Brunswick Beacon, 12.07.23
Donald Trump’s fixer, Michael Cohen, was jailed for doing Trump’s dirty work paying off porn stars. Cohen testified that Trump’s instructions followed a pattern used by other ‘Dons.’ “He speaks in code,” said Cohen, “like a mobster.”
Former FBI Director James Comey also compared Trump to a mobster: making his wishes known, expecting underlings to carry them out. Comey testified that it reminded him of the gruesome murder of Archbishop Thomas Beckett. When Becket resisted King Henry II’s attempts to control the Church, the angry King exclaimed, “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” Four obedient knights hacked Beckett to death on the altar of his Cathedral.
Trump calls opponents “vermin” and accuses immigrants of “poisoning the blood of our country.” Demonizing opponents so they become targets of seemingly random, but statistically probable, violence is called “stochastic terrorism.” Stoking such violence is Trump’s stock-in-trade.
In 2020, ABC News found 54 cases of threats and violence in which court records named Trump’s incitement as motivation.
After the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, 174 defendants said Trump’s calls to “Be there, will be wild!” and “Fight like hell!” incited their violence because they felt “obligated” to follow the Commander-in-Chief’s orders.
When FBI agents executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, Trump attacked them. A Trump supporter wielding an AR-15 assaulted an FBI field office, then died in a shootout with police.
In his NY fraud trial, Trump attacked the Jewish clerk as “Trump-hating” and called for Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron to be placed under citizen’s arrest, inciting hundreds of antisemitic, racist threats.
With Trump, stochastic terrorism only seems random because the attacker could be anyone. Take David DePape, Paul Pelosi’s assailant, enraged because of Trump’s demonization of Democrats. DePape’s intended victim, Nancy Pelosi, wasn’t random. Trump demonized her as “nasty,” vindictive,” a “wicked witch” and “demented psycho,” inciting DePape to do Trump’s dirty work and get jailed for it.
Vince Amoroso
Sunset Beach