Trump called Liz Cheney a “war hawk”

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Donald Trump is calling. former Rep. Liz Cheneyone of his most prominent Republican critics, a “military hawk,” suggesting she might not be as willing to send troops into battle if guns were pointed at her. Cheney responded by calling the Republican presidential candidate “a cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”

At an event late Thursday in Arizona featuring former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Trump was asked if it was strange to see Cheney campaign against him. The former Wyoming congressman has been outspoken against Trump since the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and has endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris in the race for the White House, joining the vice president at recent stops.

Trump called Cheney “a deranged person” and added: “But the reason she couldn’t stand me is because she always wanted to fight people. If it were up to her, we’d be in 50 different countries.”

The former president continued: “She is a radical war hawk. Let’s pretend she’s standing there with a nine-barreled rifle shooting at her. Okay, let’s see how she feels about this. You know, when the gun is pointed at her face.

“You know they’re all war hawks when they sit in Washington in a nice building and say, ‘Gee, let’s send 10,000 troops straight into the jaws of the enemy,'” Trump said.

Cheney responded Friday in a post on X: “This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten death to those who oppose them. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”

Earlier, after Harris’ campaign and other Trump critics on social media attacked his comment, the Trump campaign said he was “talking about how Liz Cheney wants to send American sons and daughters to fight in wars even though I’ve never been to war myself.”