Why Trump is More Dangerous Than Ever

 

When Donald Trump was in office, many people thought he was dangerous. He only held his self-interests as a priority, had little knowledge of the workings of government, coddled international dictators and despots and helped give rise to white nationalism.    

As he became more unglued throughout his term, his potential to perform reckless and dangerous acts if his ego was damaged or he felt aggrieved increased. 

When Joe Biden won the election and Trump was either in denial or created a fantasy to keep his following in toe, even more people including past government officials and members of Congress were authentically worried Trump would do something risky, reckless and dangerous. They even wondered if the mercurial president should be allowed to possess the nuclear codes during the interregnum.

All of our fears were borne out when he incited an insurrection of our government on January 6—the 3^rd Day of Infamy this country ever experienced. All of it was caused by the “Big Lie” in which Trump and his acolytes say the election had been stolen from him because it was rife with fraud. It simply was not true, but it served this narcissist to perpetuate such a lie to rile up his base. 

He exhorted his frothing cultists to “take back our country” and do it with “strength.”  Does anybody really believe those instructions were meant for the supporters to participate in a peaceful protest consisting of chants? If so, why didn’t Trump do anything to quell the violence?

Because he loved it.

Most of the House Republicans and 43 in the Senate didn’t think Trump incited the mob he invited weeks earlier or they did but they couldn’t acknowledge it publicly lest they incur the wrath of Trump.

No good decent public servant would tolerate such an egregious incitement to violence that killed 6 people. But more than a few of Trump’s enablers are spouting yet another lie that the rioters were antifa sympathizers posing as Trump supporters and not at all those angels who tried to run a Biden campaign bus off a highway.

Yes, Trump was dangrous while in office. He is more dangerous now.

While he has no official powers as an ex-president, he holds much power—too much, in fact.  The recent CPAC confab symbolized by the rolling out of a golden likeness of Trump shows that there is a dear leader the Republicans must cozy up to.  Trump commands the adoration of an overwhelming majority of Republicans. As insidious as January 6 was and as obvious Trump was the instigator of the violence and carnage, only 11 percent of Republicans found him responsible for it, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll.

“He may be down, but he is certainly not out of favor with the GOP,” says Tim Malloy, who conducted the poll for Quinnipiac University. “Twice impeached, vilified by Democrats in the trial, and virtually silenced by social media ... despite it all, Donald Trump keeps a solid foothold in the Republican Party.”

Furthermore, the seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump at his impeachment trial have been censured by their local or state Republican parties or are facing blowback from voters back home.

This is why Trump is dangerous even today. He has the GQP wrapped around his finger as one leading Republican after another migrates to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring worn on that very finger.

These Republicans as well as right wing media continue to foster the big lie that Trump actually won. They are terrified to stray from that lie, which will provide them another opportunity in 2024 to try to de-legitimize the election should the Republican presidential nominee lose. Add that to the active voter suppression efforts in several states to screw Black citizens and you have a formula for the end of democracy as we know it. A toast to Vladimir Putin! 

All of this will happen with Trump cheerleading from the sidelines. Don’t worry, he won’t be the nominee. He teases the country but he will not make another run. Trump will raise oodles of cash for his PAC, which he could use any way he wants. In the meantime, as he executes this charade, he freezes out would be candidates and their ability to raise money almost certainly leading to another loss.

With all their adulation of Trump, Republicans should note that with him at the helm, they lost the House, the Senate and the White House. As a visible ex-president, that streak could continue over the next two cycles.

Then there is the legal exposure Trump faces on several fronts. I firmly believe there is a better than 50 percent chance he will be indicted for possible tax and bank fraud at a minimum in Manhattan. What happens to him after that remains to be seen.

But Trump controls the Proud Boys and all the other violent white nationalist militias. Imagine if an indictment (or more) is handed down how these domestic terrorists may react. Imagine Trump telling them that this was another witch hunt and we need to re-take our country. Imagine what they will do at court houses and other government buildings.

You know he won’t peacefully accept a prison sentence. It will make January 6 seem like a block party.

That is why the danger Trump poses now is even greater than what it was before.  

Call It What It Is: White Nationalist Domestic Terrorism

Remember how President Barack Obama was incessantly berated for refusing to utter the phrase, “Radical Islamic Terrorism.” For virtually his entire two terms, right wing radio, cable TV propagandists and conservative newspapers as well as Republican politicians jumped on the bandwagon that Obama must be a secret Muslim if he can’t spit out those words.

In fact, then candidate Donald Trump in 2016 told Fox and Friends, “People cannot—they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the ways he acts and can’t even mention the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ There’s something going on. It’s inconceivable.”

