Trump warns of ‘tomato, pineapple and banana’ killer in court document

This is a banana.

According to former President Donald Trump, throwing fruit at someone can be an act of death — an act that justifies the use of violence to discourage any use of the product as ammunition.

In his October 2021 impeachment memo, filed in court on Tuesday, the two-time impeached former president said tomatoes, pineapples and bananas could be “very dangerous” weapons. “justifies acts of violence in self-defense”. (Elsewhere in the just-announced impeachment, The Daily Beast reports, Trump admitted he personally oversaw the pay of a Trump Organization executive whose corporate privileges had under legal scrutiny in a tax fraud case.)

Trump is testifying under oath in a civil lawsuit brought by protesters alleging they were assaulted by his security guard outside his New York office in 2015. Of particular concern the attorney representing the protesters was Trump’s comment during a campaign speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on February 1, 2016, in which he told attendees: “If you see Someone is ready to throw a tomato, just eliminate them, are you?”

When asked why he made that particular request, Trump testified that his campaign received a threat that day. “They will throw fruit,” he announced. “And you get stuck in fruit, which is — no, that’s very violent stuff. We were wary of that.”

In a humorous moment, plaintiffs attorney Benjamin Dictor dryly remarked, “My guess is a tomato is a fruit,” and Trump’s attorney Jeffrey Goldman jumped in to confirm: “It’s have seeds”.

The former president then continued on the dreaded fruit topic: “It’s worse than tomatoes, that’s other stuff too. But tomatoes, when they start doing those things, it’s very dangerous. There was a warning on that day. ”

Trump acknowledged that his remarks could be “spoken as a joke,” but was quick to add that there was “a bit of truth” because tomato-throwing was “very dangerous stuff.” “You can get killed with those,” he noted.

When asked if he was trying to “encourage people to engage in violence,” the former president replied: “No, I want people to be ready because we were alert that they would. there”.

Trump continued with another tomato: “And some fruits are a lot worse — tomatoes are terrible, by the way. But it is very dangerous. No, I want them to see. They were alert. I remember that particular event because people were on alert. They will hit, they will hit hard. ”

When asked if anyone in attendance was actually found to have tomatoes in their possession that day, Trump admitted, “I don’t know. But… it succeeded without anything happening. ”

Moments later, further announcing in a speech in Iowa that he would pay legal fees to anyone who “knock down” a protester, Trump again said he faced a “threat… serious.”

“Did you expect that if your security guard saw someone about to throw a tomato that they would smash them?” Dictor then asked, prompting Trump to again address concerns about dangerous fruits.

“Well, a tomato, a pineapple, so many other things they throw away,” he said. “Yes, if security saw that, I would say you have to – and it’s not just me, other people in the audience are seriously injured – yes, I think they have to actively prevent that from happening. . Because if that happens, you can get killed if that happens.”

“And aggression includes the use of force?” Lawyers cross-check the track.

“To stop someone from throwing pineapples, tomatoes, bananas, things like that, yes,” Trump replied. “It’s dangerous stuff.”

A spokesman for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.