It's All About Revenge Now, Con't

The wheels have truly come off the Trump regime, with a brutal viral video showing Donald Trump gunning down all his declared "enemies" like Black Lives Matter and the press, shown to wild applause at a Trump 2020 conference last week at one of Trump's own resorts.

A video depicting a macabre scene of a fake President Trump shooting, stabbing and brutally assaulting members of the news media and his political opponents was shown at a conference for his supporters at his Miami resort last week, according to footage obtained by The New York Times. 

Several of Mr. Trump’s top surrogates — including his son Donald Trump Jr., his former spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis — were scheduled to speak at the three-day conference, which was held by a pro-Trump group, American Priority, at Trump National Doral Miami. Ms. Sanders and a person close Mr. Trump’s son said on Sunday that they did not see the video at the conference. 

The video, which includes the logo for Mr. Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, comprises a series of internet memes. The most violent clip shows Mr. Trump’s head superimposed on the body of a man opening fire inside the “Church of Fake News” on parishioners who have the faces of his critics or the logos of media organizations superimposed on their bodies. It appears to be an edited scene of a church massacre from the 2014 dark comedy film “Kingsman: The Secret Service.” 

The disclosure that the video was played shows how Mr. Trump’s anti-media language has influenced his supporters and bled into their own propaganda. Mr. Trump has made attacks on the news media a mainstay of his presidency, and he tweeted a similar — but far less violent video — in 2017. In recent weeks as he has confronted impeachment proceedings, he has ramped up his attacks on the news media, repeatedly calling it the “enemy of the people.”

A person who attended the conference last week took a video of the clip on his phone and had an intermediary send it to a reporter for The Times. Parts of the video were posted on YouTube in 2018 by a user with a history of creating pro-Trump mash-ups.
The organizer of the event said in a statement on Sunday that the clip had been played at the conference, saying it was part of a “meme exhibit.” He denounced the video and said his organization was looking into how it was shown at the event.

“Content was submitted by third parties and was not associated with or endorsed by the conference in any official capacity,” said the organizer, Alex Phillips. “American Priority rejects all political violence and aims to promote a healthy dialogue about the preservation of free speech. This matter is under review.” 

Organizers declined to say exactly where at Mr. Trump’s resort the video was shown.
A person close to Mr. Trump’s son said he was unaware that the video had been played at the conference. Ms. Sanders said she was unaware of the video’s existence until a Times reporter contacted her. 

“I was there to speak at a prayer breakfast, where I spoke about unity and bringing the country together,” Ms. Sanders said. “I wasn’t aware of any video, nor do I support violence of any kind against anyone.”

Sure, plausible deniability.  I haven't seen it and We don't condone violence, Trump said today, we don't know how the video was played at AMPFest, but it was, and Trump's bloody base had a good laugh.  And yes, the video was the product of trolls on the site of one of Trump's many neo-Nazi followers, Carpe Donktum, aka Logan Reed, one of the many professional firestarters who attended the White House's digital propaganda conference earlier this year.

Everything's fine of course, right up until people get killed, or should I say more people get killed.  People have already died thanks to Trump's stochastic "who will rid me of these troublesome enemies" terrorism, then he denies everything when blood is spilled and lives are taken.  Trump has revved these nutjobs up and unleashed them upon America. As Steve M. says, the GOP fringe is the GOP mainstream.  There's no difference.

In the modern Republican Party, this is regarded as perfectly normal. In the modern Republican Party, the fringe is the mainstream.

No doubt when the next lunatic snaps and murders those around him in the name of Trump's "America" after gorging themselves on the products of Trump's hatefest, he'll deny it again.

And if you think congressional GOP folks are going to do anything, well, they're all nihilists now.

The truth is, Trump fatigue is a condition that knows no party, and many Republicans are as tired of this shit as anybody else. That’s not to say they’re outraged, or motivated to Make a Difference. They’re just tired. You can live inside the right-wing bubble in a state of depression, resigned to the fact that, yeah, every five minutes or so, the president is probably going to do something norm-shattering or potentially impeachable, and no, you probably won’t or can’t do anything to change that. Sad!

“I’m totally bored by the story,” one person who speaks regularly with the president told me. “There’s nothing to it. I already know all the details.” This person is bored more generally, too — with the topic of Donald Trump. When we talk about what it would take for the president’s defenders to turn on him, this crucial piece is missing: You can’t feel outraged if you can no longer feel anything at all.

“This isn’t that much different than the other crazy shit he’s done in the last three years,” the senior Republican Senate aide said. “In some ways, people are both pissed off about it but then it’s also like, Are we gonna go crazy over this incident when we’ve seen so much other stuff?" Not to minimize the seriousness here, but what came out in the call transcript is not exactly shocking. If I were to describe Republicans one way, it would be weary.

Just one more thing on the Gish Gallop of ghoulish glee.  Until the next time it happens.  And the next.  And the next...