Trump’s dark turn toward police brutality

If you think Donald Trump’s speeches this campaign cycle are just more of the same, consider the analysis from the person who knows more about them than anyone.

“They thought they were going to jump up and down there, ‘Make America Great Again,’” this observer noted Saturday of a rally in Wisconsin. “I’m just saying, this is a dark speech.”

That clairvoyant expert was Donald Trump, who provided a better analysis than much of the press reporting. As Trump himself noted, he has been on a particularly somber and disturbing tear, even by his own standards. I wrote late last year about how Americans have understandably become desensitized to his most extreme rhetoric, while at the same time he has taken a darker tone. Now he has well passed that level, with just a month to go until the elections.

From the January/February 2024 issue: Trump is not bluffing

It’s not easy to pinpoint the low point of the past few days, but it’s likely Trump’s suggestion that an hour of widespread, extrajudicial police violence would be an effective method of crime control. Maybe that sounds like a caricature; Trying to convey Trump’s ideas in plain language risks diluting them. Speaking in Erie, Pennsylvania, Trump was in the middle of an argument about the increase in crime (this is incorrect, as I have reported), which he partly blamed on the police not being able to get tough enough on suspects.

“The police are not allowed to do their job. They are told: If you do something, you lose your pension, you lose your family, your house, your car.” he said. “In a heavy hour, and I mean really heavy, the word will get out and it will end immediately. Terminate immediately. You know? It will end immediately.”

The idea is reminiscent of the Purify film series, set in an America where all crime is legal for twelve hours once a year. The difference is that this is presented as dystopian in the films; for Trump, it’s a shining ideal, as long as the police are the ones acting lawlessly. (The former president has had difficulty distinguishing horror films from reality, as in his ongoing musings on “the late, great Hannibal Lecter,” the serial killer cannibal from The silence of the lambs. He really is Ronald Reagan’s heir.)

Read: Trump’s new big lie

While he has long complained about restrictions on police violence, this goes further than that. This is what a campaign spokesperson said Politics it was a joke, a common excuse used by aides when Trump crosses the line. Nothing in his tone suggested frivolity. This is what I’ve called the Trump two-step, and it allows him to present an idea to his supporters while half-heartedly distancing himself from it.

The police-led purge of Trump would – along with many statutes, common decency and common sense – violate the Fourth through Eighth Amendments of the Constitution. Trump’s rejection of the rule of law is wide-ranging: he is angry that people suspected of crimes like shoplifting are not prosecuted, but he is also furious that he himself is prosecuted when accused of crimes. Earlier this month, he promised retaliation for members of the law enforcement community who have tried to hold him accountable, “including lengthy prison terms.” In other words, they would not only lose their pension or car, but also their freedom. He also promises to pardon those who ransacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Police are only for those Trump hates. He and his friends get a pass.

In Erie, Trump immediately—without transition or context—switched from this observation to repeating a line from the Wisconsin meeting. “Crooked Joe Biden became mentally disabled, but I honestly believe lying Kamala Harris was born that way,” he said. ‘There’s something wrong with Kamala. And I just don’t know what it is, but there’s definitely something missing.” As with some insults of the past, this is a remarkably efficient way to deliver an insult, insulting the elderly, the mentally challenged and Harris – who is neither – in the same breath.

Read: The Trump two-step

The rule was so bad that it sparked disgust among Republicans after Trump used it for the first time on Saturday. Still, Trump knows they will tut-tut but otherwise remain strictly aligned with him and then quickly move on, so he used it again the next day. The second time was not just a provocation for Harris and the Democrats, but a reminder to Republicans of how powerless and sycophantic they are.

After Trump called Harris a “stupid person,” the crowd began chanting “Lock her up,” as Trump looked on approvingly. Harris has not been charged with any crime, let alone credibly accused. Her offense here is presumably against Trump.

Shall we continue? In Erie he delivered an incomprehensible spiel on the brutality of undocumented immigrants, comparing them favorably to Hollywood stars, ending with what may have been a line from comedian Jeff Dunham – “I’ll kill you!” – although who can really say. ? It’s one of the strangest things I’ve ever heard Trump say.

Trump also claimed again, and still without evidence, that widespread vote-counting fraud is occurring in major, heavily black cities, including Philadelphia, Detroit and Atlanta. “If God came from above and said, ‘I will be your vote tabulator for this election,’ I would leave this stage right now because I wouldn’t have to speak. We wouldn’t have any problem,” he said. This has been a banner year for candidates expecting divine intervention in their presidential campaigns, but most theologians would be surprised if God came from above to intervene in such a secular issue. It would be surprising if that were even his first concern regarding Trump.

Read: The Trump campaign wants everyone to talk about race

And on Friday, Trump threatened to criminally prosecute Google for allegedly showing only bad stories about himself and good stories about Harris, which is a claim without evidence and not against the law anyway. This threat is a good reminder that Trump has centered his election campaign on a promise to use the power of the federal government to punish anyone who offends him. With this kind of material, is it any wonder that so many negative stories about him appear in internet searches?

What is not clear is why Trump is suddenly rampaging even more than usual. When Biden dropped out of the race and Harris replaced him, Trump lashed out, furious that his glide path to reelection had been disrupted. Now the elections have stabilized somewhat. Opinion polls show the race to be exceptionally close; some analysts think it could be even closer. Most of the data shows Harris has a small but fragile edge. While many Harris supporters despair that the race could be so close, this is an opportunity for Trump. By avoiding the sharpest rhetoric that has consistently turned voters away from him, Trump could close that gap and win. Instead, he turns it up. Maybe Trump is angry about something that isn’t clear to outsiders. Maybe he reasons that the most divisive issues for him are actually winners, and maybe he’s right. Or maybe he just can’t help it.