Trump’s revenge culture has wreaked havoc on American life

After a video was posted on social media depicting him as a radical caregiver who endangered children with sexually explicit books. Frank Strong, A Texas teacher has received threats and believes she has become the target of a disturbing and toxic culture of anger and revenge. almost ten years It’s an example of Donald Trump’s political hold on the American imagination.

“It’s had a chilling effect,” Strong, a high school English teacher, said of the backlash he’s faced in his fight to prevent schools from banning books about race and sexual identity. “I don’t know who these people are or what they can do. This sense of ugliness and intimidation is unique to the Trump era. “There is a real danger that it will accelerate.”

Librarians are being harassed teachers were slandered, election workers were threatened. Immigrants are demonized and armed groups march in front of state capitals. Even meteorologists are targeted in conspiracy theories.

“An election worker told me, ‘I can’t go to the grocery store without being seen as a pariah,'” said Tammy Patrick, chief executive officer of programs. National Assn. Election OfficialsHe said Trump’s supporters have disparaged the election system since Trump’s loss in 2020. “Another had to erase his name from the mailbox at his family farm in Wisconsin because they feared threats from people from out of town. They have owned this farm for five generations. “A worker’s dogs were poisoned in Arizona.”

Trump’s increasingly dark vision of America, as evidenced by his recent statements hateful rally Rather than unity and hope at Madison Square Garden, there is suspicion and grievance directed at those who oppose him and his white working-class base. He has so normalized ugliness, with vulgar language and interruptions, that statements and well-documented lies that would have condemned a candidate years ago have lost the capacity to shock even some conservative Christians who support him.

“He speaks with anger and fear and expresses them,” said William Howell, a professor of politics at the University of Chicago and co-author of the book. “Presidents, Populism, and the Crisis of Democracy.” “He did not invent divisive rhetoric. We have a long history with this. But he took it to new heights. He stands apart from all American presidents in history for what he did to the country. “It is a destructive, corrosive force.”

A recent study Chicago Project on Security and Threats It highlights how Trump has incited extremism and increased the potential for political violence: Six percent of Americans (equivalent to 15 million adults) believe force is justified to return Trump to the White House. 8 percent (about 21 million adults) agree that force could be used to prevent Trump from returning as president.

“Sometimes revenge can be justified,” Trump said. He called for revenge against political opponents, including President Biden, and suggested he retire. Gen. Mark A. Milley, The former chief of the General Staff deserved to be executed.

Republicans have tried to temper such sentiments by describing them as enthusiastic portrayals of the campaign rather than actual intent. “Donald Trump has been very clear: he will take revenge by winning and making America great again,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told CNN in July. Not going after political rivals.”

Trump has been described as a fascist by his former chief of staff, John Kelly. He sometimes speaks like a newsreel from 1930s Germany, calling his enemies “vermin” and “sick people” and claiming that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” he is calling gangster Al Capone and he speaks fondly of authoritarians, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom Trump calls “my friends.” CIA concluded In 2018, while Trump was in office, Salman ordered the killing of opposition journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump, a convicted criminal who has been indicted twice and faces further trial, said he, and by extension his loyalists, were being oppressed by a “crazy” and unjust state. According to stray narratives at campaign stops, he is the antidote and protector of the working class. “At the end of the day, they’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you, and I’m just standing in my way,” he tells his supporters.

Since his 2016 campaign, Trump has inflamed American culture wars and toyed with the politics of the other. This strategy, which later led to the deadly January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, Recently, his calls that if he is re-elected, he will call in the army and the Ministry of Justice to suppress the “enemy from within” have become even stronger.

Influenced by his messages, his followers and other far-right conservatives railed against COVID-19 restrictions, threatened teachers and librarians who opposed book bans, and in one radical case, conspired to kidnap Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Some of those convicted of crimes connected to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol have said they were motivated by Trump.

Amanda Jones, a librarian in Denham Springs, La., has faced criticism for speaking out against censorship and book banning.

(Pablo Isaak Perez / For the Times)

Amanda Jones He felt this anger. A Louisiana school librarian was harassed and threatened by right-wing elements after speaking out against censorship. He said he feared the vindictive atmosphere Trump had created.

“Our presidential election will determine how far this goes,” he said, adding that if Trump wins, he will “increase the hatred.” We will see many educators and librarians leave their jobs. Trump has made it normal for people to hate and attack. I noticed this right after the George Floyd protests. People started singing the quiet part out loud.

