Angry Trump
An angry Donald Trump asks a rally crowd in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, if they want him to 'knock the hell out of people' responsible for his microphone failure. The crowd cheered. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Donald Trump erupted Friday night after another rally microphone failure, and asked the crowd if they wanted him to "knock the hell out of people" responsible for the glitch.

"You got to be kidding? Do you want to see me knock the hell out people backstage?" he asked the crowd in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when the mike on his podium went dead.

The audience cheered.

He said later: "I get so angry. I'm up here seething, I'm seething, I'm working my a-- off with this stupid mic. I'm blowing out my left arm [holding the microphone], now I'm going to blow out my right arm and I'm blowing out my damn throat, too, 'cause these stupid people."

Some critics on social media skewered Trump for what they said was a simulation of oral sex with the broken microphone to laughter from the audience. "#TrumpIsGoingDown" was trending on X.

Trump's comments were the latest jolting remarks raising the specter of violence by the presidential candidate.

He came out punching after a wall of criticism when he envisioned "nine rifles trained" on the face of former Wyoming GOP Rep. Liz Cheney as he criticized her as a "war hawk" in an appearance Thursday with former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson.

An angry Cheney responded: "This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death."

Last month Trump crowed that an ejected female protester was going to get the "hell knocked out" of her at home. Last week he ominouslyt vowed he was going to be the "protector" of women — "whether they like it or not."

Arizona's attorney general is investigating if Trump's comments about Cheney constituted an illegal death threat. A former Trump White House official has also called for the former president to be arrested over the Cheney comments, saying they "violated" the conditions of Trump's bail because they threatened her life. Trump is out on $175 million bail after being found guilty in Manhattan earlier this year of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

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