Harris Has Gotten Under Donald Trump's Skin

Since Joe Biden withdrew from the residential contest to be replaced by Kamal Harris, Donald Trump has gotten even more extreme and dangerous in his rhetoric with threats of violence and efforts to dehumanize not only the top of the Democrat ticket but anyone who opposes his MAGA movement and Trump's desire for a dictatorship with himself as "der Fuhrer."  Trump seemingly is enraged that his planned campaign attacks on an aging Joe Biden have evaporated and so far no clear recalculated campaign plan seems to exist.  Hence, Trumps rambling and sometimes incoherent press conference.  More troubling are his call s to his cultist followers to oppose those he labels as their enemies and "monsters."  Of course, the real monster is Trump who seems incapable of restraining his own narcissism and seriously disturbed ego. While his rants and threats excite his base, they ought to terrify sane and morally decent people. As Democrat enthusiasm and fundraising continue to climb, we can sadly expect more behavior and hate mongering which until the rise of Trump would have been disqualifying even as recently as ten years ago.  A piece at Salon looks at the increasingly dangerous behavior of Trump in the face of Harris' improving fortunes:

A brush with death can change a person. They can choose to become a better person and to count their second chance at life as a blessing, an opportunity to engage in critical self-reflection and a mark of good fortune to be repaid to others. Alternatively, a person can be indifferent to how Fate smiled upon them and to continue living life as they had before. Perhaps the worst outcome is when a person faces their own mortality and sees their luck as a mark of their greatness if not immortality, fueling their egomania and the worst aspects of their personality.

After an attempt on his life several weeks ago in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump chose the third option.

An assassin’s bullet barely missed his head. Trump was supposedly a changed man after such a horrible experience, one who would “unite” the country and “heal” its division and acrimony.

There were members of the news media who, even after nine years of experience with Donald Trump and his lies and demagoguing, uncritically accepted Trump’s declarations that he was now changed for the better. Not surprisingly, some of these public voices also said, at various points during Trump’s first regime, that he was finally “presidential” and was “rising to the demands of the office.” Such public voices have little to no credibility left.

In a Wednesday post on Twitter, Wajahat Ali, who is a columnist at the Daily Beast, directly called out such Trump-enablers in the news media: "Again, every single pundit and reporter who said Trump was a changed man after he survived an assassination please resign. Just leave this profession. . . . . Go do something else. You're not made for this moment."

Of course, Donald Trump had no intention of becoming a better man. Trump’s charade lasted only a few days before his fascist-religious coronation at the Republican National Convention and his acceptance speech where he reverted to his ugly true form and attacked the Democrats and his other “enemies.” . . . . In all, Donald Trump, because of his temperament, personality and mind is unable to act differently. Trump only knows how to attack. He appears incapable of human empathy or concern for others.

When President Biden decided to pass the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris, Donald Trump only became more enraged and horrible in his speech, threats, and other behavior. It is being reported that Trump has been raging in private, as the momentum, at least for now, appears to have shifted to the Democrats in the upcoming election. Trump’s public statements and other behavior strongly suggest that he is experiencing some type of existential crisis at the thought of having to do political battle against a highly intelligent Black South Asian woman who is also a former prosecutor and attorney general.

Trump’s niece Mary Trump, who is a trained mental health professional, made this observation ; . . . Donald hates being laughed at….Donald also hates women (especially strong women) and minorities, so you can see why current Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris terrifies him to the point of incoherence. . . . . Faced with the reality that he is now running against a vibrant, intelligent, experienced woman who is fully two decades younger than he is, Donald spent Sunday and Monday flailing, trying to find an angle of attack that would stick.

[L]ongtime observers of Trump have concluded his behavior appears to be driven almost completely by the id and his other most core and primal instincts.

Tuesday morning, Kamala Harris announced that she chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice-presidential pick in the 2024 Election.  Trump responded with more violent and apocalyptic language, sending out a fundraising email stating that Walz would “unleash hell on Earth.”

Later in the day, Trump would continue with his threatening and menacing emails about Kamala Harris (and now Tim Walz), telling his MAGA followers that she will “destroy this country” and “is coming for you next”

Trump and his propagandists are using stochastic terrorism and related techniques to emotionally train and condition the MAGA people and his other followers into committing acts of political violence and destruction in the name of “the movement”. This is the logical end goal of Trump’s repeated use of apocalyptic language such as “unleash hell.” That language also has multiple valences and meanings. Yes, Trump is commanding his followers to commit such actions against their shared “enemies.” But he is also telling his followers the lie that Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, and the Democrats and “the Left” are going to unleash hell against them. In that logic, Donald Trump is their only protector and savior—which is why he must be made into a dictator to “save” them from the evil forces that are going to hurt them, their families, and (sacred) communities. In keeping with how radicalization into political extremism usually takes place, the resulting violence against the “enemy” is understood to be defensive and a last option—and therefore legitimate and perhaps even honorable and just—in what is an existential struggle for survival.

Donald Trump’s MAGA people and other cultists are listening to his commands very closely. . . . Political scientists and other experts in national security and law enforcement have compiled data that shows that there are many thousands of Trump-MAGA followers and other right-wing extremists and malign actors who are willing to commit acts of political violence to remove the Democrats from power and to put Trump and his MAGAfied Republicans in control of the country. These people will be the foot soldiers for a Trump dictatorship and permanent state of emergency that will include massive political violence and “revolution” against “the Left” and the other “enemies” of “MAGA” as outlined by Project 2025, Agenda 47, and elsewhere.

Donald Trump and his propagandists and other agents are engaging in a highly coordinated messaging campaign to depict Vice President Kamala Harris, like the other leaders of the Democratic Party (and its voters and supporters), as a monster.  And what does one usually do with monsters and other horrors? You slay them.

In America, both historically and in the present, such imagery and threats—especially against Black and brown people—all too often are not metaphorical, they are literal.