Nice Democracy You've Got Here. Shame If Something Happened to It.
Donald Trump's newest defense strategy is laced with menace.
By David A. Graham
In an interview yesterday, the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, a Trump critic turned flatterer, asked whether being criminally indicted would dissuade Trump from running for president in 2024. Trump took the answer in a dark direction.
"I don't think the people of the United States would stand for it," he said. "I think if it happened, I think you'd have problems in this country the likes of which perhaps we've never seen before. I don't think the people of the United States would stand for it."
The implication was clear enough that Hewitt felt the need to throw Trump a preemptive lifeline: "You know that the legacy media will say you're attempting to incite violence with that statement."
"That's not inciting," Trump replied. "I'm just saying what my opinion is. I don't think the people of this country would stand for it."
But there's no need to believe he's merely making an analytical judgment. Anyone else can see as clearly as Hewitt what Trump is doing. As The Atlantic's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, has noted, Trump commonly uses this mob-boss-derived method: He speaks in fluent innuendo and implication, making his desires clear while leaving himself just enough vagueness to be able to smirkingly deny it.
If there was a time when Trump didn't know how people would respond when he makes these veiled threats, it has passed. He understands now, and does it anyway. His persistence also helps show why his claims that his exhortations on January 6 were not incitement are not to be believed.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/09/trump-threats-violence/671458/
Donald Trump's newest defense strategy is laced with menace.
By David A. Graham
In an interview yesterday, the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, a Trump critic turned flatterer, asked whether being criminally indicted would dissuade Trump from running for president in 2024. Trump took the answer in a dark direction.
"I don't think the people of the United States would stand for it," he said. "I think if it happened, I think you'd have problems in this country the likes of which perhaps we've never seen before. I don't think the people of the United States would stand for it."
The implication was clear enough that Hewitt felt the need to throw Trump a preemptive lifeline: "You know that the legacy media will say you're attempting to incite violence with that statement."
"That's not inciting," Trump replied. "I'm just saying what my opinion is. I don't think the people of this country would stand for it."
But there's no need to believe he's merely making an analytical judgment. Anyone else can see as clearly as Hewitt what Trump is doing. As The Atlantic's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, has noted, Trump commonly uses this mob-boss-derived method: He speaks in fluent innuendo and implication, making his desires clear while leaving himself just enough vagueness to be able to smirkingly deny it.
If there was a time when Trump didn't know how people would respond when he makes these veiled threats, it has passed. He understands now, and does it anyway. His persistence also helps show why his claims that his exhortations on January 6 were not incitement are not to be believed.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/09/trump-threats-violence/671458/