His M.O.

It's their governing philosophy. The AP reports AP reports

In the days since Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in his criminal hush money trial, Republicans who view the case as politically motivated have coalesced around a new rallying cry: Prosecute the left.

Candidates, officeholders and members of the former president’s family have amplified Trump’s calls for retribution against political enemies and urged their fellow Republicans to start charging Democrats with crimes.

“Time for Red State AGs and DAs to get busy,” Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia wrote on the social platform X, formerly Twitter, after a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty.

Influential conservative activist Charlie Kirk urged Republican prosecutors to get “creative” in bringing charges: “Indict the left, or lose America,” he said on X.

On a slightly positive note, he is someone on the extreme far-right who does not believe America is already lost, though prosecuting individuals because of their political registration is a hallmark of totalitarianism. Moreover

In a podcast interview, Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said, “We have to fight fire with fire.”

And the former president on Tuesday suggested he might try to retaliate against Hillary Clinton, his 2016 opponent, if he returns to the White House.

We learn that the ex-President never legitimately passed 6th grade English when he remarks

“Wouldn’t it be terrible to throw the president’s wife and the former secretary of state, think of it, the former secretary of state, but the president’s wife, into jail? Wouldn’t that be a terrible thing? But they want to do it,” Trump said in an interview on Newsmax. “It’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us to. And it’s very possible that it’s going to have to happen to them.”

The President's wife and the former Secretary of State? Leave Jill Biden out of this. Presumably, this is only bad grammar and Trump is referring solely to one person, Hillary Clinton. AP continues

The calls to weaponize the judicial system against Democrats are a degree more intense than some other suggestions for retaliation that Republicans have made since the guilty verdict, such as calls to investigate the prosecutors in the Manhattan case or for voters to give their own verdict by sending Trump back to the White House in November.

Since the guilty verdict? Reference to the guilty verdict is only the talking point. This has been going on for years- perhaps not by the entire party bleating in lockstep but by the undisputed, White Jesus, leader of the GOP. 

 

If you think you've heard this song previously, before there was any indictment, you have. CREW CREW has

analyzed over 13,000 of Trump’s Truth Social posts from January 1, 2023 to April 1, 2024, and found that while Trump has recently backed off some of his more violent rhetoric, threatening political opponents has been a consistent fixation for Trump. Since the start of last year, Trump has issued direct or implied threats on Truth Social to use the powers of the federal government to target Joe Biden during a second Trump administration 25 times. Specifically, Trump has threatened him with FBI raids, investigations, indictments and even jail time.

Recall that

Trump has called for additional prosecutions on the false basis he won the 2020 election. In February 2023 he wrote on Truth Social, commenting on an article about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg violating Georgia election law, “He cheated on the Election(s). The whole system is RIGGED. Why isn’t he being prosecuted? The Democrats only know how to cheat. America isn’t going to take it much longer!” Last October, Trump ReTruthed a meme showing two election workers that was captioned, “start arresting the poll workers and watch how fast they tell you who told them to cheat.”

In addition to these threats against other high-profile public figures, Trump has also threatened nonprofits for their work. In November he wrote on Truth Social, “For any radical left charity, non-profit, or so called aid organizations supporting these caravans and illegal aliens, we will prosecute them for their participation in human trafficking, child smuggling, and every other crime we can find.”

This is not a threat of retaliation or revenge for the prosecution Trump is facing. Rather, it is Donald Trump's modus operandi. As noted by AP, a disciple undoubtedly speaking for others:

In a post on X, Republican House candidate Brandon Gill of Texas lamented what he viewed as “raw power” rather than an “equally applied legal system” in the charges being brought against Trump: “Might makes right,” he said. “Republicans must wake up to the new reality and respond accordingly.”

"Might makes right" is the G.O.P. governing principle. Republicans are not threatening prosecution (and persecution) of Democrats and other political opponents merely because of Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis, Jack Smith, and others defending the rule of law. The peril democracy faces is not primarily if Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are defeated in November. However, if they prevail, the rule of law will be shredded while critics of the regime are arrested, and much of the media will pretend to believe it would never have occurred had Democrats not been so mean to Donald Trump.

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