“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters” said by Donald Trump during the campaign cnn.com
Donald Trump knows his base very well. But his true talent is his ability to discredit the truth. With the help of conservative media, he has repeatedly attacked anyone who disagrees with him, questions him, or serves as a check on his power. Among his dedicated followers, he has created a world in which they no longer believe the mainstream media, the Justice Department, the intelligence community, or the special prosecutor. They buy into the paranoid view that all these institutions are out to get Trump. He continues to fuel these ideas by saying, just this week, the Justice Department is filled with Democrats, intimating that they are behind all of his legal woes.
The Dems are very strong in the Justice Department,” he said. “I put in an attorney general that never took control of the Justice Department, Jeff Sessions. Never took control of the Justice Department. And it’s — it’s sort of an incredible thing.” NPR
I believe some Trump supporters are turned off by the mounting evidence of corruption, illegal actions, and interference with the 2016 election. But I also expect that there will be a core set of believers who will square all the mounting evidence against him as simply “they” are out to get him. As he said, he could shoot someone in plain sight and these folks would continue to follow him. With the rising pressure, both his reactions and that of his true followers become increasingly scary.
As the legal and public relations problems mount, the President’s “punch-backs” are increasing wild swings. This week, we got a glimpse of Trump’s “nuclear” version of the alternative reality he has built. He is starting to threaten the American people directly. I expect that his statements such as the stock market will crash and you will all be poor were just the opener.
“If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash, I think everybody would be very poor, because without this thinking, you would see — you would see numbers that you wouldn’t believe in reverse.” Foxnews
Rudy Giuliani, his lawyer, followed the next day with what appears to be a veiled call for his supporters to engage in violence.
“You’d only impeach him for political reasons, and the American people would revolt against that,” Giuliani said Thursday. Sky News
As a lawyer, Mr. Giuliani knows that it is illegal to incite a riot. He is walking the inside edge of the law, by contemplating what might happen rather than directly calling for a revolt. I think it is important that the President and his men be called out for trying incite his base.
The next few weeks are going to be very difficult for everyone. Everyone should take a long hard look at all the evidence and remember that the law should not be bent because of your political views.
Update
Since writing this piece on August 26th, the President has gone further by saying that if the Democrats win the midterms:
“They will overturn everything that we’ve done, and they’ll do it quickly and violently, and violently. There’s violence. When you look at Antifa and you look at some of these groups — these are violent people,” Trump said in a private dinner with Christian leaders, according to recorded excerpts observed by NBC News. Washington Examiner
This is yet another way of threatening the American people. Put the idea in play with his base that there will be violence against them if people do not vote his way. He and his spokespeople are working hard on getting this idea out there in several forms to rile up the base and scare everyone. It is reckless and I believe a new low point in tactics.