Sigmund Freud may have artfully defined psychological projection as when an individual attributes his unacceptable urges to another, but it is Donald Trump’s minions who’ve proven to be masters of the practice in the real world.
Over the weekend, at a Michigan rally headlined by Trump, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene declared, “Democrats want Republicans dead, and they’ve already started the killings,” adding that “Joe Biden has declared every freedom-loving American an enemy of the state.” This is a lie atop a lie atop a lie. In reality, Biden, who bluntly condemned all political violence, was merely calling out the angry minority contingent of the GOP that denies the 2020 election results and seeks to secure the White House in 2024 no matter who the people choose.
The claim that Democrats aim to physically harm Republicans is a virus. In 2020, right-wing cartoonist Scott Adams of “Dilbert” fame said that “If Biden is elected, there’s a good chance you will be dead within the year. Republicans will be hunted.” The paranoia would be hilarious if it didn’t lay the groundwork for grievance-based retaliation.
All the while, it’s Trump himself who, using the most powerful megaphone in America, most consistently stokes mayhem. On his Truth Social platform Friday, he said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had a “DEATH WISH” for supporting “Democrat sponsored bills” — while he called McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao (who served as Trump’s own secretary of transportation) “China loving…Coco Chow.”
Keep it up and someone will get killed. Of course, irony is already laying breathless on the pavement. This week, Oath Keeper allies of Trump are on trial for stockpiling weapons, training militias and helping orchestrate the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6 — in other words, for actually participating in the most consequential political violence in memory. Their defense claims they were acting as an extension of law enforcement, awaiting orders from their president, Trump, to stop what they viewed as a seditious coup by Biden.
Trump took us through the looking glass. Shards of the shattered mirror have already drawn blood and could well cut again.