Trump and His Surrogates Blame Dems for the Boomerang Effect of the Violence They Stoke*
In March, Trump shared a video on social media that included an image of President Biden bound and restrained in the back of a pickup truck. “This image from Donald Trump is the type of crap you post when you’re calling for a bloodbath or when you tell the Proud Boys to ‘stand back and stand by,’” President Biden’s then campaign spokesman said. “Trump is regularly inciting political violence and it’s time people take him seriously — just ask the Capitol Police officers who were attacked protecting our democracy on January 6.”
It would take more hours than I have to identify the times and ways Trump has invoked violence, used violent rhetoric, or otherwise publicly identified and ridiculed his enemies expecting his MAGA base would threaten, intimidate, and carry out violence against them on his behalf. In Notes below, I identify “a s[p]attering.” It was a matter of time that mentally unstable gun fanatics who are so attracted to Trump would turn their sights on him after he said or did something to trigger a violent response.
You may recall that Trump chose to hold his first campaign rally in Waco, Texas, during the 30-year anniversary of the federal raid of the nearby Branch Davidian Compound. At the end of the 51-day siege, the compound exploded and burned to the ground, killing more than 70 Branch Davidians. See The Waco tragedy, explained in Vox.
“Waco fueled the rise of the militia movement in the 1990s and inspired the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995; it continues to influence contemporary militant thinking. All of this should be borne in mind when Donald Trump holds the first official rally of his 2024 presidential campaign in Waco . . . .” See Mike Giglio’s outstanding What it Means for Trump’s Campaign to Start in Waco, in The Intercept.
As he had earlier that month at CPAC, Trump ominously declared, “2024 is the final battle. It’s going to be the big one.” (Emphasis added.) The apocalyptic symbolism from Book of Revelations 19:11–21 wasn’t subtle (although I’d wager he didn’t come up with that from personal Bible studies). Trump also vowed to “defeat the demonic forces.” His outreach was clear. Trump’s “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” was simply a continuation of that theme.
Within three hours of Trump’s posting “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT” on his social media network, the secret service spotted the barrel of what turned out to be an AK-47 sticking out from some bushes in the general vicinity of Trump who, at the time, was golfing at Mar-a-Lago. Trump was the subject of an apparent assassination attempt at his Florida golf club, the FBI says. That Sunday, Trump’s running mate was rounding the news circuit where he continued advancing their fear-based campaign, spewing and doubling down on admittedly “created” stories of Haitian immigrants — who are in the United States legally — eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio. See ‘Disgrace’ is Inadequate to Describe Trump and His Running Mate (by the author).
The devastating effect on that community and its historically marginalized Haitian members was foreseeable and inevitable. “Families are afraid to go out or send their kids to school or go to church . . . . [S]ome are afraid to call cars through rideshare apps because they don’t know who will pick them up or their intentions.” Bomb threats followed Trump’s false claims; Troopers to patrol schools in Springfield after threats linked to false claims; Springfield grapples with false pet-eating rumors — and real problems.
It didn’t take long for two things to happen after the secret service spotted the AK-47 peaking out of the bushes. Trump immediately started fundraising off the newest supposed assassination attempt. And he and his surrogates attributed the cause of the would-be assassinations to what they say was dangerous and divisive rhetoric from the left. Referring to Biden and Harris on Fox News, Trump said, “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”
In an apparent provocation — or invitation to live in infamy — of any mentally unstable, right-wing gun nut who might be paying attention, Trump’s ardent supporter Elon Musk commented that “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.” Likewise, during his continuing adventures in attempting to convince people not to believe their lying eyes and ears — gaslighting — Vance said:
“The big difference between conservatives and liberals is that no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months and two people have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months. I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric and cut this crap out. Somebody’s gonna get hurt by it, and it’s gonna destroy this country.”
People who believe that nonsense are the ones who are easily fooled into parting with their money and, unfortunately, voting for Trump. Were it not so serious, it would be funny, albeit in a pathetic, pitiable, and sad sort of way.
