Trump's violent fantasies: Experts warn of "a terror that blinds us to what’s coming next"

Donald Trump has repeatedly shown himself to be a violent and dangerous man. This is not a minor character flaw or a bad habit that only emerges once or twice in his life. Violence is a central part of Trump’s character. Moreover, he's displayed a deep attraction to violence in its various forms. Here are but a few of the most disturbing examples:

Trump has repeatedly wished death and imprisonment on his political “enemies” and others who have dared to oppose or criticize him. Channeling Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, Trump has threatened to remove the “vermin” from the “blood” of the nation.

Trump appears to take great pleasure in his plan to deport tens of millions of undocumented immigrants from the country, in what he brags will be “the largest deportation in American history” and a very “bloody story.”

Trump admires Russian President Vladimir Putin and vowed to be a dictator on “day one” to install his Agenda 47 plan. He has also threatened to engage in a campaign of revenge and retribution on his political opponents and detractors.

Trump mocked and laughed after Nancy Pelosi’s home was invaded and an intruder attacked her husband, resulting in injuries that could have been fatal. At his rallies, Trump encourages his MAGA followers to assault protesters. Trump has also told his followers that he will pay for them to get out of prison if police arrest them for following such commands.

On Jan. 6, at Trump’s incitement, his MAGA followers launched an attack on the Capitol in service of his coup plot. Trump is now deifying the Jan. 6 terrorists as "political prisoners" and heroes. He's promised to pardon them if he takes power next year.

He was judged by a court of law to have sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll and has been credibly accused of sexual assault by several other women.

At a recent rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Trump escalated his violence, telling his MAGA people that he wants the police (or by implication other designated Trump regime enforcers) to be able to run amok, abusing “criminals” for at least one hour without restraint or restriction in order to instill “law and order." Trump’s threat is his own version of the “Purge” films, where all crime, up to and including murder, is legal for a 24-hour period once a year. High-ranking government officials are granted immunity and protection from the violence.

“One rough hour — and I mean real rough — the word will get out and it will end immediately, you know? It will end immediately,” he told his MAGA followers.

Trump’s spokespeople responded that Trump was just kidding. Trump, like other demagogues and authoritarians, was more likely testing boundaries and priming his followers for action. Predictably, the mainstream news media, pundits and responsible political watchers stood aghast at Trump’s celebration of wanton violence. Still the real implications of Trump’s threats remain essentially unexplored beyond castigations of his rhetoric and behavior as “crazy” and “unhinged."

At the Independent, Emma Clarke reflects, “I often debate whether it’s a good thing to discuss Trump’s tirades, to give him more airtime than he should be given. But I also think, especially so close to the election, that it’s important to call out his threatening behaviour. We have all grown weary or accustomed to his sensationalist spiel – to the point we often turn the other cheek or tune out. But by doing so, we run the risk of history repeating itself, of his fanatics thinking these awful threats will go unchallenged.”

In a healthy society, Trump’s “one really violent day” fantasy would be treated as a national emergency. But America is far from being a healthy society. Sick societies produce sick leaders and sick political movements.

Dr. Lance Dodes, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry (retired), Harvard Medical School, explained that Trump’s violent behavior and personality function like a type of social contagion in service to his plans to become the country’s first dictator:

In his latest outrage, Trump favored a day of murder to prevent thefts, as when people steal air conditioners from a store. The most dramatic aspect of this is that it goes barely noticed by the media while a couple of decades ago Trump’s comments would have been greeted with universal horror, and his unworthiness to hold public office would have been obvious. This lack of public response speaks to the effectiveness of Trump’s years of repeating Hitler’s Big Lie approach, insisting upon imaginary, self-serving lies, thereby gaining millions of followers and Fox News who slavishly endorse whatever he says without evidence and indeed against all evidence.

The Big Lie works because it preys on a normal aspect of human beings, namely a tendency to believe others and to trust the world. This is necessary for civilization to exist, but it makes humans easy marks when faced with an apparent psychopath. Once this kind of person is able to con enough people into believing he is a godlike figure, the fraud is easily perpetuated because it is not only the leader who is lying, but all his followers.

