User:Viriditas/List of U.S. domestic terror threats, incidents and attacks incited by Donald Trump



This is a list of U.S. domestic terror threats, incidents and attacks incited by Donald Trump. The Guardian and ABC News have identified more than 50 "criminal cases where Trump was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault." In contrast, there is no record of a "single criminal case filed in federal or state court where an act of violence or threat" was made in the name of recent historical US presidents. According to journalist Mark Follman, Donald Trump is considered a "terrorist leader" by national security experts. Although right-wing domestic terrorism is the most common form of terrorism in the U.S., under the current law, domestic terrorism itself has no criminal penalties. In addition to these threats, Reuters has documented 102 threats of death or violence received by more than 40 election officials, workers and their relatives in eight of the most contested battleground states in the 2020 presidential contest."

Background
"During 2015 and 2016, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) documented significant rises in hate crimes and the formation of hate groups in the U.S., correlated with Donald Trump’s legitimation of white nationalist rhetoric, as well as the far right’s infiltration of mainstream politics."

According to Mark Potok:


 * out of 1,000-plus incidents that followed Trump’s victory, the SPLC found that the perpetrator cited Trump 37 percent of the time
 * from 2014-2018, hate crimes rose 7 percent against LGBT people, 20 percent against blacks, 22 percent against Muslims, 24 percent against whites, 37 percent against Jews, and 62 percent against Latinos.
 * a 2019 study by University of North Texas found a correlation between the counties that hosted one of Trump’s 275 campaign rallies in 2016 and a rise in hate crimes in subsequent months. Hate crimes in those counties was 226 percent higher than in counties that hosted no rallies.

Rhetorical strategies
Jennifer Mercieca argues that Donald Trump successfully campaigned for president by employing classic rhetorical tricks that have historically been effectively employed by a variety of demagogues. She argues that Trump's language can be classified into six distinct rhetorical patterns, of which three are employed to divide his opponents and three are used to unite his supporters.


 * Ad populum, appeal to popularity
 * Paralipsis, plausible deniability
 * American exceptionalism
 * Ad hominem, attack the person, not the argument
 * Ad baculum, threat of force or intimidation
 * Reification, treating opponents as objects

According to Mercieca, "Trump’s rhetorical strategies correspond to how authoritarians have historically eroded democracy, which is why his rhetoric is so dangerous."

Incidents

 * January 23, 2016, Sioux Center, Iowa, Trump campaign rally
 * Incitement to violence
 * Trump tells a crowd at a private Christian college that he could commit murder and still maintain his supporters because, according to Bret Hayworth, "implied societal norms didn't apply to him"
 * “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters", the Republican presidential candidate said, complete with a gun shooting gesture. “That’s how loyal they are,” he said about his supporters.


 * February 1, 2016, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Trump campaign rally
 * Incitement of violence against anti-Trump protesters.
 * Trump told supporters he would pay their legal fees if they “knock the crap” out of protestors


 * February 23, 2016, Sparks, Nevada, Trump campaign rally
 * Incitement of violence against anti-Trump protesters
 * "I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks."

Louisville, Kentucky, Trump campaign rally]]
 * [[List_of_rallies_for_the_2016_Donald_Trump_presidential_campaign|March 1, 2016,
 * Incitement of violence against anti-Trump protesters
 * "Trump repeatedly said "get 'em out of here" while pointing at anti-Trump protesters as they were forcibly escorted out by his supporters. Three protesters say they were repeatedly shoved and punched while Trump pointed at them from the podium, citing widely shared video evidence of the events."
 * Nwanguma v. Trump


 * March 9, 2016, Fayetteville, North Carolina, Trump campaign rally
 * John Franklin McGraw, a white Trump supporter, sucker-punched a black protester who was being escorted out of the Trump rally by police. McGraw was arrested and pleaded “no contest” to charges including assault and battery, saying "Next time we see him, we might have to kill him." Trump announced he was considering paying the legal fees of McGraw, but never did.


 * March 19, 2016, Tucson, Arizona, Trump campaign rally
 * A protester was called a "disgusting guy" by Trump at the rally. Shortly thereafter, a video recorded Tony Pettway sucker-punching and stomping the protester on the ground. Pettway was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault.


 * August 9, 2016, Wilmington, North Carolina, Trump campaign rally
 * Incitement of violence against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, implying she should be assassinated
 * "If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don’t know.”


 * September 16, 2016 Miami, Florida, Trump campaign rally
 * Incitement of violence against Democratic candidate Hillary president Clinton
 * Trump said that Clinton’s “bodyguards should drop all weapons. They should disarm...Take their guns away, she doesn’t want guns. Take them, let’s see what happens to her. Take their guns away, okay. It will be very dangerous".


