--- title: Trump Supporter: 'Riots Aren't Necessarily a Bad Thing' description: Donald Trump told CNN earlier Wednesday that "riots" might break out if he was blocked from being the Republican nominee. canonical: https://time.com/4262131/trump-supporter-riots-arent-necessarily-a-bad-thing/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-16T23:27:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:22.293Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Supporter: 'Riots Aren't Necessarily a Bad Thing' og:description: Trump has said that riots may break out if he was blocked from the Republican nomination og:url: https://time.com/4262131/trump-supporter-riots-arent-necessarily-a-bad-thing/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt519a0d9cca1526be/69888b288e06015452465092/timepol-donald-trump-tuesday-primary-election-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3565 og:image:height: 2005 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Supporter: 'Riots Aren't Necessarily a Bad Thing' twitter:description: Trump has said that riots may break out if he was blocked from the Republican nomination twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt519a0d9cca1526be/69888b288e06015452465092/timepol-donald-trump-tuesday-primary-election-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Supporter: 'Riots Aren't Necessarily a Bad Thing' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=86092a0b-d43d-484c-8a17-88feb27ab73b&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Mar 16, 2016 11:27 PM UTC  Republican presidential Donald Trump during a campaign event at the Tampa Convention Center in Florida on March 14. Republican presidential Donald Trump during a campaign event at the Tampa Convention Center in Florida on March 14. Hilary Swift—The New York Times/Redux by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Mar 16, 2016 11:27 PM UTC A prominent conservative media personality and Donald Trump supporter told CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer Wednesday that the riots Trump warned would happen if he was blocked from the Republican presidential nomination “aren’t necessarily a bad thing.” Earlier in the day, Trump said that his supporters, who have [previously](http://time.com/4123674/black-activist-punched-trump-rally/) [been involved in violence](http://time.com/4253898/donald-trump-protester-north-carolina-rally-punched/) [at rallies](http://time.com/4149272/trump-rally-nazi-salute/), [might riot if he was not made the Republican nominee](http://time.com/4261087/donald-trump-riots-republican-convention/) despite having a majority of delegates. “Riots aren’t necessarily a bad thing if it means it’s because \[Trump supporters are\] fighting the fact that our establishment Republican Party has gone corrupt and decided to ignore the voice of the people and ignore the process,” Scottie Nell Hughes, Chief Political Commentator for USA Radio Networks, told Blitzer. “You really don’t want riots to emerge at the Republican convention. . . where people could be injured, people could be hurt?” Blitzer asked. “It’s not riot as in a negative thing we’ve seen in the past,” Hughes replied. “I know they would not resort to violence, however they would make sure their voices are heard, that they can’t be ignored.” > [](https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/710241262272577536) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4262131/trump-supporter-riots-arent-necessarily-a-bad-thing/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4262131/trump-supporter-riots-arent-necessarily-a-bad-thing/"},"headline":"Trump Supporter: 'Riots Aren't Necessarily a Bad Thing'","datePublished":"2016-03-16T23:27:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:22.293Z","description":"Trump has said that riots may break out if he was blocked from the Republican nomination","url":"https://time.com/4262131/trump-supporter-riots-arent-necessarily-a-bad-thing/","keywords":["2016 Election","republicans","2016 Election","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt519a0d9cca1526be/69888b288e06015452465092/timepol-donald-trump-tuesday-primary-election-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt519a0d9cca1526be/69888b288e06015452465092/timepol-donald-trump-tuesday-primary-election-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL Donald Trump","caption":"Republican presidential Donald Trump during a campaign event at the Tampa Convention Center in Florida on March 14.","creditText":"Hilary Swift—The New York Times/Redux","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4262131/trump-supporter-riots-arent-necessarily-a-bad-thing/","name":"Trump Supporter: 'Riots Aren't Necessarily a Bad Thing'"}}]}] ```