Former President Donald Trump has suggested that police should be given “one really violent day” to combat retail crime, escalating his rhetoric on cracking down on crime if he returns to the White House. 

Trump made the comments while speaking at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania and reiterating his message that police are “not allowed to do their job” because of political pressures. But he went into more incendiary territory than usual when he cited examples of people stealing from stores and raised the possibility of allowing police to get “extraordinarily rough” – and respond with “one real rough, nasty day”. 

Trump then shortened the period in question to an hour and said: “One rough hour – and I mean real rough – the word will get out, and it will end immediately. End immediately.” 

A Trump campaign official told Politico that Trump was “clearly just floating [the idea] in jest”. 

“President Trump has always been the law and order President and he continues to reiterate the importance of enforcing existing laws,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement when asked about Trump’s comments. Leavitt asserted that communities would see “all-out anarchy” under Kamala Harris if she is elected. 

The Harris presidential campaign highlighted Trump’s comments on social media. Other Trump critics, including the Lincoln Project, noted the parallels between what Trump was suggesting and The Purge, a horror movie series in which a new political party allows all crime for a 12-hour period every year. 

“He’s just describing the premise of The Purge,” the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump GOP group, said on X. 

Trump has long portrayed America’s cities as gripped by rampant crime, though violent crime has been down across the country. Annual data released last week by the FBI showed that violent crime decreased 3% from 2022 to 2023, with murder and nonnegligent homicide down 11.6%. Trump has in turn questioned the validity of the data. 

In the presidential race, Trump and Harris have competed over who is the best candidate for law and order. Trump has campaigned on endorsements from police unions, such as the Fraternal Order of Police, while Harris has leaned into her background as a prosecutor and emphasised the raft of legal problems Trump faces as he seeks a return to the White House. 

Trump was convicted earlier this year of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in New York. He is scheduled to be sentenced after the election. 

A recent Washington Post poll of the state where Trump was speaking Sunday – Pennsylvania – found that voters there favoured Trump over Harris on “crime and safety” by a margin of 50% to 43%. The two candidates were otherwise neck-and-neck among likely voters in the state, according to the poll, which was conducted from September 12 to 16. 

Harris is airing a direct-to-camera TV ad in Pennsylvania and other battleground states in which she denounces “negative ads against me” and promotes her law enforcement background. 

“Here’s the truth: My life’s work has been fighting on behalf of others,” Harris says in the commercial. “It’s why I became a prosecutor, district attorney and attorney general.” 

-Patrick Svitek, Washington Post