A related problem is that, once someone has fallen for the lies of an apparently extremely mentally disturbed leader, it often feels embarrassing to acknowledge he or she was conned.

If enough prominent people acknowledged that they, too, were conned but are now able to move on, it would give permission for others to likewise escape the cult-like nature of Trump’s attraction. A few Republicans have done this to date. But to save the country many more would have to stand up for the country over their party.

Trump’s “one really violent day” threat reflects not just his personal attraction to violence and destruction but the right's commitment to a culture of cruelty. The response of elected Republican leaders to the COVID pandemic left hundreds of thousands of Americans dead or with longterm illness. The GOP's continued refusal to treat gun violence as a public health problem leaves every American vulnerable.

Social theorist Henry Giroux explains that "Trump’s invocation of 'The Purge' marks a chilling embrace of militarized, fascist rhetoric that treats politics as all-out war, with no regard for legality, morality, or humanity":

His words are drenched in the blood of history, echoing genocidal campaigns against Native Americans, Black people, Jews, and countless others deemed disposable by authoritarian regimes. It is a dead language — a lexicon of violence — spoken by politicians who thrive on fear, hatred, and bigotry, cloaked in the false promises of patriotism and security. Trump’s language is designed to fracture the civic contract, pit citizens against each other, create the conditions for civil war, and pave the way for a society ruled by fear and a police state. This rhetoric doesn’t just protect fascists; it suppresses dissent, normalizes torture, and evokes the atrocities of death camps and crematoriums. It is a language of the unimaginable, a terror that blinds us to what’s coming next. In a just society, language should be a force for justice, equality, compassion, and democracy. Instead, Trump’s apocalyptic language — driven by white nationalism, white supremacy, revenge, and fear — must be seen as a warning, signaling the death of democracy and the rise of a new fascist order.

Trump, a man who has gross contempt for the rule of law and the Constitution, was endorsed — again — by the Fraternal Order of Police. Trump has repeatedly promised to make police literally above the law by making them immune from being held accountable for brutalizing the public.

Sociologist Alex Vitale, author of “The End of Policing,” located Trump's "one really violent day” threats relative to a culture of police brutality and thuggery and the ascent of American neofascism and the larger democracy crisis:

As much as Donald Trump crows about the need for “law and order,” he is very much the embodiment of lawlessness and disorder. Multiple juries have now judged his professional and personal life to be riddled with illegality, but more importantly, his rhetoric on the campaign trail shows a deep loathing for the Constitution and the safety of the American public.

To explain this seeming contradiction, we need to look beyond his superficial support for law enforcement and tough-on-crime policies. When push comes to shove, what Trump and many of his supporters want is authoritarianism in the services of their personal and group advantage, not the traditional ideal of a rule of law that creates a level playing field and social stability within which economic and political competition takes place. Trump has never been interested in fair competition; he wants a rigged game in which the rules favor him and when they don’t, can be easily ignored without consequence.

Trump’s recent statements laud an authoritarian lawlessness that is designed to appeal to those who feel that their personal freedom to take advantage of others has been impeded. The Constitution can be ignored if it impinges on claims of victory, the right to due process can be ignored if vigilante violence makes us feel safer, and taxes should only be paid by “suckers” who can’t manipulate their books to avoid them. While America’s legal system has many injustices contained within it, Trump’s authoritarian disregard for it endangers not just innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire of Purge-like violence but the very foundations of liberal democracy.

As I write this essay, the mainstream news media has already, for the most part, moved on from Trump’s fantasy and threats of a bacchanal of violence. “Sane-washing” and otherwise normalizing Trump’s fascist and authoritarian behavior will not save the American news media, the American people, or anyone else — including his MAGA devotees — from his endless appetite for violence and destruction. Ultimately, Trump’s dreams of a real-life “Purge” (an event that is not without precedent in a country where white racial pogroms as seen in Tulsa, East St. Louis, Chicago and Rosewood against Black people were common in the 19th and early 20th centuries) are proof of how one person or group’s dystopia and nightmare is another person or group’s fantasy.

Donald Trump means exactly what he says. Believe him. Trump is a master of horror-politics. This is not a movie like "The Purge,” it is all too real.