As if we needed confirmation, ABC News recently reported there is a direct correlation between Donald Trump’s divisive speeches of hate, and acts of violence committed by white nationalist, domestic terrorists. Bringing an end to any further debate on the matter, the award-winning media station, reports 36 documented cases invoking Trump, regarding acts of violence, threats, and assaults.
Anyone who has been paying attention to the American news cycle in recent years surely can attest to the alarming increase in mass shootings and attacks against marginalized groups. Whereas such acts randomly occurred in the past, they have become common-place today, with many people pointing to the orange menace in the White House as the real culprit.
Since 2015 at the launch of his presidential bid, Donald Trump’s campaign began with a message of hate. He recklessly labeled Mexicans as drug dealers, murderers, and thieves. He has consistently targeted illegal immigrants throughout his presidency. Amping up the rhetoric over the past two years, Trump has devolved to assigning Nazi terminology to Hispanic immigrants, labeling them as “infestations” and “invaders.”
He hasn’t stopped there, of course. Muslims, fearless Congresswomen, gays, and Jews have now all been on the receiving end of Donald Trump’s disgusting dog-whistling vitriol. It is not up for debate as to whether this man is a racist. We already know this to be true. We need not look any further than 1973 when Trump and his father were found guilty of violating the Fair Housing Act for not renting apartments to black people. This is public record and available to anyone who wants to read it.
There is no doubt, the current sitting US President is a racist. However, there’s more. He’s also a lying, womanizing, xenophobic, homophobic, white nationalist, who recently very publically received an official 2020 reelection endorsement from David Duke and the historically-murderous KKK. Let that sink in.
Sycophants like Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Sanders have made careers of defending Trump’s hate-mongering. Along with a fully complicit Republican party, they blame the rise in white, domestic terrorism on “fake news.” However, there is nothing fake about the 36 police reports obtained by ABC that clearly state Trump, noted by the accused, as the inspiration for their attacks on minorities.
Take, for example, 30-year-old Steven Leader from Boston. On August 19, 2015, he and his brother – both white, American males, beat and nearly killed a sleeping homeless man to death. The victim was of Mexican descent. Upon arrest, Leader told the police, “Donald Trump was right, all these illegals need to be deported.” As it turned out, the victim was not an illegal immigrant.
Another example is the June 3, 2016 case of Henry Slapnik. The 54-year-old, white, American male, attacked his African-American neighbors with a knife in Cleveland. Police records show he offered the following statement after his arrest, “Donald Trump will fix them because they are scared of Donald Trump,” Slapnik, pleaded guilty to “ethnic intimidation.
The case of Frank Nucera, former chief of police in Bordentown, New Jersey, has disastrous city-wide implications. Nucera, who was supposed to have the trust of everyone in the community as the chief law enforcer, was himself accused of violently assaulting an African American teenager who was already subdued and handcuffed.
Federal prosecutors noted in federal court that Nucera, while unaware of being secretly recorded, was captured stating, “Donald Trump is the last hope for white people.” He was indicted on hate crime charges and other charges. Now retired, he has been awaiting trial since the incident occurred in 2016.
In April 2016, the speculation of Trump’s alleged conspiracy with Russia to manipulate the election was at an all-time high. As was Trump’s rhetoric claiming “the left” was trying to steal the election from him. He continually sounded that alarm like a broken record at his rallies, often inciting violence with veiled messages about having the “tough” bikers of America ready to spring to action to physically protect him.
Such messaging was not lost on one Trump devotee. Wouldn’t you know it, another American, male, white nationalist? This time it was John Martin Roos from White City (yea, I know, right?), Oregon.
Roos was arrested in April of 2016 for making death threats to former President Obama and other federal officials. The self-declared Trump supporter had a history of making threats online against African Americans, Muslims, Mexican immigrants, and the “liberal media.” Multiple pipe bombs were found in his house along with the discovery of the following threatening message of Facebook, “The establishment is trying to steal the election from Trump. … Obama is already on a kill list … Your [name] can be there too.”
These are just four examples taken from the fascinating, thirty-six cases as reported by ABC news. However, what is even more disturbing is over the past 48 hours while I was preparing this article, CNN reported that in the past two months there have been dozens of arrests for threats of mass shootings and violence against targeted groups. Though there is no report of any direct invocation of Trump (yet) in these cases, what cannot be written off as coincidence is the fact that once again the majority of these cases center around white American males, with arsenals of guns, hundreds upon hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and a list targeting minorities and other marginalized groups.
This guys has the “my mother’s my sister” kind of face.