Donald Trump has warned that it could prove to be a “breaking point” for his supporters if he is sentenced to prison or house arrest following his historic criminal conviction.
In an interview aired Sunday on Fox News, the former president and current Republican White House hopeful acknowledged the possibility that he could be handed jail time or a period of home detention at his sentencing on July 11.
“I’m ok with it,” Trump said, but added he was “not sure the public would stand for it.”
“I think it would be tough for the public to take. You know at a certain point there’s a breaking point,” he added.
The warning will resonate in a country already concerned about the prospect of political violence in the increasingly heated run-up to the November 5 presidential election.
Trump will now be running as a convicted felon, and he has repeatedly made it clear he will not accept the result should he lose to President Joe Biden.
A New York jury on Thursday convicted Trump on all 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in the final stages of the 2016 presidential campaign to cover up a sex scandal involving porn star Stormy Daniels.
It was the first criminal conviction of a former president in US history.
Although each charge carries a possible four-year jail term, experts say it is extremely unlikely that the judge will actually hand down a custodial sentence.
Trump faces three other criminal trials, including one related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election he lost to Biden.
Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 after he delivered a fiery speech urging the crowd to “fight like hell.”
