Trump Honored as ‘Man of Decade,’ Tells Crowd: ‘I’m Being Indicted for You’

While accepting the Oakland County GOP’s “Man of the Decade” award, Donald Trump spoke of a different honor: being indicted.

“Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists, and fascists indict me, I consider it a great badge of honor and badge of courage. I consider it both. Essentially, I’m being indicted for you,” Trump told the gathered crowd. The former president has been indicted twice since leaving office in 2021 — once related to an alleged hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, and once for alleged mishandling of highly sensitive classified information.

“Two weeks ago, Joe Biden ordered his top political opponent to be arrested,” Trump said, adding, “That’s me! … Arrested on fake and fabricated charges right in the middle of a presidential election in which Biden is losing by a lot.” (According to a recent CNN/SRSS poll, the two are basically tied when it comes favorability.)

“This is a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time,” Trump added.

“If I wasn’t running, or if I was doing badly in the polls, all of this investigation bullshit would stop immediately,” Trump also claimed. “And I did nothing wrong. It’s under the Presidential Records Act. The Clinton socks case is just a reaffirmation of the Presidential Records Act. I did nothing wrong.”

By “Clinton socks case,” Trump is referring to former president Bill Clinton, who had recorded a series of interviews with historian Taylor Branch while he was serving as president and, according to the book Branch later wrote, kept the tapes in his sock drawer to prevent staff from finding and leaking them. It’s a far cry from what Trump allegedly did — removing highly classified information from the White House, including plans for a war with Iran, and storing the documents at his home and resort in Florida, Mar-a-Lago.

Trump later promised revenge against those who would prosecute him. “I will direct a completely overhauled DOJ and investigate every radical district attorney and attorney general in America for their illegal racist-in-reverse enforcement of the law,” he vowed.

Trump, who has displayed a fake TIME Magazine cover with his photo at several of his properties, claimed this was the second time he received the “Man of the Decade” award from the Oakland County GOP, although the press release for his 2013 speech did not mention it.