Trump Foments Violence Against Real American Patriots

The president signals his unhinged supporters to do harm once more

Are you entertained, America?

On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump unleashed a mob on Congress and then sat in his office for 187 minutes, watching the violence on TV like it was one of his favorite UFC matches.

Yesterday, he moved from inciting political violence to openly fantasizing about state-sanctioned killing of his opponents — declaring that six Democratic lawmakers who reminded the military of its duty to refuse illegal orders had engaged in “seditious behavior punishable by DEATH,” and amplifying a call to “HANG THEM.”

This is what a plurality of American voters endorsed last November. Unlike 2016, these voters knew exactly whom they were sending back to the White House — a man who had just a few years earlier overseen an assault on lawmakers who were performing their constitutional duties. Back then, he did nothing as his supporters bayed for the death of his own vice president. But that did not matter to them — at least not enough to keep him the hell away from the Oval Office.

Did they expect a different, more chastened Trump, who would focus on the price of eggs more than vengeance? Were they unfamiliar with who he has always been? Today, he is the same man we saw on January 6 — only with fewer guards on his id and more power over the levers of government.

January 6 wasn’t an aberration; it was a blueprint for what is happening now.