Trump sent cryptic message to Merrick Garland before warrant was unsealed: 'The country is on fire. What can I do to reduce the heat?'

• The FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago enraged many people in the US.

• The country is burning. The New York Times reported that the message was about reducing the heat.

• Several people took to social media to read Trump's words as threatening.

According to a report, Donald Trump tried to send a message to Attorney General Garland after the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago residence.

According to The New York Times, Garland was told that he had been speaking with people around the country and that they were angry with the FBI.

The country is burning. A person familiar with the exchange tells the paper that Trump asked Garland what he could do to reduce the heat.

The paper reported that a person close to the former president reached out to a Justice Department official. I don't know if the message reached him.

Several people took to social media to say that Trump's message to Garland could be seen as a threat.

Robert Maguire, a research director at the nonpartisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that the message suggested that Trump could "fan the flames of violence."

—Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) August 14, 2022

Since news of the FBI raid broke, armed Trump supporters have protested outside of an FBI office in Phoenix, Arizona, and a man tried to break into an FBI building in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The FBI is looking into an "unprecedented" number of threats against personnel, according to a law enforcement source.

The paper said that Trump tried to convey the message to Garland before the attorney general announced on Thursday that he had personally authorized the decision to seek a search warrant.

Despite the fact that Trump had a copy of the search warrant and was able to release it himself, he and his allies demanded that the warrant be released.

On the next day, the search warrant was made public. Trump accused the FBI of planting evidence and denied wrongdoing.

The FBI searched Mar-a-Lago as part of an investigation into whether Trump mishandled government records.

Business Insider has an article on it.