Thuggery against the innocent—with depraved slayings, warrantless invasions and kidnapping of toddlers—cross every civilized notion of justice reliant on rules, due process, trials, even compassion.
The loudmouth bully running the White House has never hidden his knee-jerk appetites for brutal, violent responses to those he can’t abide. That’s especially true if they’re “enemy” minorities, legal protesters, swarming critics or victims seeking judicial regress. Even one “treasonous” ex-military chieftain. Long before channeling today’s vile grievance/vengeance crusade, Trump voiced his “dump-trials, hang ‘em high” vigilante mentality. So far, only E. Jean Carroll won criminal, sexual-harassment/defamation convictions (and massive penalties) for what that judge rightly deemed violent rape.
Like any impatient, spoiled control freak, Trump has for decades pushed instant, unprincipled “solutions” when his knee-jerk fury exploded—or he saw a craven platform for publicity. In 1989 the great bloviator took out a full page ad, without a stitch of evidence, prematurely demanding the death penalty (!) for the innocent Central Park Five (later,wholly exonerated by DNA, now suing for damages). In Trump stuntworld, guilt or innocence (or humanity) make no difference. That public outrage (never corrected) set up four decades of overt, violence-addicted rhetoric. By 2024, the Atlantic readilycollated A Brief History of Trump’s Violent Remarks, detailing “40 instances in which the former president incited or praised violence against his fellow citizens.” This twisted, “always” mentality oozed out in a 2024 Fox News interview:
I always say, we have two enemies … We have the outside enemy, and then we have the enemy from within, and the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia, and all these countries … We have some very bad people; we have some sick people, radical-left lunatics. And it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by the National Guard—or, if really necessary, by the military.
A Sept 2024 Pennsylvania speech exposed the MAGA gut instinct at its most vindictive (on crime): “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.” Does that include “roughness” against tax evasion/election fraud or a seditious coup against a certified election? More vengeful destructive braggadocio surfaced at the March ‘23 CPAC Summit: “I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
The guy knows retribution but nothing about justice. Long before unbridled vengeance had MAGA electoral clout, the mafia-style boss openly publicized what he had to offer. No surprise later at universal pardons for incited Jan. 6 criminals playing out his multiple violations, spotlighted by sociologist/ educator Dr. DaShanne Stokes: “sedition, treason, incitement of violence, incitement of insurrection, an attempted coup, obstruction of justice, fraud, and election tampering.” Though crowned by the Capitol coup, nothing since 1990 altered his twice-impeachable, rogue world view: extortion/blackmail ploys against Ukraine and Georgia vote totals, brazen theft of top secrets, or the latest, anti-immigrant, street murders. Nor did Trump’s infamous litany over the years nullify his re-election, nor dissuade gullible voters from empowering physical belligerence—a finale growing more outrageous after the expanding horrors in Minnesota.
MAGA Trumpism—a fount of violence and vengeance
Added to the Atlantic’s other three dozen war whoops for “enemy” scapegoating—as if due process, proper evidence and courts evaporated—the depravity that Trump commandos inflict in Minneapolis fits what President Bone Spurs has mouthed for decades. Why, he’d been guilty of hypocrisy if current gestapo tactics didn’t pulverize whoever (ICE thugs judge) willfully impedes their rashness to violate statutes and laws. Further, doesn’t instant gutter termination save millions in court costs as roving gangs bypass the “inconveniences” of indictment, conviction or sentencing? Since Trump values “justice” only when serving ruthless interests, why shouldn’t minions under his command smash grossly slandered “domestic terrorists”?
Give Trump credit for consistency. Trigger-happy domestic abuses, “shoot first/cover up later,” apply in spades to his addled, imperialistic misadventures. Thus the endless overseas barrage of violent threats and interventions in three months, erupting in missile attacks, fatalities, foreign arrests and dubious oil-tank seizures. Let alone crazed tariffs and demands others hand over what “rightly belongs” to America. Yep, the same perverse enmity that pervades ICE’s war against America drives the Trump war against NATO and others (excluding like-minded authoritarians). No conflict here between ego-driven, vigilante recklessness inciting riots at home (seeding the Insurrection Act) vs. tectonic ill will against allies (until stopped by joint military resistance). Bluff, bluster, bullying, retreat—variations on disastrous, failed Trump “deal-making.”
Finally, no one can say President Crime Spree doesn’t telegraph his punches (and worse). Or stupidly blocks all negative outcomes. What other Naked Emperor ever so quickly turned into the most humiliated lame duck? The west is on a shock and awe watch for the next theatrical shockwave, whether brandishing force or rhetoric. How stricken must approvals be before this WH realizes the majority declares “you’re all fired” before impeachments start picking off cabinet goons. When logic insists that epic failures (and broken promises) should induce modest corrections, this WH double-downs on unapologetic authoritarianism. Is this rational strategy or a suicide march? Why, if this most infamous draft dodger didn’t have bone spurs, mottled hands or narcolepsy, he’d make a great gun-slinger meting our “retribution” to one and all. Of course, he’d need a great deal more spine because President TACO still flees from the unified, potent power of NO!
If Trumpism hasn’t yet peaked, we’re closer than ever
A presidency in free fall, mortified by lawless street executions, looks to have peaked in terms of power and brow-beating prowess. Abused multitudes are sniffing weakness and pooling resources. Even if capable of change, an unthinkable prospect, the Narcissist-in-chief remains so full of himself, he can’t help lying about empty triumphs, as the best president ever. The louder he cries, the more sky falls on his head. Ever more obvious as ICE rampages, not only does “everything Trump touch die,” he keeps piloting his Titanic chaos as if willful, twitchy MAGA stares melt all icebergs. No politician survives so many epic fails without offsets—and denial married to calamity lead to only one inevitable end—if health or senility don’t strike first.
For a career con man, the headstrong Trump has lost the most essential skill: self-protection until the whole scam is complete. For a mafia boss, he seems oblivious to potent forces closing in. To invoke values from the Wizard of Oz, Trump never had either heart or courage. But he did have a survival instinct, emanating from his reptilian brain, that kept opposing forces at bay. But escape now depends on shifting tactics and backing off from the worst delusions (that no longer work). Instead Trump is doubling down on delusions of grandeur, oddly ever more puffed up as blunders expand. Polling suggests he’s already done for—incapable of reversal or restoration. That makes the only question one of timing, whether the bloodbath comes pre- or post-midterm.
When MAGA forfeits the House, even the Senate, that ultimate national “poll” will not be fixable by suing newspapers printing results. It will be 2020 replayed again but this time desperate Chicken Little will implode when repeating the same pathetic, “rigged” trickery again. Alienating necessary allies. revving up inflation, defending stupid tariffs without job growth, plus wildly overplaying brutal immigration schemes—all head in only one direction. Doubling down on violence (and lying about victims) only amplify the outrage from state terrorism. Only a motivated Congress can severely clip MAGA Trump’s authoritarian wings.
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