Trump is a threat to democracy. This is not rhetoric, it is a verifiable fact

The idea that Americans should tone down their inflammatory rhetoric is undeniable, but that message cannot be credibly delivered by the person who literally sent a mob to the U.S. Capitol and then sat back and cheered on the thugs who assaulted police officers for three hours.

The call for a reduction in hate speech cannot come from the man who invented a dialect of political violence, who incites his supporters to attack those who heckle them, who threatens to shoot undocumented immigrants and looters, who taunts the husband of a rival who was attacked with a hammer, and who calls the opposition “vermin.”

And the idea that the toxic rhetoric has gone too far rings hollow coming from a demagogue who thinks Hillary Clinton’s fate might be best handled by “Second Amendment people,” that Liz Cheney should be sent to military court, and that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley should be executed.

This is the political atmosphere that Donald Trump has fostered, so when he complains about how “Biden and Harris rhetoric” inspired two troubled people (presumably both Republicans) to shoot him with assault rifles, it can be seen as one of the most pathetic attempts at manipulation by a deranged criminal who has made a career out of it.

It’s true that violence in all its forms must be rejected, but blaming critical Democrats for the two assassination attempts on Trump is a way of mocking him. For now, though, the champion of victimization will continue to use that rhetoric until Election Day: “Their rhetoric gets me fired up,” Trump said Monday on Fox. “They’re the ones who are destroying the country, from the inside out… They’re called the enemy within. They’re the real threat.”

Later that night, JD Vance—who once called Trump a “moral disaster,” a “cultural heroine,” and “America’s Hitler”—added to the heartbreaking hypocrisy by noting that “the big difference between conservatives and liberals is that no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last two months, and two people have now tried to kill Donald Trump in the last two months. I would say that’s pretty compelling evidence. The left needs to tone down its rhetoric. It needs to stop this bullshit.”

Since this has escaped most Republican fabulists, it bears repeating: The criticism that Trump is a threat to democracy is common because it is true: America saw compelling evidence of that threat in the January 6 riots, in his plans to overturn the election he lost, and in his penchant for violence itself.

No act of depravity is out of place for the man who has normalized political violence and alarmist bigotry; it has been part of his ethos since he stepped off the escalator, and the threat he poses is felt in the most ordinary of places.

Springfield, Ohio, for example: Since Trump and Vance spread their juvenile lie that Haitian immigrants ate pets in that city—a story Republican Gov. Mike DeWine called “garbage”—MAGA Nation has taken decisive action. In the past week, 33 bomb threats have been called in at schools, government buildings, and hospitals in Springfield.

It was all a hoax, but some people apparently believe that the best way to settle an immigration debate is to threaten to blow up children, city workers and the infirm.

It is notable that these threats have not dampened Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. He has been asked to speak out against the bomb threats, which he has refused to do. Meanwhile, a neo-Nazi group known as the Blood Tribe has marched in Springfield wearing bulletproof vests and carrying guns, and immigrants have had their windows smashed and their belongings thrown with acid.

If all this surprises you, you’ll be startled to learn that MAGA supporters are on board with another civil war. That’s according to a PRRI poll last year: a third of Republicans (33%) believe that “true American patriots would resort to violence to save the country” (sadly, 13% of Democrats feel the same way).

So when Trump is criticized for being a danger to democracy, it’s not calling on a mentally unstable incel to shoot him off a rooftop, or a gun-loving career criminal to camp out for 12 hours on his golf course. It’s simply stating a fact. And people would probably treat it in a more civilized manner if Trump’s most vocal critics didn’t have access to military-grade weapons.

As Bulwark’s Andrew Egger said Tuesday: “Turning down the temperature doesn’t mean ignoring the truth. We shouldn’t lose sleep over calling Trump a ‘threat to democracy,’ for example: in 2020, he unquestionably proved himself to be just that, trying through fraud and force to reinstall himself as president against the laws of the land and the will of the people.”

There is no certainty that the country will survive this dangerous campaign, but it is not the first time we have been through such an ordeal. When George Wallace was mutilated by an assassin in 1972, President Nixon remarked to his advisers: “You know, how long did it take to say that somebody was going to shoot Wallace? Didn’t he ask for it? He’s stirring up hate.”

This lesson from Nixon should resonate with Trump. Stirring up hatred doesn’t necessarily give you control over it.

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