I don't know about you, but I am terrorized by President Trump's behavior. I am terrorized because I am frightened by his behavior--I know how relatively small actions can begin to domino like a dirty snowball rolling down the hill. At first, it's a small, but rocky and dirty snowball, but as it rolls along it becomes bigger, dirtier, rockier, and more dangerous. Trump is that dirty snowball, and he's gaining more dirt, rocks, and danger as he promotes conspiracies, lies, and obstruction creating danger that gets greater and greater.
Just because I'm terrorized, does that make Trump a domestic terrorist?
What is a domestic terrorist?
This definition begs the question: Is Trump committing terrorist acts?
Let us think about what Trump is doing?
- Continuously lying to American public about what is happening related to the election, the pandemic, and other topics.
- Launching bogus lawsuits against the election at a rapid rate--29/30 have been thrown out by judges so far.
- Disparaging good public leaders with lies, contempt and words that incite threats, violence, and harm.
- Refusing to work at a peaceful transfer of power by obstructing information share and related funding
- Firing dedicated public servants who disagree with him and hold important skill and knowledge related to a peaceful transfer of power
Are these acts violent? So far, no.
Are these acts dangerous to human life? Yes!
- Trump lies about the pandemic have served to spread the the deadly virus. This has been proven by researchers at Cornell University.
- Trump's unwillingness to work to solve the pandemic problem by exemplifying good public health precautions in his actions and events has served to promote unsafe, deadly pandemic behaviors.
- Trump's unwillingness to openly share pandemic information with the Biden team puts many lives at risk--this lack of information share slows down our ability to deal with this deadly virus in a smart, timely, life-saving way.
- Trump's support for White supremacists groups that back him put the many Americans that these groups work against in harm's way.
- Trump's words of hate, violence, dishonesty, and conspiracy incite disruption in the country which has already led to murder and massacre--his continuation of this behavior will likely lead to more death and destruction if not stopped. (Examples: Charlottesville, El Paso, Kenosha)
- Trump's obsessing with the election means he's not doing his work as President of the United States, this lack of good work in an important job puts lives at risk. For example, he now resists any efforts to provide financial support for Americans who are losing their jobs, homes, food access, and health care during a pandemic.
- Trump is firing people who disagree with him--these are hard working people who hold important skills and information related to the safety of people in the USA--his strategic, all-about-me, firing of these people put all of us in danger.
- Trump's irresponsible superspreader events at his rallies and White House events have created ripe conditions for viral spread during a pandemic. We know of one high profile individual who did die after attending one of Trump's superspreader rallies. We also know that many of Trump's followers and cronies have become sick with the virus after these events. He knowingly disregards public health precautions which put people's lives at risk.
- Trump's team has continuously told CDC not to share truthful information about the virus that can save people's lives--this negligence puts people's lives in danger.
- The Trump team unfairly distributed pandemic-related PPEs and funding--this too put Americans' lives in danger, and just recently he said he would not share vaccines with people in New York due to his personal vendetta with the New York governor--this too puts people's lives in danger.
Is Trump intimidating or coercing the American Public?
Yes, his lies, conspiracy theories, and propaganda do intimidate us and coerce many of us. He makes this the mainstay of his work in the White House rather than doing his job. He abuses his power, does not live up to his Presidential Oath of Office, and does continuously intimidate and coerce the people. He is guilty of this.
Trump took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. When we read the preamble, we notice that Trump is not faithful to his oath in the following ways:
- He does not work to form a more perfect union, since he continually works to divide us as a people.
- He does not work to establish justice as he puts forth one bogus legal battle after another, and he seemingly supports dangerous and destructive behavior towards good Americans including elected officials. (example - his words/acts related to Governor of Michigan)
- He does not insure domestic tranquility--in fact, he continuously stokes the fires of divide, disruption, and terrorism.
- He does not provide for a common defense as he speaks and acts out against many in our military time and again creating divide rather than common efforts.
- He does not secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity as he robs us of our clean lands, air, and water, and works against the laws and rights in our Constitution. The way he continuously works against honest communicaiton and media is one example of this.
After reviewing the domestic terrorism descriptors, I do believe that Trump is a domestic terrorist who is working against our freedom, rights, safety, and good government as described in the United States Constitution.
What can we do?
The FBI provides us with a guide for dealing with terrorism.
As I surveyed the FBI information, it is clear that Trump meets some of the terrorist criteria. I believe he meets enough of the criteria that he should be on the FBI watch list right now and his case should be assigned to experts who understand domestic terrorism better.
So I suggest that you do make a report to the FBI hotline about President Trump's threats, and I also believe you should contact your elected officials about this worry. The more they hear from the American people, the better prepared we will be for Trump and his multiple followers' terrorist acts.