Following the release of excerpts from the upcoming book, I Alone Can Fix It, that report General Mark Milley’s concerns that Donald Trump was preparing to attempt a coup after losing the 2020 election, the former president released a bizarre statement in response to Milley, and well, it was pure Trump.
Here’s the opening paragraph from the statement where Trump literally writes that if he did a coup, Milley wouldn’t be invited, which is an interesting choice of words:
Despite massive Voter Fraud and Irregularities during the 2020 Presidential Election Scam, that we are now seeing play out in very big and important States, I never threatened, or spoke about, to anyone, a coup of our Government. So ridiculous! Sorry to inform you, but an Election is my form of “coup,” and if I was going to do a coup, one of the last people I would want to do it with is General Mark Milley. He got his job only because the world’s most overrated general, James Mattis, could not stand him, had no respect for him, and would not recommend him. To me the fact that Mattis didn’t like him, just like Obama didn’t like him and actually fired Milley, was a good thing, not a bad thing. I often act counter to people’s advice who I don’t respect.
As Trump’s statement bounced around social media, people couldn’t help but notice that the part about “if I was going to do a coup” bore a striking similarity to the infamous and ill-conceived O.J. Simpson book If I Did It, where he provided a “fictional” account of how he would’ve murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman if he were the actual killer.
By Thursday afternoon, “If I Did It” was trending on Twitter because, hey, nothing says skilled communicator like having your latest statement compared to one of the most poorly received books in modern history.
This is a very “if I did it” by OJ Simpson-type statement https://t.co/RAFS4LOCZ1
— farhad manjoo (former bluecheck) (@fmanjoo) July 15, 2021
I look forward to Trump’s inevitable book, "If I Did It: The Coup Would’ve Been Tremendous, Believe Me, Folks." https://t.co/OGfhH7kyKX
— Ahmed Baba (@AhmedBaba_) July 15, 2021
Trump is so stupid that he doesn't realize you shouldn't start a thought with "if I was going to do a coup." Who is dumb enought to say that? And then write it out and then send it to the press? Ask OJ if his "If I Did It" framing helped him convince people he didn't do it.
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) July 15, 2021
https://twitter.com/robertjdenault/status/1415720197684662277
If we’ve learned one thing from the Juice, “If I Did It” always means “I Did It.” https://t.co/9KGwV1fxKQ
— Bryan Behar (@bryanbehar) July 15, 2021
https://twitter.com/TimFullerton/status/1415716278527053825