2023-09-11 10:49:00
(CNN) — Donald Trump is evoking his most disturbing vision yet of a possible second term, speaking to his supporters in language reminiscent of the run-up to the Jan. 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol that they need to “fight like hell.” or they will lose their country.
The four-time impeached former president’s rhetorical escalation came at a rally in South Dakota on Friday night, where he accused his potential 2024 opponent, President Joe Biden, of ordering his indictment on 91 counts in four criminal cases. as a form of electoral interference.
“I don’t think there has ever been a darkness around our nation like there is now,” Trump said, in a dystopian speech in which he accused Democrats of allowing an “invasion” of migrants across the southern border and of trying to restart the covid “hysteria”.
The Republican front-runner’s tough speech raised the prospect of a second presidency that would be even more extreme and challenging the rule of law than the first. His view that the Oval Office confers unlimited powers suggests Trump would indulge in conduct similar to what he is awaiting trial, including intimidating local officials in an alleged attempt to overturn his 2020 loss.
Characteristically, Trump also criticized his behavior against his political enemies, implicitly arguing that the real danger to America’s political freedoms arose not from his attempt to overturn a free and fair election, but from efforts to make him face legal liability for do it. “It is truly a threat to democracy as they trample on our rights and freedoms every day of the year,” he said.
“This is a great moment in our country because we are going to go one way or the other, and if we go the other, we won’t have any country left,” he told supporters in South Dakota. “We will fight together, we will win together and then we will seek justice together,” he added. This came after a rally in March in which he presented his 2024 campaign and his possible second term as an instrument of “retribution” for his supporters who believe they have been wronged.
Trump is a highly skilled demagogue whose facility for injecting falsehoods and conspiracies into the country’s political bloodstream creates a maelstrom of chaos and acrimony in which only he seems to thrive. And his words shape public opinion. In a recent CNN poll, for example, only 28% of Republicans thought Biden legitimately got enough votes to win the 2020 election. This comes after years of Trump relentlessly denying that he lost and despite Courts dismissed his multiple challenges to the result.
Trump’s authoritarianism and the 2024 elections
The autocratic cast of the Trump campaign is creating a sinister atmosphere around the 2024 elections and creating profound dilemmas for voters and their opponents. For example, it gives greater weight to the growing debate over whether Biden, at the age of 80, has the stamina and political resilience necessary to defeat Trump a second time. While his predecessor spent the weekend casting doubt on the US electoral system, Biden was on the other side of the world, in India and Vietnam, seeking international support for his signature foreign policy strategy of combating the threat to Western democracy by part of the authoritarian leaders of China and Russia.
At home, the former president’s extremism also exposes the timidity of most of his Republican primary rivals, who have recently been plotting against rookie candidate Vivek Ramaswamy but are only willing to criticize Trump in the most indirect terms to avoid crossing its millions of Republicans. supporters. The closest a candidate came, the Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haleand to criticize Trump’s conduct on CNN’s “State of the Union” this Sunday was to warn that “we have to leave the negativity of the past behind,” while promoting herself as the example of a new generation of leadership .
The former president’s growing demagoguery also highlights key unknowns of the 2024 elections:
– Does the Republican Party risk nominating a candidate whose indomitable behavior will alienate voters in many suburban swing districts that turned against him in the 2020 election, especially given the possibility that he could be a convicted felon when voters make their choice? your decision?
– And if Trump wins the nomination, will his responsibilities and the prospect of four more years of chaos and recriminations mitigate concerns about Biden’s physical and mental competence and worries about the economy, as revealed in a CNN poll last week past that captured a largely negative view? of his presidency?
At the same time, Trump’s strong lead in the primary shows there is a market for his brand of strongman theatrics. He is trusted and admired by millions of voters who have been persuaded both by his false claims that he won the 2020 election and that the criminal charges he faces are an attempt to persecute him for his political views. Trump’s outspokenness and carefully maintained image as an outsider, even though he used to live in the White House, allow him to endlessly tap into a vein of resentment against Washington and the political, economic and media “elites” deeply felt by many of those who support the “Make America Great Again” movement. This perhaps explains why his accusations appear to have made him more popular in the Republican Party primaries.
Coached by Trump, Republicans are widely complaining that the current president’s son, Hunter Biden, who is being investigated by a special counsel for alleged violations of tax and gun laws after a failed plea deal, is receiving a preferential treatment by the Department of Justice. And they are exposing corruption in what they see as Hunter Biden’s attempts to leverage his father’s former position as vice president to close trade deals in places like China and Ukraine.
Trump has planted and propagated many of these narratives for months, putting political pressure on Republican leaders on Capitol Hill to consider the possibility of an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. Supporters of the measure have not yet shown which high crimes or misdemeanors, or cases of treason or bribery (the constitutional standard for impeachment) apply to Biden. The president has denied being involved in any of his son’s business dealings, and Republicans have not presented any evidence of wrongdoing on his part in connection with those deals. Still, a majority of Americans in a recent CNN poll (61%) say they believe Joe Biden had at least some involvement in Hunter Biden’s business dealings, with 42% saying they believe he acted illegally and 18% saying his actions were illegal. unethical but not illegal. A 55% majority also says the president has acted inappropriately in connection with his son’s investigation into possible crimes, while 44% say he has acted appropriately.
These national divisions that Trump expertly widens speak to a deep sense of alienation in American politics that will only be exacerbated by a bitter election. Such division was on graphic display at a football game Saturday in the nation’s first state with a Republican caucus, where Trump, one of several Republican candidates who attended the game, was greeted with a mix of cheers and boos. Several football fans gave him a one-finger salute in gestures captured on social media. The host Iowa State Cyclones lost to the University of Iowa Hawkeyes in the game held in Ames, a college town in Story County, a liberal stronghold in an increasingly conservative state that Trump won twice in the general election.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at the 56th Annual Silver Elephant Dinner hosted by the South Carolina Republican Party on August 5, 2023, in Columbia, South Carolina. (Credit: Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)
Why Trump’s language is the engine of his political power
Some commentators have previously questioned what they see as alarmist media coverage of Trump, suggesting that his performative belligerence is often interpreted too literally. But the hundreds of pages of evidence in criminal indictments alleging Trump’s use of presidential power to try to steal an election and the way he is using his appearances and social media to try to intimidate judges and potential jurors before their trials they have made such criticisms very outdated.
Trump’s fiery rhetoric is central to his political appeal and his method of building power. From his scathing put-downs and nicknames belittling his rivals, to the speech in Washington before telling the crowd to “fight like hell” or they wouldn’t have a country on January 6, 2021, Trump uses language to fuel his movement political.
In his remarks in South Dakota (where he accepted the endorsement of Gov. Kristi Noem, a possible vice presidential candidate if he is the Republican nominee), Trump complained of having been subjected to “corrupt and flagrant” victimization and “interference.” electoral”. He said the cases brought against him would “allow him,” if he were elected president, to call his attorney general and demand an investigation into his political adversaries. “Impeach my opponent, he’s doing well,” Trump said, implying that was exactly what Biden had done. The former president used a sarcastic tone in the raucous atmosphere of a campaign rally, so context is important. But given his example of following through on his threats, his comments may end up being predictive if he wins in 2024.
He frequently argued as president that he had virtually unlimited constitutional power, an attitude that is clearly evident in three of his accusations: for attempts to overturn the election and for hoarding classified documents after leaving the White House.
So when Trump makes threats during the election campaign, it pays to listen.
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