It should be very clear to anyone with a discerning composition that former President Donald Trump’s current campaign is based on fear, intimidation, lies, and hatred. Lest that seem too harsh, I will detail some of the most common themes of his presidential run. He has traded in position planks, hopeful messages, and a spirit of unity for disinformation, derision, and violent threats.
Again, after I list some of his oft-stated themes, I will let you, the reader, judge his intent. Warning: This is not for the faint of heart.
The Old Stand-By
I would be remiss if I did not start the discussion with his favorite topic: the 2020 presidential election. Mr. Trump alleges that the election was stolen and that he was actually elected president that year and not Joe Biden. Never mind that there have been 60+ Trump-backed lawsuits that have been tossed out by our court system and audits, ballot counts, and recounts that have found no evidence of his claims. Best of all, Republican lawmakers of these states in question dismissed these accusations as completely false.
Or the fact that the two lawyers closest to him in the White House, White House Counsel Pat Cipollini and former Attorney General Bill Barr, personally told him in January 2021 that he had lost the race. Same for former Vice-President Mike Pence. You know the guy who, when the January 6th violent protestors said that they were out to kill him, Trump turned a blind eye on?
Immigrant Communities as Scapecoats
This one is as old as it gets. Find a vulnerable population, spread disinformation about it, and blame it for all of society’s woes. Donald Trump took this right out of the Adolf Hitler playbook with his vehement attack on our immigrant communities. And it’s not bad enough that he continues his onslaught by labeling them as vermin, impure, not human, and dangerous; he also blames them for stealing jobs, hoarding all of the affordable housing, and turning elections with their vote. But his intimidation of these communities has reached new heights (or depths) this campaign season that have threatened the safety of two U.S. cities and their inhabitants.
Mr. Trump has accused the Haitian immigrants of Springfield, Ohio, of eating their neighbor’s pet cats and dogs. Where do I begin with this one? First of all, it’s untrue. Ask Springfield’s mayor, police chief, city manager, and even Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine, who have all debunked this hurtful myth and asked the former president to desist with his comments.
And Mr. Trump had plenty of help spreading this fire as his running mate, the Silicon Valley elite spoon-fed stooge J.D. Vance, originally carried the bag on this one. And what are the repercussions of these lies? Bomb threats, closed buildings, canceled events, terrified residents, and death threats that have threatened not only the Haitian community but the entire community.
Aurora, Colorado, has suffered a similar fate. Mr. Trump continues to spread the lie that Venezuelan gang members have taken over the city. This, of course, is an overblown exaggeration, but don’t believe me. Ask the Republican Mayor of Aurora, Mike Coffman. When asked about the situation, Mayor Coffman said, “The reality is that the concerns about Venezuelan gang activity have been grossly exaggerated. “The incidents were limited to several apartment complexes in this city of more than 400,000 residents.” What did Mr. Trump do in response? He hosted a campaign rally in the city despite the protests of community leaders.
Trump’s Attacks on the Transgender and Overall LGBTQ+ Community
Another community that cannot escape the wrath of our Liar-in-Chief. At his rallies and debate performances, he has repeatedly mentioned that transgender operations are being done frequently at the prisons in this country. Or that your kid goes to school as a boy and comes home as a girl. This should not be a surprise as the former president and his MAGAites spent two-thirds of the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference discussing the evils of “drag shows.” This is the same conference where conference political commentator Michael Knowles called for the elimination of “transgenderism.”
But the alarms really go off when speeches and proposals become policy. If Mr. Trump is reelected as president, here is what his cronies at the Heritage Foundation wrote in their Project 2025 document regarding LGBTQ+ rights.
“Project 2025 envisions a federal government that denies the existence of transgender people, undermines the rights of same-sex married couples, and dismantles services for LGBTQ+ Americans wherever possible, primarily via the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which the Heritage Foundation proposes renaming the Department of Life. The President should direct agencies to rescind regulations interpreting sex discrimination provisions as prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, sex characteristics” and instead direct them to “focus their enforcement of sex discrimination laws on the biological binary meaning of ‘sex.’”
Speechless? So am I. The people of the United States could be on the brink of returning Mr. Trump to the White House. If he does return to the Oval Office, he will continue his racist, homophobic, and sexist rhetoric and forcefully attempt to implement as many of these policies as possible. But America, you have a choice. You can watch as an aspiring dictator attempts to take away our cherished civil and human rights and declares war on anyone who opposes his doctrinaire vision. Or, you can stand up for Democracy and help ensure that his form of sickness does not continue to permeate our public discussion and policies. The choice is yours.
