Illiberalism
Gilead
Donald Trump
Fig. 1. Donald Trump, depicted in an orange jumpsuit, reportedly by the Drudge, date unknown, via Mediaite,[1] fair use. Apparently, no mugshot was taken when he was actually arrested over hush money paid to Stormy Daniels.[2]
I’m seeing a lot of comment on social media on Donald Trump’s “bloodbath” threat.[3] People are alarmed and I understand that.
What I would say of the coup attempt, however, is that it was considerably less severe than I would have expected. Militia groups mostly stayed out of it. I would have expected them in and, had they shown up, the coup attempt on January 6, 2021, would have been far worse than it was (possibly even with a different outcome). A lot of these folks are military, police white supremacist gangsters, or formerly so. They are often experienced soldiers who have been training for combat in the backwoods for decades (most of the fighting for Trump would be in urban environments).
So if we’re talking a bloodbath, we’re not talking about the Proud Boys or any of the amateurs who actually showed up on January 6. We’re certainly not talking about the “lone wolf” domestic terrorists we’ve seen so much of in recent decades. We’re probably talking about these militia groups joining in. They didn’t do it three years ago. My expectation is that they won’t do it if Trump loses yet again.
I’m also seeing comment that Trump is unhinged. This’d be the part to take seriously and mostly for the contingency that he actually wins.
Marisa Iati, “Trump says some undocumented immigrants are ‘not people,’” Washington Post, March 16, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/16/trump-immigrants-not-people/
Migration
Fig. 2. Photograph credited to “ProtoplasmaKid,”, November 9, 2018, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Marisa Iati, “Trump says some undocumented immigrants are ‘not people,’” Washington Post, March 16, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/16/trump-immigrants-not-people/
- [1]Alex Griffing, “Drudge Puts Trump in an Orange Jumpsuit as Site Monitors His Potential Indictment,” Mediaite, August 29, 2022, https://www.mediaite.com/news/drudge-puts-trump-in-an-orange-jumpsuit-as-site-monitors-his-potential-indictment/↩
- [2]Sarah D. Wire and Alexandra E. Petri, “Trump charged with 34 felony counts in alleged hush money cover-up case,” Los Angeles Times, April 4, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-04-04/donald-trump-alleged-hush-money-investigation-indictment-arraignment↩
- [3]Marisa Iati, “Trump says some undocumented immigrants are ‘not people,’” Washington Post, March 16, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/16/trump-immigrants-not-people/↩