Just days after Trump-appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray testified in front of Congress that the majority of terrorist attacks in the United States have been fueled by white supremacists, who Trump has yet to call out and condemn, the president declared that ANTIFA are the real terrorist organization. In 2018, domestic terrorists killed 50 people in the U.S. ANTIFA has killed no one, isn’t an organized group, has no leader, and has no other message than an aversion to fascism.
When Republican voters vow to use their guns to fight off what they see as a fascist government regime, the GOP calls them patriots exercising their Second Amendment rights. When a group opposing their political views takes to the street to defend themselves and their communities against groups like the KKK and neo-Nazis, the president declares them terrorists.
As NPR reports:
‘Since 9/11, 68 people have been killed by white supremacists. Zero have been killed by antifa. There’s no Timothy McVeigh of the antifa movement. There’s no Dylann Roof of the antifa movement. There’s no James Fields of the antifa movement, the man who allegedly murdered Heather Heyer with his car in Charlottesville. So in that sense, they’re not really at all comparable.’
Deflection is Trump’s primary strategy, especially going into another presidential election, and covering up the alarming news that white supremacist terrorism is a growing threat to the country is critical. He ignores the violence perpetrated against Democratic lawmakers, Democratic leaders, journalists, and celebrities who have been critical of him who received pipe bombs in the mail from a rabid Trump supporter. He dismisses the letters written by the man who attacked a Muslim place of worship in Australia who cited Trump as his inspiration after killing dozens of people. He fails to mention the white supremacist who murdered a counter-protester in Charlottesville, insisting that there were “good people on both sides” during those protests. But a group of ANTIFA protesters? Those are terrorists.
Maybe, however, considering that ANTIFA is not an organization that Americans can join, his goal is to make sure that protests led by liberals and others who opposed him is illegal. Twitter had a lot of thoughts on that subject. Read some of their comments below:
Featured image via Flickr by Gage Skidmore under a Creative Commons license
