Donald Trump, like the other autocrats, dictators, and tyrants he admires, will not let a crisis go to waste. Trump takes every opportunity to advance his own needs and interests despite (if not because) how many other people may be hurt in the process. This is both learned and natural behavior for the corrupt ex-president. It is who and what he is; he will never stop.

Trump is the first former or sitting president to be charged and convicted of criminal felonies. Instead of moderating his behavior, Trump became more antisocial. He even went so far as to sell pieces of the suit he wore to court during his New York hush-money trial.

Trump was the target of an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania during which he was hit in the ear. Trump would turn that incident into “proof” that he is blessed and chosen by God to be the country’s first dictator and a type of God-king. Trump’s now iconic “Fight! Fight! Fight!” reaction to the shooting turned slogan is emblazed on t-shirts and other paraphernalia sold to MAGA cultists and other devotees. Trump was also immortalized on other items after the attempt on his life, including action figures and "collectibles."

Forbes magazine describes Trump’s power over the MAGA people in the following way: “In politics, he has developed an enormous group of followers, the most hardcore of whom are more loyal than any of his previous customers, eagerly buying whatever the former president offers, at almost any price he’s willing to sell.”

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Last Sunday, Donald Trump was targeted by an assassin who appeared to be lying in wait near his golf resort in Florida. The Secret Service and local law enforcement acted quickly to protect Donald Trump and arrested the would-be assassin. As he did with his first assassination attempt, and any other opportunity that presents itself, Trump and his surrogates almost immediately started sending out fundraising emails and other communications to the MAGA people.

As part of their opportunistic and exploitative nature, Trump, his propagandists and other agents are trafficking in violence and chaos. This is central to Trump’s fascism, demagoguery, political opportunism, and feral politics. Instead of toning down the levels of extreme political tension in the country, Trump and his surrogates have chosen to use this most recent assassination attempt (as they did with the first one) as an opportunity to attack, threaten, and incite “retaliatory” violence against Kamala Harris, President Biden, other leading Democrats and any other people deemed to be the “enemies” of Trump and MAGA.

Moreover, Trump and his propagandists are using the standard fascist and authoritarian strategy of projection and deflection as they blame the Democrats and “the left” for the increasing political violence in the country. The facts show the opposite. It is Donald Trump, the MAGA people, “conservatives” and the larger right-wing who are mostly responsible for serious acts of political violence during the Age of Trump (and in the last few decades as well).

For example, Donald Trump and his surrogates have repeatedly, and incorrectly, described Kamala Harris as being an anti-American “communist”, “socialist,” and a “fascist” who must be stopped at all costs.

During an interview with Fox News, Trump said that the would-be assassin in Florida, “believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it…. Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”

These are just a few examples of a much larger pattern of violence, stochastic terrorism, and other violent and antidemocratic behavior by Trump during the last nine years.

To wit. Donald Trump is........

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