Former President Donald Trump | Jeniffer Solis/Nevada Current
On Friday, we learned that retired Gen. Mark Milley — chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Donald Trump — said the former president was a “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.”
Later that day, Trump did his best to illustrate that point at a terrifying rally in Aurora, Colo., that featured mugshots of immigrants from Latin America with alleged gang connections replete with the headline, “Occupied America.” Trump — who’s been convicted of 34 felonies and faces dozens more — appeared under banners that read, “Deport illegals now” and “End migrant crime.”
Trump didn’t descend on the Centennial State because it’s a battleground (he’s down there by double digits) — but he saw fertile ground for his anti-immigrant campaign, as some Republicans have falsely claimed has undergone a “complete takeover” by a Venezuelan gang.
Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain told NBC News on Friday that wasn’t true, adding, “Without question, Aurora is still a very safe city. It is still a wonderful community that is incredibly diverse.”
But the truth has never gotten in the way of Trump’s racist fearmongering, as we’ve seen with vicious lies about Haitian legal immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio, who have actually helped rebuild the flagging city’s economy.
“In Springfield, they are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats,” he said at the debate last month. “They’re eating — they are eating the pets of the people that live there.”
But Trump didn’t talk about the crime that Aurora is best known for — the 2012 grisly mass shooting during a midnight showing of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ that killed 12, including a 6-year-old girl, and wounded 70.
– Susan J. Demas
We know that’s not true — and even Trump’s running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, admitted it shortly afterward on national television.
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” Vance said on CNN.
But these bigoted lies have real-life consequences. Nazis and extremists descended on the small city, seeking to whip up more hatred against immigrants, many of whom said they feared leaving home. Springfield experienced dozens of bomb threats, which shuttered government buildings, grocery stores and elementary schools.
Trump, of course, hasn’t backed down, vowing to revoke Springfield immigrants’ Temporary Protected Status that allows people to legally live in the U.S. when their countries are unsafe to return to, as Haiti is.
“Do you think Springfield will ever be the same? I don’t think so,” Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania last month. “The fact is, and I’ll say it now, you have to get them the hell out. You have to get them out. I’m sorry. Get them out. Can’t have it. They’ve destroyed it.”
Trump’s grossly inhumane rant raises a troubling question: Who, exactly, would his future administration consider to be an illegal immigrant? It would seem that plenty of people who immigrated to America legally could be vulnerable to the mass raids and deportations he’s gleefully promised.
In Aurora, Trump recalled how he’s denigrated immigrants as “rapists,” grousing that he “got the hell knocked out of me by the fake news.” Then he pulled one of his favorite moves, pointing at reporters so the crowd would jeer them.
“We have to live with these animals, but we’re not gonna live with them for long, you watch,” Trump promised.
Studies, like one from The Marshall Project, have found no link between undocumented immigration and increased crime, but that didn’t stop Trump from announcing he would launch “Operation Aurora,” deploying law enforcement to “hunt down, arrest and deport” illegal immigrants connected to gangs.
At several points in the rambling speech, he called for “cleaning out” the country of undocumented immigrants.
“I’m hereby calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or law enforcement officer,” he said. “With your vote, we will achieve complete and total victory over these sadistic monsters.”
Trump plans to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which was intended to be a wartime act, and was most famously used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II to round up thousands of Japanese Americans and force them into internment camps. It was an extremely dark period marked by massive human rights violations, when people who were never charged with any crimes lost their homes and businesses and were forced to live in squalid, prison-like conditions.
Manzanar National Historic Site in California near Death Valley, home to one of the Japanese internment camps during World War II | Susan J. Demas
He warned the audience that immigrants aren’t just coming from South America, but also “the Congo and Africa … the Middle East and Asia.”
“Our criminals are like babies compared to these people. These people are the most violent people on earth,” he declared.
But Trump didn’t talk about the crime that Aurora is best known for — the 2012 grisly mass shooting during a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” that killed 12, including a 6-year-old girl, and wounded 70.
The killer (who was a white U.S. citizen) came to the movie theater armed in a ballistics helmet, bulletproof vest, bulletproof leggings, gas mask and gloves. After detonating several smoke bombs, he unloaded onto the crowd round after round of ammunition from an AR-15 assault rifle, Remington 12-gauge shotgun and a .40 caliber Glock handgun. Police found more than 20 bombs and incendiaries in his apartment.
That’s the kind of horrifying crime that scars a community forever. But that doesn’t fit Trump’s authoritarian agenda, so he didn’t say a word Friday night.
He rarely talks about mass shootings at all, even though there have already been 418 this year in America. Of course, when he does, it’s with his trademark empathy, like while campaigning before the Iowa caucuses this year after a school shooting in Perry.
“It’s just horrible, so surprising to see it here,” Trump said, even though school shootings happen everywhere and it’s every parent’s nightmare. “But have to get over it, we have to move forward.”
Trump, however, doesn’t want people to get over crimes immigrants commit — every speech, interview and ad is geared toward keeping people as frightened and agitated as possible.
The ex-president unleashes dehumanizing language, like calling immigrants “animals,” frequently bringing up murders of women and girls to appeal to his audience. He’s increasingly turned to Nazi language like claiming they’re “poisoning the blood of our country.” In a recent interview, Trump claimed that “murder, I believe this, it’s in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.”
The children of movie-theater-shooting-victim Gordon Cowden embrace one another and pray at the makeshift memorial built across the street from the Century 16 theater July 23, 2012 in Aurora, Colorado. Two of Cowden’s teenage daughters were with him in the theater when he was killed. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“What is so jarring to me is these are not just Nazi-like statements. These are actual Nazi sentiments,” Robert Jones, the author of “The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy,” told Politico. “Hitler used the word vermin and rats multiple times in ‘Mein Kampf’ to talk about Jews. These are not accidental or coincidental references. We have clear, 20th century historical precedent with this kind of political language, and we see where it leads.”
Trump has repeatedly vowed to reinstate and “expand” his ban on most people coming to the U.S. from seven countries, including five Muslim-majority countries. President Joe Biden rescinded it on day one of his term.
At an Iowa rally in September, Trump said his new travel ban would “deny entry to all communists and Marxists to the United States.” He’s also threatened pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses, whom he called in May “violent radicals.”
“If you come here from another country and try to bring jihadism or anti-Americanism or antisemitism to our campuses, we will immediately deport you,” Trump said at an event in New Jersey.
Of course, many protesters calling for an end to the war in Gaza are U.S. citizens. Ironically, many have said they can’t vote for Vice President Kamala Harris because she hasn’t agreed to stop U.S. support for Israel even though Trump uses the term “Palestinian” as a slur and just called right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu “very strong.”
Trump has been ramping up his attacks on his fellow citizens, saying in a new Fox News interview that he’s not concerned about immigrants on Election Day because the real problem is “very bad people, sick people, radical left lunatics.”
“I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within. Not even the people who have come in, who are destroying our country,” Trump said. “… And it should be easily handled by, if necessary, by [the] National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”
Trump is 78, in questionable health and seems to find new enemies in every new meandering tirade. Who would escape his wrath during a second presidency? I’m not sure anyone really knows.
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