Insiders worry about violence as Donald Trump's rhetoric becomes 'increasingly dangerous'
Donald Trump is again making the wrong kind of headlines, after speeches and online posts used language that have drawn comparisons to the likes of Hitler and Mussolini by commentators.
At a rally in Ohio last weekend, Trump warned there would be a ‘bloodbath for the country’ if he didn't win the 2024 presidential election in November and claimed said that migrants were ‘not people’.
Amid rising alarm from the US media, Trump’s campaign staffers insisted his ‘bloodbath’ reference was about the electric vehicle industry.
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When he made the comments, Trump had been speaking for at a rally to endorse Senate hopeful Bernie Moreno. Throughout the 90-minute speech, the former President admitted that he was struggling to read the teleprompter and barely mentioned Moreno.
He went on to claim that countries were somehow releasing criminals from their prisons and sending them to the US. Yet Trump's own border officials have pointed out that the majority of those who attempt to enter the US are actually families fleeing war, and that there is no evidence to support his claims.
'Vermin'
In a speech he gave in November 2023, Trump labelled his political opponents ‘vermin’ who would be ‘rooted out’. He claimed that democrats were a bigger threat to America than adversaries such as North Korea and Russia.
Historians have pointed out that language like this is typically used to ‘dehumanize’ an opponent.
On March 18, in an interview with former aide Sebastian Gorka, Trump addressed the conflict in Gaza, sparking outrage from the Anti-Defamation League and others.
"Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion,” he said. “They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed."
Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, called the comments 'defamatory and patently false' on his X account.
The Biden White House also immediately hit back, labelling the comments as 'vile and unhinged Antisemitic rhetoric'.
The majority of Jewish Americans either lean or identify as Democrats, with a 2021 study finding as many as seven in 10 are pro-Democrat.
Poll numbers went up
It's been almost nine years since Donald Trump and his wife Melania walked down an escalator at Trump Tower and gave one of the most shocking and consequential speeches in modern political history.
In the speech, he spoke about immigrants coming over the border' and how Mexico wasn't sending its best, claiming they were sending drug dealers and rapists. Many thought he had torpedoed any hope he had to be the Republican nominee for President, but his poll numbers went up after.
Trump reportedly had to pay actors $50 a head a head to cheer for him and hold signs as he announced a then long-shot run for the presidency, despite his claim that 'thousands' were there to support him.
Real-world consequences
In 2019, during a speech in El Paso, Texas, a BBC cameraman was attacked by a Trump supporter. Trump, who was President at the time, would point to the media pit at the back of rallies, calling them the 'fake news media' to loud boos from the crowd and chants of 'CNN sucks'.
Also in 2019, Trump gave a speech at a rally in Florida. He spoke of the southern border and asked the crowd, "How do you stop these people?"
When someone in the crowd responded with "Shoot them," he openly laughed.
A few months later, a mass shooting took place in a Walmart in El Paso, where 23 people were killed and dozens were injured.
The gunman, Patrick Crusius, was 21 years old when he wrote a manifesto speaking of the 'Hispanic invasion' of Texas before shooting anyone he believed to be of Hispanic ethnicity.
'Justice for all'
One of the many criminal cases Donald Trump faces relates to January 6 and the attack on the US capital. Trump has made those arrested and convicted for their part in the insurrection a continuous talking point during his campaign.
He has repeatedly referred to those in prison as 'hostages' and has started rallies with a choir of about 20 of those imprisoned singing a track called Justice For All.
In the track, the men, called the J6 Prison Choir, sing the United States national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, while Trump recites the Pledge of Allegiance.
Trump wrote on his social media platform that if elected in November, he would free those being ‘wrongfully imprisoned’.
Unprecedented
In an unprecedented move, Trump's former Vice President, Mike Pence, has refused to endorse his party's presumptive nominee for President.
Pence said he could not 'in good conscience' endorse Trump and called his recent rhetoric around the January 6 insurrectionists 'unacceptable'.
Pence certified the election win of Joe Biden in January 2021, causing many Trump supporters to storm the capital building with a gallows, chanting 'Hang Mike Pence'.
To read more about the 2024 elections, click here.
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, News, US News
Mike Sheridan