But his emails: Trump’s increasingly unhinged calls for violence

Donald Trump is on the warpath. Following his historic felony conviction on hush-money and election interference charges, the ex-president has rapidly escalated his threats of violence and mayhem, along with other forms of cult-leader and dictator rhetoric, in service to his plan for revenge and retribution against those he believes have impeded his ascent to universal worship and glory.

Reality, of course, is simpler: Donald Trump was convicted by a jury of citizens, based on the overwhelming evidence against him. There is no conspiracy or witch hunt against him. He is, at best, finally being held somewhat responsible for his decades of obvious criminal conduct.

Trump’s escalations, as I have repeatedly warned, offer an example of how the personal is political for someone like him, meaning aspiring autocrats and authoritarians. Donald Trump has already promised to be a dictator on “Day One” of his regime if he defeats Joe Biden in November. Trump and his agents’ threats of violence (and not-infrequent acts of violence) serve their authoritarian political project. Trump's personality, emotional life and thinking are centered upon violence and other antisocial behavior. His new status as a convicted criminal and the prospect, however unlikely, that he may actually go to prison have created a form of synergy between the personal and political that is potentially, if not likely explosive as seen on Jan. 6.

Trump’s recent fundraising emails, alongside his campaign speeches and media interviews, offer a public chronicle of his escalating threats of violence, destruction and revenge. Consider this excerpt from an email I received:

In this one, the language is even more explicit:

This one contains an implicit but barely concealed threat against President Biden, along with the absurd claim that Biden tried to have Trump killed, presented as an incitement that may require a response:

In what is perhaps the most ominous and dangerous of these, Trump literally told his followers in a Thursday email that he might face the death sentence. (Before walking it back just enough, in classic Trump fashion.) The point of the metaphor is clear enough: Trump and his followers face existential danger, and those who remain loyal must be prepared to defend their leader at any cost:

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I hardly need to state that all of this is a bald-faced lie. Trump's criminal convictions do not carry a potential death sentence — or a potential life sentence either. The prosecutors, judges and law enforcement officers involved in Trump’s felony trial were not obeying Joe Biden’s commands. Whatever one may think of Biden, he's a stickler for the rules of representative democracy, and believes in an independent judiciary.

Despite the mainstream news media’s dedicated efforts attempts to normalize Trump's propaganda escalations — in this case by largely ignoring them — none of this is normal, at least not in a healthy democracy. Trump’s communications with his most faithful followers should not be seen as bluster or hyperbole. They amount to a coordinated effort to radicalize the most volatile and delusional elements of the MAGA base — and then, perhaps, to mobilize them. Toward what end, exactly? We already have a pretty good idea.