In social media eruption, Trump demands a new election or immediate reinstatement

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It seems like a not-so-veiled threat about civil unrest: Howard Kurtz

Howard Kurtz, Katie Pavlich and Trey Gowdy discuss how the Justice Department reviewed the seized Trump materials on ‘Special Report.’

Donald Trump, who said two weeks ago "the temperature has to be brought down" in this country, is raising it to heights that would burst the thermometer.

He’s gone on what we would call an angry tweetstorm, if he was still on Twitter, pumping out three dozen postings and repostings on his far smaller Truth Social app.

One of the repostings was from Q’Anon, although the former president may not have realized that.

But more stunning than Trump’s attacks on Joe Biden – pictured as if he had soiled his pants – RINO Republicans and of course the Fake News Media is his sudden embrace of what had been the fringe-iest of fringe positions within Trump World.

WITH TALK OF RIOTS, TRUMP PROBE MOVES INTO EXPLOSIVE TERRITORY

Former U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to speak at the Rally To Protect Our Elections conference on July 24, 2021, in Phoenix, Arizona. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Seizing on Mark Zuckerberg’s admission that Facebook suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop story after being warned by the FBI of "Russian disinformation"--the New York Post story was accurate, though it took the rest of the media more than a year to confirm that – Trump writes that "THE FBI BURIED THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY BEFORE THE ELECTION." He says he would have won had it come out, though that is more than debatable given that Joe Biden won 7 million more votes.

Then Trump drops the hammer: "REMEDY: Declare the rightful winner, or, and this would be the minimal solution, declare the 2020 Election irreparably compromised and have a new Election, immediately!"

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook Inc., speaks during the Silicon Slopes Tech Summit in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., on Friday, Jan. 31, 2020.  (George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

And just in case anyone missed the point, there was this: "The Presidential Election was BADLY and IRREPARABLY TAINTED by the FBI’s fake description of the laptop from hell to FB and Lamestream media. Declare the rightful winner, or hold a new election NOW!"

Time for a little reality check.

There is no provision in the Constitution for overturning an election and putting the loser back in the White House. Nor is there any provision for declaring a new election in the middle of the winner’s term. Who, exactly, would magically make that happen? Congress? The Supreme Court? 

Trump also riled things up by essentially calling for an uprising at the FBI. 

"When are the great Agents, and others, in the FBI going to say ‘we aren’t going to take it anymore,’ much as they did when James Comey read off a list of all of Crooked Hillary Clinton’s crimes" but didn’t prosecute. "The wonderful people of the FBI went absolutely ‘nuts.’" Perhaps we need a reminder that the bureau is run by Chris Wray, Trump’s appointee.

FBI Director Christopher Wray arrives to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on March 2, 2021. (MANDEL NGAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

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Conservative media are largely avoiding the latest Trump postings, which are getting considerable play on MSNBC. On the other hand, I didn’t see it on the New York Times or Washington Post home page yesterday.

Could much of the media be dismissing this as so much Trumpian bluster? The former president is known for attacking people, and promoting himself, in hyperbolic terms. Maybe he’s being treated as an eccentric uncle who was spinning wild theories at dinner.

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But this is serious stuff, and not just because the 45th president is under criminal investigation by the Justice Department. Virtually every Republican, publicly or privately, wants the midterms to be about inflation and Biden’s failings. But since the Mar-a-Lago search they’re operating in an environment in which Trump, once again, dominates the media coverage.

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Now that he’s asking to be reinstated, it becomes more difficult to keep the 2022 election from being inextricably tied to Trump’s grievances about 2020.

That thermometer is getting pretty hot.