Precedent

Noah Berlatsky on The Terror:

Donald Trump spent the first week of his second term using the presidency to glorify political violence and weaponize the threat of it against anyone who might consider criticizing him.

Trump pulled the security detail from former chief White House medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is an enemy of MAGA thanks to his efforts to fight covid. He also ended security details for his former National Security Advisor John Bolton and his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, both of whom have been targeted by Iran because they worked to advance Trump’s hard-line policies during his first term.

Bolton of course is an outspoken Trump critic, but Pompeo campaigned for his former boss just last fall. Trump repaid him by using mobster logic to justify endangering his wellbeing, cold-bloodedly telling reporters who asked him last week about the decision to pull the security detail that “there’s risks to everything.”

Trumpese for “nice little place you got here.”

Trump’s moves against Fauci and company last week were overshadowed by his pardons of about around 1,500 people convicted of crimes in connection with the January 6 insurrection, including some who brutally beat cops. Trump also commuted the sentences of individuals associated with violent rightwing groups and convicted of seditious conspiracy related to their involvement in the attack on the Capitol, including Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio, who had been sentenced to 22 years, and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was sentenced to 18 years.

There’s precedent. Hitler freed all imprisoned Nazis in a 1933 amnesty.

The most obvious past example of Trumpist terror, of course, is the January 6 coup attempt. On that date in 2021, Trump used his social media platforms and speech to incite a mob to storm the Capitol. There, they assaulted police officers and threatened the lives of lawmakers. As many as nine people died in the violence and its aftermath.

And yet, after all that, he was allowed to run again, and he won. This makes the US a failed state.

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