Republicans are seeking to capitalize on Trump’s assassination attempt — using it to demand everyone stop talking about his threats to democracy

As Donald Trump recovers from an assassination attempt and Republicans head to Milwaukee for his coronation this week, the GOP elite has rallied around a new messaging strategy: emotionally blackmailing Democratic politicians, journalists, Hollywood celebs, and numerous other Trump critics into shutting up about the former president’s openly authoritarian vows and his extreme policy agenda.

Since the deadly shooting at a Pennsylvania rally Saturday, prominent conservatives have been working to blame the incident on Trump’s enemies for labeling him a “fascist” and for fanning heated “rhetoric” that, in their telling, caused the would-be assassin to shoot at the former and perhaps future American president. “When the message goes out constantly that the election of Donald Trump would be a threat to democracy and that the Republic would end, it heats up the environment,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) saidSunday, adding: “It’s simply not true. Everyone needs to turn the rhetoric down.”

  • @kautau
    link
    64 months ago

    It’s the subtext that matters. It could just as easily say 45,47, or the options you said, but it pretty definitively says Trump should be president for three terms, and if Trump is elected, I guarantee he won’t step down to a democratic election when his term is up, it’ll either be:

    • He uses his presidential power to fully and without question prevent any new elections, which he can now basically do anything legally in power as America’s king
    • The vote is a sham, it’s rigged, like Putin’s and he just has landslide wins
    • He passes power to his new puppet VP or someone else that can maintain the fascist reign