Trump noted, "You can get killed with those things." (File)
Tomatoes, pineapples and bananas are “very dangerous” weapons that can take a person's life, former US President Donald Trump had claimed in a deposition he sat for in October 2021, transcripts of which were filed in court on Tuesday.
According to The Daily Beast, Mr Trump was testifying under oath in a civil lawsuit brought by protesters alleging they were assaulted by his security guards outside his New York offices in 2015. Of particular interest to lawyers representing demonstrators were Mr Trump's remarks during a campaign speech in Iowa in 2016 in which he told attendees: “If you see someone getting ready to throw a tomato, just knock the crap out of them, would you?”
As per the report, when Mr Trump was asked why he made that specific request, the former President testified that his campaign had received a threat that day. “They were going to throw fruit,” he claimed, adding, “You get hit with fruit, it's - no, it's very violent stuff. We were on alert for that.”
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The lawyers then apparently deliberated over whether a tomato was a fruit or vegetable before Mr Trump chimed in. He said, “It's worse than tomato. It's other things also. But tomato, when they start doing that stuff, it's very dangerous. There was an alert out that day.”
As per The Daily Beast report, Mr Trump conceded that his remarks may have been “said sort of in jest,” but he also added that there was “a little truth to it” because hurled tomatoes are “very dangerous stuff”. The former President noted, “You can get killed with those things.”
Throughout the proceedings, Mr Trump maintained that despite knowing whether demonstrators would be throwing fruit it was a “serious threat”. When asked whether he was trying to “incentivize people to engage in violence,” Mr Trump responded saying, “No, I wanted to have people be ready because we were put on alert that they were going to do fruit”.
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He then started to deliberate over the possibilities of fruits more dangerous than a tomato. Moments later, as per the report, the former president was then grilled about further declaring during the Iowa speech that he would pay the legal fees for anyone who “knocks the crap out of a protester,” Mr Trump reiterated that he faced a “serious threat”.
He further went on to say that the possibility of a flying banana would undoubtedly be a cause for “getting aggressive” at the protesters. When cross-examined that if getting aggressive included the use of physical force, he replied that to stop somebody from throwing pineapples, tomatoes, bananas, stuff like that, then yes because it is “dangerous stuff”.