GLENDALE, Ariz. — Donald Trump has labeled Liz Cheney, a prominent Republican critic, a “war hawk” and implied she might be less eager to send troops into combat if she faced the threat of gunfire. Cheney responded by calling the GOP presidential nominee a “cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”
At an event in Arizona on Thursday, Trump, alongside former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, was questioned about Cheney’s opposition to his candidacy. Cheney, a former Wyoming congresswoman, has been vocal in her criticism of Trump since the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and has endorsed Democratic vice president Kamala Harris, joining her at recent campaign stops.
Trump dismissed Cheney as “a deranged person” and added, “But the reason she couldn’t stand me is that she always wanted to go to war with people. If it were up to her we’d be in 50 different countries.”
The former president continued: “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with the rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. OK, let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.
“You know they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, oh gee, well let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy,” Trump said.
Cheney countered on Friday in a post on X: “This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”
Earlier, following social media backlash from Harris’ campaign and other Trump critics, Trump’s campaign clarified that he “was talking about how Liz Cheney wants to send America’s sons and daughters to fight in wars despite never being in a war herself.”