The GOP front-runner’s “treason” talk makes clear, yet again, that he’s a danger to democracy.
Someone who surely didn’t ignore Trump’s post was Paul Gosar, the white nationalist adjacent congressman from Arizona. He wrote Sunday in his congressional newsletter how “in a better society, quislings like the strange sodomy-promoting General Milley would be hung.” The notion of a Republican front-runner floating the idea of executing the chair of the joint chiefs of staff—a scenario echoed by a sitting member of Congress—is the kind of thing that should make your blood run cold. This is not what happens in a normal, healthy functioning democracy. We, in the media, need to be clear-eyed here.
Trump routinely attacked journalists during his four years in office, and, taking a pagefrom Josef Stalin, declared the media to be the “enemy of the American people.” Now, eyeing a return to the White House, Trump is only ramping up the anti-press rhetoric by accusing a media company of “Country Threatening Treason.” Whether Republicans support Trump’s view could be another good line of inquiry for the press.
As anyone who lived through the past eight years can attest, you underestimate Trump at your own peril. By glossing over the unhinged things Trump is saying and doing, we in the mainstream media are enabling him to do even more.
After so many years of Trump’s outrageous comments, lies, grievances, and threats, it’s hard to be shocked anymore. And perhaps that’s our problem. This is the most likely Republican nominee, and a man who is leading Biden in some polls. Trump is not getting better—if anything he’s getting worse. Beyond the treason talk, he recently engaged in antisemitism toward liberal Jews on Rosh Hashanah—“Let’s hope you learned from your mistake & make better choices moving forward!”—he suggested—and he seemed ready to buy a glock Monday in South Carolina while out on bail, which could be a federal gun crime, you know, like the one Hunter Biden is currently being charged with. (A Trump spokesperson later clarified that he didn’t buy it, but “simply indicated that he wanted one.”)