Donald Trump: American terrorist

When Donald J. Trump was elevated to the White House by the same anachronistic institution he once condemned-the Electoral College-I knew that America was going to suffer one of the worst-if not the worst-periods in its history. 

What many ignored in the divide between Trump supporters and detractors was that his so-called "election" went far beyond traditional party politics.  Trump represented, and represents, an unadulterated evil that not only transcends politics, but even the rudiments of human decency.  Underneath all his puerile rantings the media so love to dissect resides a sociopath who, if not for his money, would have been incarcerated, instead of idolized, long ago.

Now, in the wake of the protests over the killing of George Floyd, Trump is again threatening to declare a loose collection of left-wing groups, collectively called Antifa, a "terrorist" organization.  And, as usual, his lawless enabler, the equally sociopathic William Barr, is along for the ride, blaming "outside radicals and agitators" for exploiting Mr. Floyd's death for "their own separate and violent agenda."

What shouldn't be lost in Trump and Barr's rhetoric is that this is the same vituperation that was incessantly used against Northern civil rights workers during the 1950s and 60s.  African Americans, according to Southern white supremacists, had been perfectly content to live under the oppressive "Jim Crow" segregation laws until these "outside agitators" appeared.

Of course, the reality is that local people are often so intimidated by the power structure of the community they live in that they are hesitant to speak out against injustices, for fear they will be retaliated against socially, economically, and/or physically.  Thus, it often fell to those who lived outside of these communities to draw attention to the injustices that festered within.

In addition, Trump and Barr are megalomaniacal and unhinged enough to employ other techniques often used by those in power to undermine or silence the messages of protesters they disagree with, such as using "tough" talk to instigate law enforcement into provoking or escalating volatile situations, and/or inserting agent provocateurs or informants to encourage violence.

So while, rightfully or wrongfully, Antifa is currently being blamed for some of the violent unrest following Mr. Floyd's killing, in terms of overall death and destruction, it's not difficult to discern who the premier American terrorist truly is, and who is directly responsible for the very unrest the world is witnessing today.  For the reasons listed below, and countless others like them, this terrorist is Donald J. Trump:

• According to a 2018 article in the Washington Post, white supremacists and right-wing political groups "were responsible for 74 percent of the murders committed by political extremists in the United States over the past decade" compared to "2 percent committed by left-wing radicals."
• Yet, whenever right-wing protesters engage in violence or intimidation, as seen in both Charlottesville, VA and Lansing, MI, Trump routinely calls such protesters "good people."
• The protesters Trump was supporting in Charlottesville were defending monuments that glorify the enslavement of African Americans.
• The protesters in Lansing were increasing the risk of spreading the Coronavirus by not wearing masks while shouting into the faces of police officers.
• Trump, himself, is intent on increasing the spread, and death rate, of the Coronavirus by encouraging states to reopen prematurely, and threatening states that do not comply, and is even refusing to wear a mask himself and ridiculing those who do.
• Trump has weakened environmental laws, which will lead to more pollution-related deaths.
• Trump condemns the violence that occurred during some of the Floyd protests, yet exacerbates such violence by labelling protesters as "thugs," and threatening to use "shooting," "vicious dogs," and "ominous weapons" against them.
• Yet when people, like Colin Kaepernick, peacefully protested to draw attention to the very issue that killed George Floyd, Trump called them, "sons-of-bitches," and even encouraged the predominantly white, Trump-supporting owners of the NFL to not only blacklist Kaepernick, but also to threaten the jobs of those who, as Dallas Cowboys owner and Trump cheerleader Jerry Jones said, do not "toe the line."
• Trump underscored his opposition to peaceful protests by instructing his sycophantic lackey, and phony Christian, Mike Pence to make an ostentatious display about leaving an NFL game during such a protest-costing taxpayers $242,000.
• Trump retweeted a message from a supporter that stated, "The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat."
• And finally, like the gutless, godless wannabe tin horn dictator he aspires to be, Trump used the military and the police to deploy tear gas and fire rubber bullets at PEACEFUL PROTESTERS who were doing nothing more than exercising their Constitutional Rights, all so he could take a pathetic picture, surrounded by his lackies, in front of St. John's Episcopal Church, idiotically holding a Bible while proving to the world he knows absolutely nothing about the principles discussed within-causing Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer to remind us of the now all too real axiom, "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross."

I have often said that the destruction of nations, and perhaps even the world, will not evolve from some natural disaster, but from humankind's terminal myopia that incessantly fails or refuses to see and/or recognize evil.  America is currently in the grip of such evil, and no phony (and most likely illegal) effort to exploit the "terrorist" label should distract Americans, or the world, from who the true terrorist is-the man who is intent on killing thousands, perhaps millions, via prejudice, poverty, pandemic, and pollution-Donald J. Trump.

David R. Hoffman

Legal Editor of Pravda.Report