Photo: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
One of the central narratives of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is that America is awash in violent crime, much of it from migrants deliberately invited across the border by the Biden-Harris administration in order to harvest their illegal votes, and that a Trump restoration will put an abrupt end to all this carnage. It’s quite a false narrative, to be sure, since (1) crime rates are actually dropping steadily; (2) so too are border crossings by migrants; (3) there’s is virtually no evidence of noncitizen voting in any recent national election; and (4) Trump has no real plan to address this phantom menace other than bringing peace and order via his awe-inspiring “strength.” But he keeps saying these things and a lot of people believe them.
No Trump 2024 campaign theme, however, is complete without a personal dig at Kamala Harris, and accordingly the former president has added to his “American carnage” rap of massive runaway crime by migrants a variation that attributes a shoplifting spike in San Francisco to Harris’s tenure as district attorney, epitomizing her “left liberal” hatred for law enforcement and the police. Fortunately for victimized store owners, a magic Trump solution is available: a “real rough, nasty … day of violence” by unleashed police officers would take care of the problem, as he explained at his latest rally in Erie, Pennsylvania:
The problems with this rant go on and on. Yes, there was a spike in shoplifting in San Francisco in 2021, but it has subsided, and both the rise and fall of property crimes in that city occurred long after Harris’s left the D.A.’s office in 2011. The 2014 voter-approved law (in response to a prison-overcrowding crisis) he is apparently blaming for the shoplifting spike, California’s Prop 47, did not prevent police from arresting people for minor property crimes, much less threaten police jobs and benefits; it simply reduced the penalties from state prison to county jail time. As it happens, Kamala Harris didn’t even endorse Prop 47. As for Trump’s “solution,” it’s about as realistic as his earlier demand that shoplifters be shot on the spot. What does any of this law-and-order demagoguery have to do with the job of being president of the United States? Is Trump going to send the U.S. military into cities to deal with retail theft, one of the most local responsibilities imaginable?
The real pièce de résistance of Trump’s latest pyramid of lies on crime was the reaction (per Politico) of his campaign to complaints that he was once again just making stuff up:
Asked whether the former president’s idea amounted to a new proposal and how such an operation would work, a campaign official said Trump was “clearly just floating it in jest.”
“President Trump has always been the law and order President and he continues to reiterate the importance of enforcing existing laws.”
A “day of violence” by vengeful police is not, of course, authorized by existing laws anywhere. But beyond that, it’s striking that whenever the 45th president really goes over the line into open incitement of violence, which is often, we are told he’s just, you know, being himself, with his crude sense of humor. The “just kidding” defense also extends to his underlings, like MAGA social-media warrior (and possible Trump 2.0 attorney general) Mike Davis, as Politico recently explained:
Here is a list of things the Republican lawyer turned MAGA-media talking head Mike Davis has said: He wants to send journalists to the “gulag.”
He wants to put migrant children in “cages.”
He wants to “rain hell” on Washington.
He wants the Supreme Court to “dismantle most of the federal government.”
How much of it does he actually mean? Well, it’s unclear, because he often says he’s “trolling.” …
What is the line between trolling and reality? “Whatever you can get passed,” Davis says.
Journalist Salena Zito once famously said that Trump’s supporters take him “seriously, but not literally,” an interpretation that gave him a lot of leeway to say horrible things to “own the libs” and titillate his followers without any accountability for untruthfulness or incitement to violence. But in this campaign, it’s harder than ever to separate the MAGA message from the mendacity, cruelty, and rage on which it monotonously relies. It’s a problem anyone who enjoys the former president’s dangerous rhetorical habits should take seriously. What if he means every word?
