December 31, 2022

By Chuck Ardo

It is well established that a wounded or cornered animal is very dangerous. It instinctively knows that it is in danger and therefore feels the need to protect itself at all costs, so it lashes out aggressively and viciously at the threat. The same instincts apply to former President Donald Trump as he faces numerous legal entanglements and the Department of Justice awaits criminal referrals from the Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection.  By turning for support to the MAGA loyalists who have already shown their willingness to engage in violence he has left little doubt that a deranged and desperate Trump will not hesitate to use all the weapons at his disposal to protect himself.

On Friday night he wrote to his followers on Truth Social that “they are going after me because they are really going after you!!” and that the "threat to democracy” is the Radical Left Democrat’s new chant. Like Russia, Russia, Russia before it, and all the rest, it is a total Disinformation hoax and scam. They are the ones who are the real threat to democracy." Needless to say that people who believed that Democrats were running a child-trafficking ring out of a Washington pizza parlor or that Trump was fighting against a deep state cabal of Democratic pedophiles will believe every word he utters. When Trump tells his loyal followers that "Our Country is sick inside, very much like a person dying of Cancer. The Crooked FBI, the so-called Department of 'Justice,' and 'Intelligence,' all parts of the Democrat Party and System, is the Cancer” they have no doubt he’s telling the truth. When he claims "These Weaponized Thugs and Tyrants must be dealt with, or our once great and beautiful Country will die!!!" they get the message.

After the raid on Mar-A-Lago last summer Trump warned the country could face “problems... the likes of which perhaps we’ve never seen” if he is indicted over his handling of classified documents after he left office;  suggesting that a move by the Justice Department to hold him accountable could spark violence by his supporters. At about the same time the Associated Press reported that a “growing number of ardent Donald Trump supporters seem ready to strike back against the FBI or others who they believe go too far in investigating the former president.” and Business Insider reported that “on social media platforms such as Gab, Telegram, and Facebook, researchers saw a significant uptick in references to violence and references to "civil war" increased by 106% after the Mar-a-Lago raid.” Rather than trying to calm the waters Trump ironically warned "terrible things are going to happen" in response to the increased threats, and that the country is in a "very dangerous position." That danger was evident in a recent campaign video for Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene in which she compared Democrats to destructive feral hogs allowed to range free and destroy the American countryside,  grabbed a rifle, climbed into a helicopter and tracked down and shot one.

We are at a point in time where a word to the wise may be sufficient but a word to the MAGA world that continues to believe the election was stolen; that COVID-19 was a bio-weapon from China; and that the January 6th insurrection was the work of Antifa could ignite a dangerous conflagration.

“There is a real threat of civil conflict," Nina Silber, a Boston University historian and expert on the US Civil War, told Business Insider. "Not just because of the talk of violence but also because of the increasing numbers of people who are armed and ready to use weapons to advance certain political goals." she said. A cornered, deranged and dangerous Donald Trump will use every weapon at his disposal to protect himself. He would even set the country ablaze with an appeal to his armed and ready supporters.