Donald Trump Bought A Gun
From 5th Avenue to America and Beyond...
Yesterday, in Summerville, South Carolina, Donald J. Trump, former president of the United States, failed coup plotter, and currently under nearly 100 state and federal indictments bought a gun. Social media lit up with reminders that 1) it is illegal for Trump to own and/or possess a firearm and 2) this is exactly what led to Hunter Biden’s indictment on a gun charge. Two-tiered justice!
For Trump, though, this is the next example of his ability and willingness to make his deranged imagination real. In January 2016, he told a crowd that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue wouldn’t even get in trouble for it. From a finger gun to the real thing, Trump is telegraphing his desires and intentions for a second another term in the White House.
While in office, the Department of Homeland Security couldn’t explicitly tell Trump they were working to root out extremist groups in America. Why? Because they were his supporters and his voters. Trump is always most loyal and attentive to the base. Reminder: “The Base” in Arabic translates to Al Qaeda.
When Trump’s fevered mind and ego cannot contend with the real world, he is quick to turn to violence. He did so in 2020 with protestors on Pennsylvania Avenue. Elsewhere in Washington, black-clad federal officers, without identifying information (names or agency) stalked the capital. Menacing National Guard troops lined the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. In Portland, Oregon, federal officers (deployed by “Acting” DHS Secretary Chad Wolf) grabbed protestors off the street.
Donald Trump lost the 2020 Presidential election.
Reading this, you might ask why I’d write the above. It’s a reminder that there is no truth – zero, none, bupkus, to any allegations of impropriety, destroyed ballots, or malfeasant elections officials.
After November 7th, 2020, when Trump knew he was cooked electorally, he attempted to trample on the judicial system. Neither he nor his goons were able to convince incredulous judges that their protests had any validity (including a Trump-dominated Supreme Court.)
Seeing his options running short in court, he moved to the political arena: begging, threatening, and pleading with federal and state Republicans to overturn the results of this free and fair election. People like Senator Mike Lee (R-Sedition) and attorney John Eastman went out of their way to clear a path for Trump to remain in power through political means. They too, failed.
That left Trump’s last, perhaps his favorite method of getting what he wants: The planning and perpetration of an attempted coup on January 6th, 2021. When he stood on the Ellipse that morning, Trump knew what was in store for those just up Pennsylvania Avenue. He watched with glee as his supporters, many hoisting Trump, QAnon, and confederate flags, attacked Capitol Police officers, and overtook both houses of Congress.
When informed that the mob was looking to hang Vice President Mike Pence, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said there was nothing he could do (and Trump wouldn’t stop them, either.) It was only when even he finally realized that the insurrection would not keep him in office, did he reluctantly call off his mangy dogs.
In almost-three years since that day, though, Trump has leaned further into the use of violence on his behalf. Last March in Waco, Texas, Trump declared “I am your retribution.”
Is it any surprise, then, that we’ve seen too acts of political violence rooted in white nationalism? It is not. These men aren’t lone wolves. In Buffalo, New York, Allen, Texas, the Tree of Life Synogauge, Jacksonville, Florida or any of the other American abbotoirs, these killers are the hand-picked messengers of a world in which Trump and MAGA return to power.
In Jeffrey Goldberg’s excellent profile of General Mark Milley, the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs understands the nature of Trump’s reelection: “Milley has told friends that he expects that if Trump returns to the White House, the newly elected president will come after him. ‘He’ll start throwing people in jail, and I’d be on the top of the list,’ he has said.”
Trump, true to form, agreed with Milley’s sentiment and took in 248 steps further, indicating the general should be executed.
Over the next 13 months, there will be far more of this. As Trump sits in courtrooms in Florida, Georgia, New York, and Washington, DC, he will wave his victim flag high for all his supporters to see. He holds up, metaphorically, and now literally, the gun he purchased in South Carolina this week. What starts as fantasy for Trump becomes awful, ugly, reality for others.
As Simon Rosenberg said on the Lincoln Project podcast earlier this month, after January 6th, what line won’t they cross? What words won’t they say? What things won’t they do? Ask yourself this question. The answer is ugly, but avoidable. To avoid it will require all of us in the pro-democracy coalition to quit whining about this thing or that, understand the stakes and get to work.
Photo Credits:
Trump: Doug Mills, NYT
Lincoln Memorial: Win McNamee, Getty Images
As always thanks Reed fora great article even if I am more depressed. I remember the full page newspaper ads condemning the Central Park Five with no facts and the NYPD arrested them while the female jogger went along and said them all raped her. But they didn’t. She should have went to jail after coming clean with Trump right behind her and those NYPD detectives. I feel like all the work I do even with the Union is flat, empty and wasted and for decades. Decades