President Donald Trump said he would have had a “very nasty life” if he’d lost the election, an apparent acknowledgment that he might have ended up in jail had he not beaten Kamala Harris last November.
“If I lost it would have been very, very bad,” he told an investment summit in Miami, referring to the multiple criminal investigations he was subject to before the presidential election.
“They were going after me at levels nobody’s ever seen before,” he said, adding, “It was dangerous, actually. Very dangerous.”
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Trump was the subject of four separate cases involving dozens of criminal charges during the election campaign.
Trump avoided prison time after he was convicted of 34 counts of fraud for concealing payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, receiving an unconditional discharge on Jan. 10.
However, Special Counsel Jack Smith said there was plenty of evidence to convict Trump in the 2020 election interference investigation, which was dropped after Trump won in 2024.
His 137-page report implied it was likely Trump would have served jail time had he not been voted back into the White House.
Smith’s second case against Trump, over his handling of classified government documents, was dismissed by a judge appointed by Trump.
The president also faced criminal charges in Georgia over his attempt to overturn the election, a case which is currently on hold.
The Supreme Court ruled in July 2024 that Trump had some degree of immunity from criminal prosecution, a ruling he may have benefitted from even if he had lost the election.
Trump’s comments were in response to a question about how he would spend a year off, which he didn’t answer directly.
“What I’m doing now is the most exciting job in the world. It’s a hard job, not an easy job, it’s a nasty job,” he said in response.
Speaking at the Miami event, Trump said that he has been treated worse than previous presidents Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated, and Andrew Jackson, a slave trader.
“Nobody was treated like me,” he said. “Nobody. And I will tell you, you learn a lot about yourself.”
Fox News host Sean Hannity reportedly suggested to Trump that his prospects would not have been rosy had Harris won.
“It was Sean Hannity just before we did the interview last night. He said, ‘Boy if you would have lost it you would have had a tough life, you would have had a very tough life’,” Trump said.