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero said that Trump’s repeated hate speech against immigrants for years adds dangerous implications to the immigration debate in the country. “If you repeat lies long enough, people will believe them,” said Romero, a Democrat and the daughter of Mexican immigrant farmworkers. “It’s a very scary type of language. … This is not a (migrant invasion). “This is racist rhetoric.”

Trump and his loyalists have specifically targeted discrediting the country’s electoral system. Republicans have filed dozens of lawsuits to preemptively challenge the Nov. 5 election if Trump loses.

There is increasing pressure on front-line election workers and officials. Some of those who faced attacks and threats four years ago now wear Kevlar vests to protect themselves from gunmen. Some people rent cars because their personal vehicles are being tracked. Panic buttons and bulletproof glass have been installed in election offices, which also monitor mailings of envelopes containing fentanyl.

Patrick said the issue comes from “a vocal minority that wants to suck the oxygen out of the room and sow chaos.” He added that election officials had received ominous messages and phone calls, one of which included a voice saying, “I know your son’s window is on the second floor by the oak tree.”

Trump sought revenge against those who opposed him during his presidency, including former FBI Director James B. Comey, and vowed to do so again if re-elected.

“This is how fascism comes to America, not with boots and salutes, but with a television merchant, a fake billionaire, a fraud,” Robert Kagan, a political commentator and former editor-in-chief of the Washington Post, wrote in 2016. textbook egomaniac.

By the time Trump glided down his golden escalator to announce his candidacy a year ago, the nation was accustomed to rancor and sharpening divisions. The rise of Christian nationalism in the 1980s, the government shutdown in the 1990s, and the emergence of the tea party in the 2000s, along with the fragmented and increasingly partisan media, have fueled politics of blame and discontent. An unashamed showman, Trump has connected to the digital age by linking social media’s harsh critiques with the insecurities and fears of the working class who feel angry and betrayed by liberalism and the changing global economic order.

“It is a populist, anti-establishment period. “This is about defining who you are against and undermining that at a time when life is so transformative,” said Mike Madrid, a longtime political consultant and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. “By turning people against each other, if you are shameless enough, you will eventually win. Trump is a product and expressive of his time. He treats the presidency not like a presidential candidate, but like a social media influencer.”

Charlie Kirk, co-founder of Turning Point USA, speaks at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

Right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk is capitalizing on his desire for retaliation as he works to expose his vote for Trump on social media. Kirk, the co-founder of the student political movement Turning Point USA, who has 4 million Instagram followers and was once too radical for the Republican Party, started one of his podcasts with the title “Revenge Tour 2024?” gave his name. He asked his audience: “The left is warning that if Donald Trump wins the presidency again in 2024, he will use it to take revenge on the federal government. But the question is: Is this bad?”

In another podcast in April, Kirk said that scores of Trump allies and advisers, including Peter Navarro and Stephen K. Bannon, were wrongfully imprisoned by the Justice Department, which was weaponized by Democrats. “If the other side wants to put you in jail, put your legs in handcuffs, and our side just wants to write columns, we will lose,” he said. “It’s time for us to start using handcuffs and leg irons.”

This is the violent tenor of the Trump campaign.

“What will it look like if Trump is elected?” asked politics professor Howell. “He promised revenge. This is not about comprehensive policy. This would be an all-out attack on the administrative state.” Howell said he would file a claim with the Justice Department and seek revenge against those he believed had wronged him.

Strong, the Texas teacher, said he has been affected by right-wing anger over the past two years against educators who have opposed bans on some books on race and sexuality. His Texas Freedom to Read Project monitors censorship attempts in school districts.

“What amazed me was the organization, the amount of money, and the harsh words behind the book banning campaigns,” said Strong, who lives in Austin. “It was incredibly bad.”

Conservatives with large Instagram and X accounts are “looking for people to target” and reach out to their followers, he said. Last year, one person on social media posted: “When we take back power, you (Strong) will regret being a pedophile. You will be in prison for life. Honestly I want the death penalty for people like you pedo boy.” Another post read: “Maybe I should reach out to local sexual predators and tell them outspoken strong kids are fair game.”

Such harsh criticism was part of the atmosphere of the time, Strong said. “Trump came to power with a sense that it was culturally acceptable to behave horribly towards other people in public.”