The only shots fired at Mar-a-Lago that Sunday afternoon were by the secret service. It turns out the person pointing the AK-47 in Trump’s general direction was precisely a kind of person the former president attracts (for better or worse) — a mentally unstable gun fanatic with a lengthy criminal record who voted for Trump in 2016. He’d previously supported Tulsi Gabbard and declared his support for Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley. He was apparently pissed off at Trump for the latter’s position on Ukraine. Who is Ryan Routh? Likewise, Thomas Matthew Crooks, the would-be Trump assassin in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, self-identified as and was a registered Republican. Who was Thomas Matthew Crooks?
Alex Shephard of The New Republic, explained this “simple and obvious truth”:
“No one in this country has done more to sow division, create chaos, and, yes, encourage violence over the past decade than Trump. It was only a matter of time before that boomeranged on him. . . . Criticisms of Trump that rightfully note that he is a threat to the future of American democracy are hardly incitement to violence. They are recognition of the fact that Trump has used and will continue to use any means at his disposal to gain and hold onto power.”
Trump Brought Chaos to American Politics. Now It’s Engulfing Him.
More than a month before President Biden withdrew as the Democratic nominee for president and two weeks before the first attempt to assassinate Trump, Mother Jones National Affairs Editor Mark Follman wrote “[h]ow [Trump’s] latest migrants bashing, lies about the FBI, and other verbal attacks could lead to bloodshed”:
“Among Trump’s many targets over the years have been immigrants, journalists, judges, and law enforcement officials. Threats and violence have followed. Proving a direct connection is all but impossible — and that’s the point, the madness in the method, so to speak. But in various cases a connection also isn’t difficult to see: a mass shooter claiming to be motivated by a migrant ‘invasion,’ after Trump and his Fox News allies hyped such fears. A sharp rise in death threats against journalists, after Trump and his advisers blasted the media as the ‘enemy of the American people.’ A thwarted attack by a Trump supporter on an FBI field office, after Trump let loose over the Mar-a-Lago raid and after his ally Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona said, ‘We must destroy the FBI.’ . . .
“Trump’s targeting of the judicial system, particularly in response to the criminal cases against him, has caused a surge in threats against judges and prosecutors, according to data from the US Marshals Service and a recent Reuters investigation. During the hush-money case against Trump in New York, he blasted away on social media at the district attorney and the judge in the case; both faced increased threats against them and their families and employees.”
Trump is Inciting Political Violence as the Election Approaches
And then there was Cesar Sayoc. Sayoc sent 16 pipe bombs to people Mr. Trump had publicly declared were his enemies and enemies of the United States. Sayoc was “an avid follower of @RealDonaldTrump’s Twitter page, where Trump posted prolifically about his political enemies.”
Sayoc
“began watching Fox News religiously and following Trump supporters on social media. He became a vocal political participant on Facebook . . . . He was not discerning of the pro-Trump information he received, and by the time of his arrest, he was ‘connected’ to hundreds of right-wing Facebook groups. Many of these groups promoted various conspiracy theories and, more generally, the idea that Trump’s critics were dangerous, unpatriotic, and evil. . . . They deployed provocative language to depict Democrats as murderous, terroristic, and violent. Fox News furthered these arguments. For example, just days before Mr. Sayoc mailed his packages, Sean Hannity said on his program that a large ‘number of Democratic leaders [were] encouraging mob violence against their political opponents.’”
Sayoc pleaded guilty to 65 federal crimes which included using a weapon of mass destruction, interstate transportation of an explosive, making threatening interstate communications, illegally mailing explosives, and using an explosive to commit a felony.
