In a Fox News interview with Maria Bartiromo on October 13, 2024, Trump used the phrase “the enemy from within” twice, in answers to two different questions.
Asked about bureaucrats who might undermine a second term, he said: “We have two enemies. We have the outside enemy, and then we have the enemy from within. And the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia, and all these countries.”
Asked separately about potential chaos on Election Day, he said: “I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think. And it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard or if really necessary by the military, because they can't let that happen.”
The Posse Comitatus Act generally prohibits using the military for domestic law enforcement.
Two precisions matter here. He said “radical left lunatics,” not “Democrats”; the Democrats framing comes from how outlets characterised it after he named Adam Schiff. And he did not name Nancy Pelosi in this interview at all. That came a week later, on October 20, in a separate Fox interview with Howard Kurtz: “I think Nancy Pelosi is an enemy from within.”
The interpretation was disputed at the time. Bartiromo later said she understood him to be describing outside agitators, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin denied he meant Americans. Against that, Trump explicitly excluded immigrants in the same passage, saying “not even the people that have come in.” Bret Baier apologised on air for airing the wrong clip.