A president who calls his opponents “scum” and “the enemy within,” who ordered the murder of 11 people in a boat headed for Trinidad then posted snuf photos of the hit, and has repeatedly encouraged political violence in his name, is trying to catapult Charlie Kirk’s murder into an expansion of his own powers.
Trump immediately used Kirk’s death as a catalyst to declare a nationwide crackdown against political adversaries, vowing to silence progressive voices who are critical of Kirk’s pro-gun, pro-violence, white nationalist message, while he celebrates Kirk for being an icon of free speech.
Setting aside the thick irony of celebrating Kirk’s free speech by shutting down voices against him, it is well settled legal precedent that government attempts to silence opposing political views violate the First Amendment.
Trump loves to hate
Although the shooter, who comes from a pro-Trump MAGA family, is now in custody, Trump immediately politicized the murder before the shooter’s identity was even known.
In a televised statement from the Oval Office, Trump told the nation that Trump’s own political opponents were responsible for Kirk’s death, claiming, “For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now. My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and other political violence.”
Trump expounded that, "It’s long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree,” without acknowledging how he personally leads the effort to demonize anyone who doesn’t support him politically. Trump, unlike any president before him, literally calls Democrats “the enemy within” as he threatens to deploy the military against them.
Trump’s outrageous Oval Office address demonstrates his unfitness to serve
After praising pro-gun, anti-gay, anti-minority Kirk as the “ideal American,” Trump’s Oval Office speech turned dangerous. He said:
My Administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country. From the attack on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania last year, which killed a husband and father, to the attacks on ICE agents, to the vicious murder of a healthcare executive in the streets of New York, to the shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and three others, radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives…”
Trump did not discuss political violence against Democrats, a phenomenon that has exploded thanks to his rhetoric. After reaching back to 2017 to mention the Steve Scalise shooting, he skipped the Minnesota legislator and her husband who were murdered only two months ago. He did not mention how Nancy Pelosi’s husband was beaten with a hammer, nor Don Jr.’s sickening mockery of it. He did not mention the plot to kidnap Michigan’s Governor Witmer, any school shootings, the torching of the Pennsylvania governor’s home, the violence he encouraged on Jan. 6, nor any political violence executed on his behalf since he began his 2016 campaign. He also failed to mention his unprecedented, nonstop attacks against federal judges who rule against him, or that last summer's assassination attempt against his own person was committed by a registered Republican.
Thankful for an adult in the room
In direct contrast to Trump, Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox is the adult in the room, making a full-throated appeal for national healing. Cox, calling for forgivenessand national unity, is doing what a responsible statesman does: he’s trying to lower the political temperature in a deeply fraught moment, as Trump does just the opposite.
Cox said in a press conference, “[W]e can always point the finger at the other side. And at some point, we have to find an off-ramp, or it’s going to get much, much worse.”
Trump does not want an off-ramp. On Fox News Sept. 12, he was still trying to rachet up the hatred even after the shooter was caught. When a Fox panelist pushed back with, “We have radicals on the right as well. How do we fix this country?, Trump said: “…The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don't want to see crime. The radicals on the left are the problem.”
Trump keeps demonizing Democrats in an effort to foment violence against them, aware that no democracy can survive when its leader turns political differences into death sentences.
Trump is supporting something with his rhetoric, but it’s not democracy.
Sabrina Haake is a 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her columns are published in Alternet, Chicago Tribune, MSN, Out South Florida, Raw Story, Salon, Smart News and Windy City Times. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.
