Tag: Trump hate mongering

Trump’s ugly rant in Minnesota shows why Republicans fear he’ll lose

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President Trump’s shattering of the “blue wall” states in 2016 shocked many observers into believing that he possesses a quasi-mystical grasp of the values and aspirations of rural and small-town Whites in the industrial Midwest. Elite journalists flayed themselves mercilessly for remaining cosseted in their coastal bubbles and missing the story of the Real American Voter.

But Trump’s latest rant at a rally in Minnesota — along with a new election forecast that shows him losing Midwestern Whites and a new report on rising GOP anxiety about Trump — strongly suggests his preternatural grasp of the region might have deserted him, if he ever possessed it at all.

Trump unleashed a long and hateful diatribe Wednesday night about his favorite target in the state, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D), while spewing wretched nonsense about Joe Biden and refugees. The episode neatly captures the ailing state of Trumpist demagogic politics. Continue reading.

Trump’s rally rhetoric is becoming uglier

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President Trump is an underdog in his reelection campaign. And despite the continued coronavirus outbreak in this country, during the past week he has returned to holding large rallies in an effort to jump-start his campaign and rekindle the support that drove him to victory in 2016.

The result has at times been even uglier than in previous Trump rallies.

Over the course of the rallies, Trump has amped up his attacks on refugees and a Muslim congresswoman, his approval of violence against journalists, his baseless theories about Joe Biden and his not-terribly subtle shunning of a mask to protect against the novel coronavirus. Continue reading.

**ICYMI** Minnesota Leaders Call Out Trump’s Divisive Policies as He Visits Minnesota

ST. PAUL – Ahead of President Trump’s Minnesota visit today, DFL Party leaders held a press call slamming Trump’s failed response to the coronavirus pandemic, his divisive rhetoric, and the harmful impacts of his policies on Minnesotans. Featured on the call were DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Congresswoman Betty McCollum, Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman, State Senator Nick Frentz, State Senate candidate Lindsey Port, John Steigauf of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, and Gandhi Mahal restaurant owner Ruhel Islam. In addition, Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan issued statements this morning in response to the President’s stop in Mankato.

Full audio from the call here. 

Excerpts from the call

Attorney General Keith Ellison: “We are going to be the fairest, most just, most inclusive, most environmentally responsible state we can possibly be. That is what Minnesotsans are stepping up to demonstrate right now, and we’re going to demonstrate it with great vigor and passion as Donald Trump comes to Minnesota. As Donald Trump comes to Minnesota, he thinks he’s going to divide us. He won’t. He’s going to unite us. He thinks he’s going to encourage people to believe that their neighbors are their biggest problem, as opposed to him. He thinks that he’s going to make sure he rallies people on their fears and on their lowest impulses, but what he’s really going to do is inspire us to assert the best of what we’re all about.”

Continue reading “**ICYMI** Minnesota Leaders Call Out Trump’s Divisive Policies as He Visits Minnesota”

Trump has sown hatred of the press for years. Now journalists are under assault from police and protesters alike.

Washington Post logoThere are those who argue that President Trump’s endless disparagement of the news media is harmless — perhaps a little extreme at times, but mostly just a lot of talk.

Sure, he throws around terms such as “enemy of the people,” claims that accurate reporting unflattering to him is “fake news” and gleefully insults individual reporters — especially women of color. True, he likes to threaten to use the powers of his office to interfere with the business concerns of media companies he does not favor or to punish their owners.

But, come on, what has he really done that’s so bad? Continue reading.

The Most Mendacious President in U.S. History

On Trump, his Twitter lies, and why it’s getting worse.

On Sunday, on Tuesday, and again on Wednesday, President Donald Trump accused the TV talk-show host Joe Scarborough of murder. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, he attacked the integrity of America’s forthcoming “rigged” election. When he woke up on Wednesday, he alleged that the Obama Administration had “spied, in an unprecedented manner, on the Trump Campaign, and beyond, and even on the United States Senate.” By midnight Wednesday, a few hours after the number of U.S. deaths in the coronavirus pandemic officially exceeded a hundred thousand, the President of the United States retweeted a video that says, “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.”

This is not the first time when the tweets emanating from the man in the White House have featured baseless accusations of murder, vote fraud, and his predecessor’s “illegality and corruption.” It’s not even the first time this month. So many of the things that Trump does and says are inconceivable for an American President, and yet he does and says them anyway. The Trump era has been a seemingly endless series of such moments. From the start of his Administration, his tweets have been an open-source intelligence boon, a window directly into the President’s needy id, and a real-time guide to his obsessions and intentions. Misinformation, disinformation, and outright lies were always central to his politics. Continue reading “The Most Mendacious President in U.S. History”

Cesar Sayoc, who mailed explosive devices to Trump’s critics, sentenced to 20 years in prison

Washington Post logoNEW YORK — Cesar Sayoc, a fanatical supporter of President Trump who last year mailed explosive devices to prominent Democrats and media figures, was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison after a judge concluded that Sayoc hated his victims but had not meant to kill them.

Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for the 57-year-old former pizza deliveryman and strip club worker whose “campaign of terror,” they said, coincided with the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections. In all, he mailed 16 inoperative pipe bombs targeting, among others, former president Barack Obama, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and the New York offices of CNN, acting out his paranoid delusions and intense adoration for Trump.

“I am beyond so very sorry for what I did,” Sayoc told U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff. “Now that I am a sober man, I know that I was a sick man. I should have listened to my mother, the love of my life.”

View the complete August 5 article by Philip Bump and Devlin Barrett on The Washington Post website here.

‘Two years ago I compared Trump to Hitler’ — nobody listened

AlterNet logoOn Tuesday, Donald Trump held his 2020 re-election campaign kickoff rally in Orlando. It was nothing new: Trump has held dozens of such events since becoming president. His “speech” was repetitive and monotonous. That was precisely its appeal: For Trump’s supporters and other members of his political cult, white rage, violence, bigotry, nativism and lies are entertaining, cathartic and even life-affirming.

Throughout the rally Donald Trump engaged in scripted violence and stochastic terrorism, telling his followers that the Democrats were going to hurt them and only he can protect them:

“Our radical Democrat opponents are driven by hatred, prejudice, and rage and want to destroy you and they want to destroy our country as we know it.”

Trump wallowed in racist lies about threatening and dangerous “illegal aliens” and how the Democrats want to let them run amok, raping, killing and otherwise preying upon “real Americans” — primarily meaning white women. Trump played his goon card, bragging that his ICE shock-troops would round up millions of “illegal” (black and brown) immigrants across the country in the upcoming weeks. Trump’s people howled in delight. Eros, desire and violent lust are central to fascism. This is the libidinous aspect of political devotion between and among the followers and the leader in a cult of personality. Trumpism is no different.

View the complete June 21 article by Chauncey DeVega from Salon on the AlterNet website here.

Former GOP Senator Says Trump Incited Death Threats Against Him

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) is no longer in the Senate.

But Flake said the attacks Trump made against him when Flake served in Congress are still causing rabid Trump fans to send him and his family violent death threats that he says have had a “heavy cost” on his family.

In an interview with the Guardian, Flake said he’s received “several” threats that are being tracked down.

The threats have included the names of Flake’s children, as well as links to beheading videos.

View the complete April 7 article by Emily Singer on the National Memo website here.