 * 2016 Trump remarks on foreign policy, hosted by the Center for the National Interest
 * Incitement of Cesar Sayoc
 * 2016 Garden City bombing plot
 * "Attorneys for three Kansas militia members who conspired to bomb a mosque and apartment complex in Garden City have asked the court to take into account what they called President Donald Trump's rhetoric encouraging violence".


 * 2017 Melbourne, Florida, post-inauguration Trump rally
 * Incitement of violence. Rally attended by Cesar Sayoc, who later sends 16 bombs to President Donald Trump’s political opponents
 * 2018 United States mail bombing attempts


 * 2017 Aztec High School shooting
 * "[The] 21-year-old New Mexico resident lived a prolific life as a white supremacist, pro-Trump meme peddler who was most known for his obsession with school shooters...[A tattoo with the] words "build wall," were found above his left knee, KOB4 reports, which appears to be a reference to President Donald Trump’s promise to “build a wall” in an attempt to keep illegal immigrants out."


 * 2017 Charlottesville car attack
 * Avowed Trump supporter James Alex Fields, Jr. deliberately drives his car into a crowd of people who had been peacefully protesting the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one and injuring 35. Fields supported Trump because of his racial views. Trump responds to the incident by falsely claiming their was violence on both sides and saying there were “very fine people” on both sides, implying his support for white nationalist Neo-Nazis and their sympathizers


 * 2018 West Columbia, South Carolina, midterm Trump rally
 * Donald Trump's "enemy of the people" attacks
 * Trump's vocal targeting of the media inspires multiple attacks by his followers
 * 2018 Capital Gazette mass shooting
 * Falsely connected to Trump
 * 2018 threats against the Boston Globe
 * 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
 * "Robert Bowers fatally shot 11 people in a synagogue, in the worst attack on American Jews to date. Bowers posted on social media about the caravan Trump fixated upon in the last weeks of the midterm campaign, calling the refugees “invaders;” Bowers was also apparently fixated on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which supports refugees fleeing persecution."


 * 2019 threats against Ilhan Omar
 * Incitement to violence. "In April 2019, Trump repeatedly tweeted video footage of September 11 and accused Omar of downplaying the terror attacks, in a coordinated campaign by the tabloid New York Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch, which splashed a quote from Omar on their cover over a picture of the World Trade Center in flames." "Omar said that she had received more death threats after Trump made comments about her and asserted Trump was putting her life in danger by retweeting a tweet falsely claiming she had "partied on the anniversary of 9/11"." Additionally, two Republican candidates called for Omar's execution."


 * 2019 El Paso shooting
 * "The white supremacist who drove 10 hours to kill 22 innocent civilians at an El Paso Walmart last weekend was a Trump fan....[His] anti-Hispanic, anti-immigrant manifesto...uses language about immigrants similar to that used by U.S. president Donald Trump, such as referring to a migrant 'invasion'."


 * 2019 Kingsman video
 * "An edited version of the church fight scene from the film was shown at a conference of some of President Donald Trump's supporters. The video featured Colin Firth's character, whose face had been replaced with Trump's, violently killing people who had been similarly replaced with the faces and logos of people from the news media, critics, and opposing politicians."


 * 2020–2021 United States anti-lockdown protests
 * April 2020 storming of the Michigan State Capitol
 * Incitement to violence. Trump tweeted on April 17 to "Liberate Michigan!" and armed protesters responded in kind by storming the Michigan State Capitol on April 30.


 * 2020 reactions to the George Floyd protests


 * 2020 Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot
 * "Instead of condemning the attacks on the Michigan state capitol, Trump encouraged Whitmer to "give a little" and "make a deal" with the "good people" in his response on Twitter"...According to lead U.S. House Impeachment Manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), "the violent plot to kidnap Whitmer that was revealed months later, leading to the arrests of 11 men, was a "precise consequence" of Trump's rhetoric".


 * 2020 Ralph Northam kidnapping plot


 * 2020 ambush of Biden campaign bus by Trump supporters
 * Incitement to violence. "Donald Trump Jr. told supporters in Texas to give Sen. Kamala Harris a "Trump Train welcome" two days before cars with MAGA signs swarmed a Biden campaign bus on a highway near Austin and led to a crash. "It'd be great if you guys would all get together, head down to McAllen, and give Kamala Harris a nice Trump Train welcome," he said in a video."


 * 2021 "Save America" Trump rally
 * Incitement to insurrection
 * 2021 storming of the United States Capitol
 * Second impeachment of Donald Trump
 * Second impeachment trial of Donald Trump