Later, the horrific mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub, an establishment primarily frequented by gay people whereby 49 innocent souls were slaughtered, led Trump to reference the incident in his speech accepting the nomination for President.

“Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Florida, 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist. This time, the terrorist targeted our LGBT community. As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBT citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology.”

The identity politics reporter Eugene Scott for The Fix pointed out in an op-ed in the Washington Post, “Cynics noted that it was [shooter Omar] Mateen’s loyalty to the Islamist terrorist group [ISIL] that led the then-nominee to address the mass murder more than his concern for the safety of gay Americans.”

The distinction is not lost on many in our country and around the world. An ISIL sympathizer murders people and is labeled a foreign terrorist.  However, in a span of 6 days, three mass shootings have occurred and very few on the GOP side of the aisle including Trump—largely the same ones who relentlessly accused Obama of not using the phrase “radical Islamist terrorists”—have called out these murders as domestic terrorism.

As people debate the reasons why Trump is not condemning white nationalist domestic terrorism with the same vehemence as he slams African-American lawmakers, majority black cities and Hispanic immigrants, it is well documented  that since Trump took office there has been a significant rise of hate crimes in the U.S. and hate bias incidents and in particular, where Trump has held rallies.

Moreover, mass shootings or other attempts to terrorize communities that are rooted in white nationalism are becoming too routine now. They have been met with no response from Senate Republicans and so far, no action has been taken on a House-passed bi-partisan sensible gun bill though they offer a plethora of thoughts and prayers and well-deserved praise for first responders.

Republicans who are aligned with Trump (just about all of them) see these incidents as mental health-related outbursts.  But not all of these perpetrators are linked with mental health problems. To kill anyone other than self-defense, to me, is a mental health problem.  Some are self-professed white nationals, virulently opposed to persons of color and yes, supporters of Trump.

It is obvious the reason Trump has yet to demonstrate any leadership on this growing problem or acknowledge that white nationalism is becoming an epidemic is that these individuals constitute a portion of his passionate and loyal base. You know how the president values loyalty; he is loath to throw them under the bus.  He is all about his base and the 2020 election.

While Trump should not be accused of directly inciting the violence we are witnessing with all-too-common frequency in the form of mass shootings, his divisive and incendiary racist rhetoric in the form of tweets, comments at press gaggles and speeches at campaign rallies, he has wittingly created an atmosphere whereby some of his ardent supporters have picked up signals and have acted upon it.

“He empowers hateful and potentially violent individuals with his divisive rhetoric and his unwillingness to unequivocally denounce white supremacy,” writes Frank Figliuzzi, a former assistant F.B.I. director for counterintelligence and a national security analyst for NBC News, in an op-ed  in the New York Times.

“Mr. Trump may be understandably worried about the course of congressional inquiries, but his aggressive and race-baiting responses have been beyond the pale. He has chosen a re-election strategy based on appealing to the kinds of hatred, fear and ignorance that can lead to violence.”

In Trump’s recent racist tweets and his combustible campaign rally in North Carolina where the unimpeded “send her back” chants reverberated among the foaming-at-the-mouth Trump cultists, white nationalists or those close sympathizers of the cause have applauded him even if they were not in the arena itself.   ADL, a leading anti-hate organization, documents  the validation by these folks resulting from Trump’s communications.

For his part, Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney disputes Trump’s role in the violence. On the August 4 edition of Meet the Press, he argued that the blame lies squarely on the “sick” people who “pulled the trigger.”

“I get the fact that some people don’t approve of the verbiage the president uses, I get that,” Mulvaney said. “But even if they did … people are going to hear what they want to hear.”

As we navigate through another tragic carnage-filled crime scene, we desperately continue to seek answers. The loved ones of the innocent victims are faced with these horrific losses and no amount of thoughts and no amount of prayers will mitigate their grief.

Gun restrictions will not stop many of these incidents though background checks are the right way to go for starters. And still, I cannot fathom why semi-automatic assault weapons and high capacity magazines should be obtained so readily. 

But we also need to hear from our leaders to confirm that much of the recent atrocities have been committed by white nationalist bigots.  Dialing back the divisive rhetoric would be a good first step.

Calling these crimes white nationalist domestic terrorism is what is needed, and efforts by law enforcement should be undertaken with the same zeal as they attempt to check foreign terrorism. 

Note that foreign terrorism is a federal crime. Domestic terrorism is not.

Same page Steve!
Hat off to you.
Really appreciate the substance of what you write.
Not everyone wants to do that.
Not everyone can do that.

— 🌊🐶 John Harvey 📷🌊 (@johnharveyphoto) August 5, 2019