It has been a long time coming, but the past week witnessed the election campaign of Donald Trump, the property mogul who has baffled pundits to >emerge as the surprise frontrunner in the Republican Party nomination , descend into a vortex of violence against protestors and the media, to the point where the candidate had no choice but to >cancel a major rally in Chicago .
Those watching Mr. Trump’s campaign closely know that the wave of intolerance that it has generated has for months now been laced with a snarling undertone of aggression towards critical opinion in general, and this was focussed on the media until recently.
Speaking of political journalists earlier on in his bid to win the GOP nomination Mr. Trump said, “I do hate them... Some of them are such lying, disgusting people. … [They’re] among the most dishonest groups of people I’ve ever met.”
In the past week the media continued to face his wrath even though he has arguably been biggest beneficiary of news media coverage of the Republican presidential campaign.
Last Tuesday, Michelle Fields, reporter with the conservative Breitbart website that is friendly towards Mr. Trump, said that her arm was violently pulled by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski as she was trying to ask Mr. Trump a question.
Although Mr. Trump’s campaign denied the accusation Ms. Fields tweeted a photograph of the bruise on her arm and this week she and one of her colleagues resigned from Breitbart, saying the site should be “ashamed” of the way Ms. Fields was treated.
One week before this a photographer for Time Magazine was subjected to a chokehold by a Secret Service agent in Virginia after he stepped outside a press area to photograph protesters.
While Mr. Trump made no bones of his distaste for the media, increasingly he has turned his ire upon protestors at his swelling rallies, reprising his famous “You’re fired!” punch-line from The Apprentice, the U.S. reality game show that he created, with “Get ‘em out of here!” which was a signal for Secret Service agents to eject protestors from his rallies.
That somewhat jarring but relatively contained spectacle has acquired a menacing edge in the past few months after Mr. Trump has apparently started encouraging his supporters at rallies to hit back.
In early February in Iowa Mr. Trump said, “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the [expletive] out of them, would you? Seriously. Okay?... I promise you I will pay for the legal fees.”
During a rally in Las Vegas last month he said about protestors, “You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out in a stretcher, folks... I’d like to punch him in the face, I tell ya.”
Earlier this month he said during a rally in Warren, Michigan, “Get him out! Try not to hurt him. If you do, I’ll defend you in court.”
In the past week he has reprised his promise to pay the legal fees of a man who was arrested after throwing a face-punch at an unsuspecting Black Lives Matter protester at a rally in North Carolina, an attack that was captured on multiple videos and went viral on social media.
“The man got carried away,” Mr. Trump said in media interviews after the assault, adding, “He obviously loves his country, and maybe he doesn’t like seeing what’s happening to the country.”
Perhaps bristling at having to cancel his Chicago rally because he didn't “want to see people hurt or worse” at the venue Mr. Trump attempted to blame Vermont Senator and Democratic Party underdog Bernie Sanders for the protestors.
While both Mr. Sanders and Democratic nomination frontrunner Hillary Clinton blasted Mr. Trump for fuelling violence amidst his supporters, with Mr. Sanders calling Mr. Trump a “pathological liar,” even Mr. Trump’s Republican rivals such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz have come out saying Mr. Trump has created a toxic environment at rallies with a campaign that “affirmatively encourages violence.”
If, at the heart of Mr. Trump’s rhetoric, which is regularly compared to the politics of Nazi Germany, there is a coherent philosophy, it may well rest upon Mr. Trump’s constant allusion to the U.S. having become a “weak” and “scared” nation, indeed the reason why his campaign promises to “Make America Great Again.”
Yet many wonder if this notion of an “angry America,” an essentially pejorative assessment of the grand strides made by the Obama administration after the Great Recession, could ever set the tone for a successful Trump presidency, terrifying as that prospect may seem to many Americans.
Assuming Mr. Trump wins the GOP nomination, as he appears well set to do, it will be up to liberal and progressive Americans use their votes wisely if they wish to keep a dangerous combination of nihilism and narcissism out of the Oval Office.
