a completely twisted manner—to a law enforcement document that was released in court filings on Tuesday, which detailed the FBI’s plans for the court-authorized search of Mar-a-Lago, where it was believed (and proven) that the ex-president had been hoarding classified documents. (He has since been charged with willful retention of national defense information and conspiracy to obstruct justice, to which he has pleaded not guilty.) One page of the document contains a “policy statement” concerning the use of deadly force, and it notes that such force can only be used if an officer or another person faces “imminent danger of death or serious physical injury.” In other words, the document is saying the FBI could not use deadly force unless threatened with death or significant injury.

In a statement, the FBI told the Post that it “followed standard protocol in this search, as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force…. No one ordered additional steps to be taken, and there was no departure from the norm in this matter.”

Beyond the fact that the document in question does not at all back up what Trump has claimed, the ex-president has also left out some extremely key details in his ravings, like the fact that he wasn’t actually at Mar-a-Lago on the day of the search. And that, as the Post previously reported, the FBI purposely chose a day when he would not be there in order to avoid a confrontation. The Secret Service, which still provides Trump with a security detail, was also given advance warning of the search.

Is it at all surprising that Trump and his allies are saying something that is blatantly untrue? Of course not; it’s par for the course. But this particular lie is extra disturbing because of the lengths to which the ex-president’s supporters can go when they believe—because he told them—that he’s been wronged.

Asked about the document laying out the policy for deadly force and what the ex-president said in the email and online, a Trump spokeswoman accused the Post of engaging in a “sickening attempt to run cover for Joe Biden,” adding in her email: “The good news is, Americans don’t buy the pro-Democrat, Election Interfering pro-Biden propaganda the Washington Post is constantly selling.”

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