In the daily haze of news surrounding convicted felon and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, the voices of his supporters are often lost, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of their icon’s babbling.
So, let’s listen to a few of those voices.
Last week, a Fort Worth man was charged with threatening an FBI agent who was reportedly involved in the federal gun case against Hunter Biden. The son of President Joe Biden was convicted on three gun charges, but the Texas man, 43-year-old Timothy Muller, was apparently unsatisfied, leaving a voice message on an FBI agent’s phone falsely claiming, according to the charging document: “You covered up child pornography.”
That’s nonsense, of course, but Muller allegedly went on to say: “You can run, but you can’t (expletive) hide.”
Trumpian rhetoric: We’ll ‘slaughter you like the traitorous dogs you are’
According to the criminal complaint, Muller said Trump will win the election “and then we’re gonna (expletive) go through the FBI and just start throwing you (expletive)s into jail. Or, you can steal another election, and then the guns will come out, and we’ll hunt you (expletive)s down and slaughter you like the traitorous dogs you are in your own (expletive) homes. In your own (expletive) beds. The last thing you’ll ever hear are the horrified shrieks of your widow and orphans. And then you know what we’re going to do? … We’re going to slaughter your whole (expletive) family.”
That’s tough to read, but I’d argue it’s important to pay attention because that kind of violent rhetoric has become far too common in MAGA circles. Not everyone who supports Trump is like that – not even close. But as we’ve seen from Trump’s own menacing rhetoric and from his promises to pardon the violent Jan. 6 rioters who are rightfully sitting in prison, violence and threats are not shunned in the MAGA movement and are rarely condemned.
Trump’s right. Milwaukee is ‘a horrible city.’ It’s hosting a convention crowning a felon.
There are plenty of kind and sensible conservatives out there, but a large swath of the Republican Party and its leadership have been overtaken by a movement that tolerates, and sometimes celebrates, extremism as long as that extremism helps or supports Donald Trump.
Daily emails from Trump supporters mirror his threatening tone
Let’s bump it down a few levels of viciousness and look at excerpts from emails I’ve received from a few Trump-supporting readers over the past few months. Just know that the typos are theirs.
Here’s one: “You are a complete (expletive) scumbag… you sack of (expletive)… you talk alot of (expletive) but look and sound like a low iq (expletive) moron.”
The writer concluded: “People as stupid as you should be deported… you worthless sack of (expletive).”
‘May God damn and curse your life and infest you family’
This one was nice: “Trump all the way you spineless liberal Biden (expletive) sucking (expletive).”
And this little nugget: “May God damn and curse your life and infest you family.”
And this: “People like you need to be arrested and put in jail for what you did in 2020. You people are afraid he will get re-elected. You stole our country from us and we want it back!”
One reader said I will not “live through the next Revolution.”
Another wrote: “You woke, anti-police, illegal loving commie (expletive)s are the real problem. Be sure to move your fat ass to Canada when Trump wins. Loser.”
Unhinged people are on both sides, but only one side cheers them on
This is but a smattering of the nonsense directed at me each day. And that’s fine. I’m used to it and I can take it. When you have a public platform, people are going to chirp back at you. And in fairness, my conservative colleagues hear equally horrendous things from people on the left.
But the key difference, and the reason these hateful voices are worth paying attention to, is that intimidation and threats of violence are not broadly embraced by people on the left. And when they bubble into public view, they’re condemned far more often than they ever are on the right. They’re not celebrated or amplified by elected officials or Democratic presidential candidates.
After Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, he attacked the U.S. justice system, called it “rigged” and said: “If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone. These are bad people. These are, in many cases, I believe, sick people.”
When Biden’s son was convicted, President Biden said he would respect the rule of law and wouldn’t pardon his son or commute his sentence. Biden supporters have not attempted to violently overthrow a free and fair election, nor have they said anything about not accepting the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. And Biden himself isn’t threatening bloodbaths if he loses or sharing videos suggesting a coming civil war.
Hunter Biden is guilty: The Hunter Biden verdict proves Trump’s trial wasn’t ‘rigged’
Each side has its fair share of nutters, but there is simply no equivalence in terms of which side feeds and nurtures the nutters and which side tamps them down.
Listen to the voices of MAGA supporters – they speak volumes
Trump once told the Proud Boys, a violent extremist group that supports him, to “stand back and stand by.” More recently he has warned of “bedlam” if he doesn’t win the election and said there will be “a bloodbath.” He has said migrants are “poisoning the blood” of our country and routinely talks of seeking revenge on his political opponents.
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There was no condemnation from Trump or his lackeys or Fox News after the Texas man was arrested last week and accused of threatening a federal agent. Extreme rhetoric has become the parlance of Trump’s Republican party, and the normalization of everything from real threats to stupid emails to a violent attack on our democracy should frighten any American whose moral compass doesn’t permanently point toward Trump.
November’s election will be about many things, but the kind of country we want to be and the kind of madness deemed acceptable in our society will and should be front and center.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump’s MAGA movement nurtures violent threats. Don’t ignore them
