“A lot of people love it”: On Trump’s Language of Violence
By Helio Fred Garcia
Leaders set the tone from the top.
The former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, speaking of President Trump in February 2019, said,
“People really do listen to their leaders… The civility of our dialogue is deviating downward, such that individuals… feel emboldened and, perhaps, even entitled to take matters into his own hands and carry out acts of violence.”
Donald Trump’s recent statements about four members of the House of Representatives is merely the most recent manifestation of an unprecedented trend in the last four years: the use of language by a candidate, and now by a president of the United States, that puts people’s lives at risk.
The Holocaust Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide defines “dangerous speech” as hate speech that, under the right conditions, can influence people to accept, condone and commit violence against members of a group.
Trump’s language has already done just that.
Earlier this year the West Virginia Republican Party, in a celebration called WVGOP Day, featured a poster in the West Virginia capitol rotunda of a photograph of Congresswoman Omar, in her hijab, juxtaposed against a picture of a burning World Trade Center as the second plane exploded into it. The words “Never Forget — You Said. I Am The Proof You Have Forgotten” written on the poster.
In early April a Trump supporter was arrested for threatening to kill Congresswoman Omar. According to the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York, the supporter called the congresswoman’s office and threatened to put a bullet in her skull. He called her a terrorist.
According to the FBI, on being arrested, the suspect justified his threat by invoking Trump. A court filing notes that “[the suspect] stated that he was a patriot, that he loves the President, and that he hates radical Muslims in our government.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations — New York responded to the arrest by saying in a statement:
“The political environment, led by an Islamophobe in the White House, has normalized hate speech and emboldened bigots in their actions. The rising threat of Islamophobia and white supremacy must be taken seriously. We are thankful that law enforcement tracked this individual down before he could act on his hatred for Muslims.”
Trump did not denounce the death threat against Congresswoman Omar. Rather, three days later Trump attacked her directly. He posted a tweet with the all-caps words “WE WILL NEVER FORGET” above a video of the congresswoman speaking at a Muslim civil rights conference, interspersed with video of the Twin Towers on 9/11 on fire and collapsing.
Representative Omar called out the President’s language in a statement two days later, saying:
“Since the President’s tweet Friday evening, I have experienced an increase in death threats on my life — many directly referencing or replying to the President video. I thank the Capitol Police, the FBI, the House Sergeant at Arms, and the Speaker of the House for their attention to these threats.”
Now the President is ratcheting up stakes. Trump’s recent statements about Rep. Omar, that she hates America and supports Al Qaeda, accompanied assertions that she and her colleagues are unwelcome in the country they call home. By tying their backgrounds and their political views to their patriotism, Trump invoked a centuries-old trope that wrongly equates whiteness with Americanness.
Trump did this repeatedly and he did it knowingly. And, as recent history indicates, these statements are likely to motivate yet more death threats and violence, against the targets of his language and against other Muslims or immigrants.
…
Helio Fred Garcia, a member of the Interfaith Alliance Foundation Board of Trustees, is president of the crisis management firm Logos Consulting Group and executive director of the Logos Institute for Crisis Management & Executive Leadership. He is working on a book about language and violence.
