The Art of the Wink

How Trump Foments Racism, Violence and Authoritarianism

Art by Eric W. Burns

Godwin’s Law states, “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1” — in other words, it will happen eventually. People reach for Hitler comparisons and the race card like a security blanket in heated political discussions.

Similarly, the race card is often used unfairly to tarnish political opponents. So people have a tin ear when words like “fascist” and “racist” get thrown around. The words no longer have power. When a public figure shows up who should be legitimately concerning, it becomes the Boy Who Cried Wolf Election.

Welcome to the Boy Who Cried Wolf Election

Trump is not Hitler. Or Mussolini. But it is clear that his movement purposely leverages the ugly strains of racism, violence, and authoritarianism. This is a signal that has trouble cutting through the noise of years of false accusations and race baiting relating to other political figures. So it’s important to make these observations with specifics to support it.

Donald Trump and Racism

Donald Trump uses charged rhetoric about largely non-white groups. He described illegal immigrants coming across the Mexican border as “killers and rapists”.

When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending you. They’re sending people who have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

When Governor Jeb Bush was critical of these remarks and others like it, Donald Trump tweeted, “#JebBush has to like Mexican illegals because of his wife.” Donald Trump as had Jorge Ramos, a well-known Mexican American journalist and news anchor, physically removed by security from a press conference for a question he did not like about his mass deportation policy proposals. “Go back to Univision,” he snapped.

Donald Trump has also tweeted and retweeted a number of controversial things that touch on race, including one using blatantly false statistics on black crime rates as shown in the above tweet.

When David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the KKK and still quite open about his white supremacist ideas, endorsed Donald Trump, Trump had an opportunity to emphatically disown this part of his movement. Although he had mentioned David Duke in an op-ed column in 2000, he gave a tepid and circuitous answer, claiming he didn’t know who Duke was and that he needed to further research groups before denouncing them.

He later blamed a faulty earpiece for his answers and issued a clearer denouncement, but the subtext was clear to these groups: they are not unwelcome in the movement.

There are also incidents that took place prior to Donald Trump’s campaign that raise questions about his views on race.

And what to make of his campaign removing a group of black students from a Valdosta State University event before the rally had even started?

Donald Trump and Violence

Donald Trump also has a violence problem within his movement that he has not addressed, and in fact, seems to actively encourage.

Protesters and violence have become a routine part of Trump’s rallies. But the violence didn’t really become common until March, following an escalating cycle of protesters appearing at Trump rallies, being forcibly removed while Trump made bellicose remarks to the crowd as color commentary.

On February 1 in Iowa, Trump told the crowd:

If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Okay? Just knock the hell. I promise you I will pay for the legal fees. I promise.

Another incident in Las Vegas on February 22 had Trump remark:

You know what I hate? There’s a guy totally disruptive, throwing punches. We’re not allowed to punch back anymore … I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks … The guards are very gentle with him. He’s walking out like big high-fives, he’s smiling … laughing. I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell ya.

March 4 in Michigan:

All right, get him out. Try not to hurt him. If you do, I’ll defend you in court. Don’t worry about it. … We had four guys, they jumped on him, they were swinging and swinging. The next day, we got killed in the press — that we were too rough. Give me a break. You know? Right? We don’t want to be too politically correct anymore. Right, folks?

After all this talk, Donald Trump’s followers took note. On March 1, a black woman was shoved by a dozen or more people at a Trump rally, forcibly led out. A peaceful protester being led out police was sucker punched by a 78 year old man at a Trump rally on March 9 in Fayetteville, NC.

“The next time we see him, we might have to kill him,” the man shared in an interview the next day.

On a Meet the Press appearance on the March 13, Trump mentioned that he was considering paying for the man’s legal fees. “I’ve actually instructed my people to look into it, yes.”

On March 11, a Chicago rally was called off after a number of scuffles between Trump protesters and supporters.

On March 19, another protester was physically attacked by crowd members before being escorted out at a Trump event in Tuscon, AZ.

And then there’s Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. On March 8, reporter Michelle Fields alleges that he grabbed her arm hard enough to leave bruises, nearly pulling her to the ground. Lewandowski denies this, but video and audio evidence as well as witness testimony appears to corroborate Fields’ claims. Fields herself tweeted pictures of the bruises allegedly caused by Lewandowski.

On March 19, Lewandowski was apparently involved in another altercation, with video posted by CBS correspondent Jacqueleine Alemany showing him pulling a protester up by the collar.

Between Trump’s words, his lieutenant's actions, and a continued unwillingness to condemn his violent supporters or appeal for non-violence, the message is clear.

But if it weren’t, Donald Trump made it explicit, warning of riots if he was denied the nomination at a contested convention where he had a plurality of the delegates.

Many have read this as a thinly veiled threat.

Donald Trump on Authoritarianism

So what would a President Trump do if he came into power? Trump has been very candid about desiring a very muscular use of executive power.

Just a few examples of this:

The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don’t kid yourself. When they say they don’t care about their lives, you have to take out their families.

He also promised to torture terrorism suspects. When asked about water boarding:

It’s fine, and if we want to go stronger, I’d go stronger too. Because frankly, that’s the way I feel. Can you imagine these people, these animals, over in the Middle East that chop off heads, sitting around talking and seeing that we’re having a hard problem with waterboarding? We should go for waterboarding and we should go tougher than waterboarding.

All of this would of course violate the Geneva Conventions and the military would be obligated by duty to disobey these orders. But Trump was not concerned about that, “They’re not going to refuse me. Believe me.”

Under pressure, Trump backed off, saying he would obey the law. But in the next debate, Trump appeared to flip flop again.

Don’t Play the Godwin Card

These concerns are too many and too well documented to be met with an eye roll. Racism, violence, and authoritarianism are not accidental aspects of the movement, but clearly intentional, and clearly supported by the head and chief strategist of the movement: Donald Trump.