Given the most recent news out of North Carolina, I would be remiss not to mention Mark Robinson, that state’s lieutenant governor and Republican nominee for governor who has declared his love for Trump and, until recently, Trump for Robinson. He’s also some kind of preacher when he’s not lieutenant governing or frequenting pizza parlors and porn shops. Robinson, a Holocaust denier, has spoken out against the LGBTQ+ community, migrants, Muslims, Jews, Asians, women, Democrats, and many others. On June 30, 2024, Robinson announced from his pulpit, “some folks need killing.” He said:
“We now find ourselves struggling with people who have evil intent. You know, there’s a time when we used to meet evil on the battlefield, and guess what we did to it? We killed it! . . . . We didn’t argue and capitulate and talk about . . . . No, they’re bad. Kill them. Some liberal somewhere is going to say that sounds awful. Too bad. Get mad at me if you want to.
“Some folks need killing! It’s time for somebody to say it. It’s not a matter of vengeance. It’s not a matter of being mean or spiteful. It’s a matter of necessity! When you have wicked people doing wicked things, torturing and murdering and raping. . . .
“We need to start handling our business again. . . . The further we start sliding into making 1776 a distant memory and the tenets of socialism and communism start coming into clearer focus. They’re watching us. They’re listening to us. They’re tracking us. They get mad at you. They cancel you. They dox you. They kick you off social media. They come in and close down your business. Folks, it’s happening . . . because we have forgotten who we are.”
MAGA Gov Candidate’s Ugly, Hateful Rant: “Some Folks Need Killing!” (emphasis added)
Trump wholeheartedly endorsed Mark Robinson, and as recently as August of this year — after the “some folks need killing” comment — and with echoes of Charlottesville, said Robinson was “a very good man” and is a “great one.” Trump has also said Robinson was “one of the great stars of the party,” “I swear, I think you’re better than Dr. Martin Luther King,” and “This is Martin Luther King on steroids. I told that to Mark. I said: ‘I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two.” What Donald Trump Has Said About Mark Robinson (emphasis added).
CNN recently published an investigative report revealing that between 2008 and 2012 Robinson frequented a porn site known as Nude Africa where, in the comments section, he identified himself as a “black NAZI,” praised Hitler and Mein Kampf, said he preferred Hitler over Obama, and announced, “I like watching tranny on girl porn! That’s fucking hot! . . . And yea I’m a perv’ too,” among other statements CNN found too graphic to publish.
One commentator suggested we might see a new headline:
“Trump clarifies ‘MLK on Steroids’ Comment About GOP’s Robinson Claiming, ‘I meant Viagra.’”
Notes:
Vanity Fair was good enough to provide a “mere smattering of examples” of Trump’s facially violent rhetoric and conduct:
· Endorsing assaulting reporters
· Urging police officers to knock suspects’ heads against the sides of their squad cars
· Openly fantasizing about ‘Second Amendment people’ preventing the appointment of liberal judges
· Telling supporters, of a man who’d been ejected from one of his events, ‘I’d like to punch him in the face’
· Telling a crowd in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, ‘If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously, okay. Just knock the hell — I promise you I will pay for the legal fees, I promise.’
· Reportedly asking why the government couldn’t ‘just shoot’ the individuals protesting the killing of George Floyd
· Whipping his supporters into a violent frenzy with months of lies concerning the 2020 election, which led to a violent attack on the Capitol that left numerous people dead — which he refused to do anything about for hours, and then tried to justify the violence — saying: ‘These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!’
· Defending his supporters’ decision to chant, ‘hang Mike Pence’
· Saying there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he’s not elected this November
See also
Trump, Outrage and the Modern Era of Political Violence
Trump’s rhetoric has caused violence, not Democrats calling him a threat to democracy
The times Trump has advocated for violence
R.VanWagoner https://medium.com/@richardvanwagoner publishes. https://richardvanwagoner.medium.com/subscribe
*My brother the very talented fiction writer and novelist, Robert Hodgson Van Wagoner, deserves considerable credit for offering both substantive and technical suggestions to https://medium.com/@richardvanwagoner. Rob’s second novel is a beautifully written suspense drama that takes place in Utah, Wyoming, and Norway. This novel, The Contortionists, which Rob himself narrates for the audio version, is a psychological page-turner about a missing child in a predominantly Mormon community. I have read the novel and listened to the audio version twice. It is a literary masterpiece. The Contortionists is not, however, for the faint of heart.