Donald Trump Is a Threat to Democracy, and Saying So Is Not Incitement

Opposing political violence does not mean ignoring authoritarianism.

Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. That was true before an assassination attempt was foiled at his golf course Sunday, and it remains true after. Political violence in general, and assassinating presidential candidates specifically, also poses risks to democracy.

There is no contradiction between these ideas whatsoever. Yet Trump’s supporters have responded to both attempts on his life by muddying the waters, exploiting the near-tragedies with cynical efforts to redefine critiques of Trump’s authoritarian inclinations as violent provocation.

In the wake of the news from Florida, Trump defenders began spreading this line reflexively. Conservative commentator Ben Domenech: “The commentariat insists on owning zero consequences for their constant repetition that Trump is an existential threat whose election will bring bloody fascism, when it’s absolutely obvious it motivated this would-be assassin.” Miranda Devine in the New York Post: “Reckless rhetoric from Dems and media to blame for second Trump assassination attempt.”

Moderates and liberals, who correctly believe in upholding democratic norms, especially nonviolence, might be tempted to understand these arguments as a species of principle. But the effort to rule criticism of Trump’s authoritarianism as dangerous and out of bounds is not motivated by or related to any defense of democracy or nonviolence. It is a purely cynical attempt to foam the runway for the election of a dangerous man.

The Trumpist argument has a thin veneer of plausibility: If people think a candidate is a threat to democracy, some of them will try to murder him. “What happens when you continually demonize someone as ‘Hitler,’ insist that he is ‘a dictator’ and ‘a threat to democracy?’” asks Roger Kimball, “Why, you get chaps like Thomas Matthew Crooks, who tried to kill Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, two months ago.”

But this is not an accurate factual description of either assassination attempt.

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