Trumpism has always been about intimidation and violence. It still is.
By Marc C. Johnson
What’s the old saying: fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
That so much of the “media” immediately bought into the Trump narrative that the administration had made a hard pivot on use of masked federal agents to terrorize a major American city is a shame on me moment.
While it’s true that Trump and some of his advisors (slightly) softened their rhetoric after the second murder of a protester in Minneapolis, it’s a huge leap from soften to changed.
Let’s consider what the president really believes.
With many “mainstream” news organizations focused on the reassignment of Nazi cosplayer Greg Bovino, the “commander-in-chief” of ICE, and the few moments dog slayer Kristi Noem spent in Trump’s, er, dog house, the guy who is ultimately responsible for our deranged moment of armed thugs in the streets killing people is still posting on social media, still threatening and hoping to intimidate.
Here’s Bill Sher in the venerable Washington Monthly:
Bovino’s fall, after a fact-challenged defense of his trigger-happy agents, may provide some short-term schadenfreude. But let’s not allow Trump to get away with scapegoating Bovino. Trump’s bedrock beliefs are few, but they include allowing law enforcement to use violent methods without fear of repercussions, and that protesters and immigrants deserve to be on the receiving end of such violence, either by armed officers or citizen mobs. The president is responsible for cultivating a law enforcement culture over several years that explicitly encouraged the rash actions that led to the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.
One of Trump’s earliest political salvos, in May 1989, was a full-page newspaper ad that ran in the then-four major New York dailies titled “Bring Back the Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!” Feeding off the angry reaction to the “Central Park Jogger” case—in which a woman was sexually assaulted, and five teenagers were convicted but years later exonerated (after the actual perpetrator confessed)—Trump delivered a 600-word rant claiming society had become too “permissive” to criminals and too hard on police officers. “Let our politicians give back our police department’s power to keep us safe. Unshackle them from the constant chant of ‘police brutality’…”
Sher goes on to detail a long, long series of Trump moments when he called for use of unfettered force, demanded tough action from police and threatened, always threatened.
Here’s Trump at a campaign rally in 2024:
“We have to let the police do their job. And if they have to be extraordinarily rough … The police want to do it. The border patrol wants to do it … They want to do it. They’re not allowed to do it because the liberal left won’t let them do it … Now if you had one really violent day … One rough hour, and I mean, real rough, the word will get out, and it will end immediately.”
What did we expect would happen? He pardoned all the January 6 insurrectionists, he called for violence against a variety of political opponents, he threatened Minneapolis before sending his personal army to terrorize the population.
Again Bill Sher:
Greg Bovino was no rogue, and neither was Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. They were leading an operation in full accordance with Trump’s principles, wielding an “unshackled” armed force that viewed immigrants and protesters as “bad” and “sick people.” They rushed to brand Good and Pretti as “domestic terrorists” because Trump previously declared the “sick people” are the “radical left lunatics” who deserve to be “very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.” They should not be made the fall guys for executing exactly what Trump has long demanded.
Just today Trump went after two Republican senators, Thom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski, who have been critical of him and his actions.
“Well, they’re both losers. You know, what can I tell you? They’re terrible senators. One is gone and the other should be gone.”
Scan the New York Times website today and you’ll see threat after threat from the president of the United States – Iran, Iraq, the Federal Reserve, members of Congress.
His threats bring his only “victories” when a law firm or a university or a television network or a trading partner caves to his demands. He loses, as Minneapolis is proving, when confronted.
But confronting him has its price, a deadly price in Minnesota. And you still wonder why congressional Republicans cower in front of Donald Trump?
They are, unlike a poet and nurse in Minneapolis, intimidated by the threats, just as Trump intends.
Trump is a master – a perverted, evil master to be sure – at shaping his own narrative. Don’t buy the nonsense that sending another of his thugs to take command in Minnesota is some kind of pivot to a softer, more reasonable Trump.
He’s told us repeatedly who he is and what he believes. And for the sake of all common sense let the Times and Washington Post and all the rest stop with the stupid fiction that the guy will ever change.
He won’t change because he can’t. He’s always bellowed and threatened. He will keep doing so. It’s his only method.