Donald Trump declined on Sunday to definitively rule out compensating individuals who were charged with assaulting police officers when his supporters attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 toward the end of his first presidency.
Trump did that in an interview on NBC News’s Meet the Press, where he spoke in support of what his administration calls an “anti-weaponization” fund, arguing that people who entered the Capitol while Congress was preparing to certify Joe Biden’s victory over him in the 2020 presidential election had been treated unfairly by prosecutors and should receive compensation.
When host Kristen Welker asked whether people who assaulted police officers during the attack should receive taxpayer-funded compensation, Trump responded: “I wouldn’t be inclined to say so, but I have to see it.
“Well, look – if it was up to me, I’d pay them the kind of money that they deserve. People have been destroyed. Lives have been destroyed.”
Trump’s comments on the nearly $1.8bn “anti-weaponization” fund come as questions remain about whether it will move forward. On 29 May, a federal judge issued a temporary order preventing the administration from establishing the fund while a lawsuit seeking to stop it is considered.
On 2 June, acting attorney general Todd Blanche told lawmakers that the administration was “not moving forward with the fund, period”.
Despite that, during Sunday’s interview, Trump continued advocating for the fund and defending those involved in the Capitol attack. He argued that individuals who pleaded guilty had done so because they feared receiving lengthy prison sentences.
“They pled guilty because they were frightened,” he said, before making a number of unsupported allegations about the Capitol attack.
In total, nearly 1,600 people faced charges related to the Capitol attack, and 1,100 had received sentences by the time the Biden administration was nearing its end. During the events of January 6, as the transfer of presidential power was taking place inside the Capitol, some protesters entered the building carrying various objects capable of causing injury.
More than 140 law enforcement officers suffered injuries during the Capitol attack.
During his campaign, Trump pledged clemency for many of the protesters. After returning to office, he carried out that promise on his first day by granting pardons to about 1,500 people connected to the attack, including individuals who had assaulted police officers.
The idea for the fund Trump mentioned in his interview with Welker originated from a settlement reached after the president sued the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over the disclosure of his tax returns.
Other parts of Trump’s Meet the Press conversation saw him complain without evidence that the elections in California on Tuesday were rigged.
He also said the United States would work with Iran to retrieve and destroy its high enriched uranium if he manages to strike a deal with Tehran to end the US and Israel’s three-month war there.
Trump told Meet the Press that in the absence of a deal ending the war he would further degrade Iran’s military to the point that US forces could safely seize the material themselves.
The president ultimately walked off the set of the interview while saying to Welker: “You’re a one-sided, crooked network. Sorry. Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough.
“Thank you, darling. Have a good time.”
