Donald Trump and the promise of participatory violence
As footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is displayed in the background, former President Donald Trump stands while a song, "Justice for All," is played during a campaign rally at Waco Regional Airport, Saturday, March 25, 2023, in Waco, Texas.
The appeal of Donald Trump has been clear: he’s a racist. A misogynist. An unfettered narcissist.
by Mark Sumner
From the time he made the most ridiculous entrance in political history, riding down a golden escalator to spew an almost unbroken stream of anti-immigrant rhetoric, one part of the appeal of Donald Trump has been clear: He’s a racist. A misogynist. An unfettered narcissist whose wealth and connections have allowed him to cheat contractors, defraud investors, insult whoever he chooses, endanger workers, and sexually assault women.
He’s so crude he’ll talk about the size of his daughter’s breasts in a radio interview. So heartless he’ll make his disdain for prisoners of war and Gold Star parents into a campaign plank. So brazen he’ll tell obvious lies, tell a different lie five minutes later, then deny what he said on camera in front of an audience.
Trump is an unrepentant bully. That alone is enough to make him appealing to many, for the same reason third-grade bullies have henchmen.
But it’s not the big pull. The big pull, the thing that turned Trump from a clown on a gaudy yellow staircase into a nightmare in the White House, is that he holds out the same offer to his followers that he enjoys: the promise of cruelty without consequence.
Over the course of Trump’s time in the big chair, he pardoned Steve Bannon when his former campaign chief defrauded fans out of $25 million to pay for a fictional border wall. He gave racist Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio a pass on contempt of court. Right-wing pundit Dinesh D'Souza got to blow past giving illegal campaign contributions. Erstwhile foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos was given a gold star after lying to federal investigators. Conservative talk show host Conrad Black may have lost when he appealed his obstruction case to the Supreme Court, but Trump took care of that. Conservative lobbyist Roger Stone was convicted of seven felonies with direct connections to Trump’s campaign. Just like that, Trump set him free.
Trump might as well have put up a sign that declared any friend of his could do as they pleased, without concern about morality or legality. But anyone on the team was also up for this Get Out of Jail Free card.
But it wasn’t just that Trump brushed away laws like cobwebs when it came to his friends. He made it abundantly clear that he was there for those who would swear allegiance, like a trio of Republican ex-congressmen—Duncan Hunter, Chris Collins, and Steve Stockman—who were given passes on everything from securities fraud to money laundering.
The franchise was also extended to those who did things that Trump and his fan base admired. That included giving full pardons to Dwight and Steven Hammond, a pair of Oregon ranchers and serial arsonists who were part of Ammon Bundy’s anti-government uprising.
Then Trump topped himself by pardoning Clint Lorance for casually ordering the murder of two civilians in Afghanistan. And pardoning Mathew Golsteyn for murdering a civilian. And he pardoned Edward Gallagher, who not only murdered a prisoner by slowly sticking a knife into his neck, but went on to desecrate the man’s body before posing for a few pictures.
All of them were found guilty in military courts before officers and men who had served in the same areas. All of them had their convictions reversed, and their crimes blessed, by Trump.
If there’s any doubt that this trend would continue, Trump has already declared he would pardon a “large portion” of those convicted in the Jan. 6 insurgency. He’s also announced his support for Daniel Penny, who choked homeless man Jordan Neely to death in front of multiple cameras on the New York subway. (Trump’s far from alone in this one. Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley have both promised to pardon Penny, too.)
It’s been said many times that in the modern Republican Party, cruelty is the point, but Donald Trump’s real promise is that those who follow his path get to be cruel—and never pay for it.