Donald's Words Will Backfire

My thoughts on his rhetoric

Photo Credit: Getty: AFP Contributor

Donald’s speeches have grown increasingly violent and offensive. While he shores up his base by stoking fear and hatred, the cracks in his campaign are widening.

In political theater, words and the context in which they are spoken matter. They carry weight, evoke emotions, and often reveal agendas — explicit and implicit. 

In an interview with Sebastian Gorka that aired last night, Donald said that “any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion.” 

While Donald’s escalating and blatant bigotry is deeply unsettling — and I’ll talk about why in a second — there are still a lot of reasons to be hopeful. There are so many, in fact, that I’m confident that by the time you reach the end of this article, you’ll be energized by the idea that Donald is setting himself up to lose the election.

But first, as someone who knows him, I want to share my thoughts about Donald’s egregious remarks.

Donald’s calls to arms

1. Calling immigrants “Animals”

In what has become one of his signature themes, Donald once again dehumanized immigrants, saying they aren’t even human. He also referred to them as “animals,” a throwback to darker times in our history when dehumanizing Native Americans, enslaved Africans, and Black Americans was used to justify the most unspeakable violence against them. It’s a term that was also used by despots to make it easier to disappear people.

This is no longer a dog whistle: It is a grotesque, in-your-face appeal to nativism designed to terrify and enrage his fascist base against the “other.”

2. Support for January 6 insurrectionists

Donald not only called January 6 insurrectionists “unbelievable patriots” and “hostages,” he saluted them. 

“Please rise for the horribly and unfairly treated January 6 hostages,” the announcer’s voice said on Saturday. As Donald’s supporters stood, he saluted while the “J6 Hostages’ Song” played.

Colin Kaepernick’s entire career was destroyed because he knelt in protest during the national anthem. Donald Trump has replaced the national anthem with a paean to insurrectionists — men and women who sought to violently overthrow our government — and whom he promises to pardon on day one if he manages to get back into the White House.

Donald is not only saying the rioters' actions were justified, he’s giving them permission to do whatever they feel they must — which includes embracing political violence — to make sure he gets back into power.

3. The violent “bloodbath” remark

Donald said explicitly there would be a “bloodbath” if he loses the election. This was not a slip of the tongue. This was not in reference to the fucking auto industry. The imagery was deliberate — and considering how unlikely it is that Donald knows what a metaphor is, it’s highly unlikely it was meant metaphorically. 

Donald intends to conjure images of chaos, unrest, and violence — violence of which he clearly approves as long as it is committed on his behalf.

The message was incandescently clear — if “they” don’t vote for me, they’ll deserve whatever you do to them. 

Donald’s attack on Jewish Democrats

“I actually think they hate Israel,” Donald said, referring to Democrats of the Jewish faith during his interview with Sebastian Gorka. “And the Democrat Party hates Israel.”

“Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion, they hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed,” Donald added.

This statement is a classic example of the dual loyalty trope, which suggests that Jewish Americans either have or should have divided loyalties between the U.S. and Israel. This trope has been used to justify discrimination against Jews and has been condemned by many Jewish organizations.

What Donald is doing here is clear — he’s appealing to his base by playing on their fears and prejudices. He has a long history of promoting antisemitic ideas, including his anemic response to the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. He’s the same man who reportedly told General Mark Kelly during a trip to Europe, “Well, Hitler did a lot of good things.” 

Donald’s unvarnished fascism may become his own undoing.

By ramping up the rhetoric, Donald is inadvertently engaging Democrats. His inflammatory remarks galvanize us, the opposition, and mobilize voters who might otherwise have stayed on the sidelines. The more he pushes us, the more we push back. 

Democrats, a big-tent party historically susceptible to in-fighting, are finding common cause in our need to defeat Donald Trump and to put this country on a better path. His anti-democratic rhetoric, his flouting of democratic norms fly in the face of everything we believe in. 

Whenever Donald says something that disgusts you or makes you feel afraid for the future of our country, you know it’s time for us to stick together and work harder.

We’re not going to stand for it, and we will make sure it’s his undoing.

In 2020, President Biden’s successful campaign hinged in part on capturing the “blue wall” states, which include Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. These states will be crucial again in 2024.

According to a recent poll, Biden’s support among young and Arab voters in Michigan has slipped, and his stance on the war in Gaza has been a point of contention. Crucially, the data signals these voters could return to President Biden in the general election.

By criticizing Democrats for being too hard on Israel, Donald may have lost any chance of gaining traction with these voters.

Nikki Haley’s recent criticism of Donald’s inflammatory language signals a fracture within Republican ranks. Moderate voters who supported Haley — as many as 30% of the Republican electorate in important races — are now questioning their allegiance to Donald and, possibly, to their party. 

According to ABC News:

• 60% of Haley voters support a chance for most undocumented immigrants to apply for legal status.

• 76% of them oppose a federal abortion ban.

These voters will not tolerate Donald’s extremism. These are the Americans on the right who still care about democracy and don’t want to see a presidential candidate who is a traitor carrying water for traitors. There’s a line for these voters, and Donald has crossed it. We will reach them:

President Biden’s campaign team has already announced it is planning to make inroads with independents in states like Arizona and Nevada: 

“Our campaign … will be engaging voters very intentionally, to draw that contrast and invite them in,” one of Biden’s advisers said.