The speculation by thousands of mental health professionals that Trump probably suffers from malignant narcissism and sociopathy partially explains why the heinous existence of white supremacists doesn’t bother him. He has continued to display indifference to the violent threats that Neo-Nazis show towards minority groups. He shows no concern or empathy for individuals he sees as useless to his political or personal gains. In 2017, he declared ” there were good people on both sides” after a Charlottesville Neo-Nazi march, where a young woman, Heather Heyer was killed. Additionally, during the presidential debate with Joe Biden, he dog- whistled “stand back and stand by” to the Proud Boys, a white supremacist hate group.”
These are just two examples of statements Trump has made that have emboldened these racist groups to blatantly display their hatred towards Jews and black Americans. The former, one-term president sends legitimizing messages to these groups to keep them supportive of his attempt to return to power and enact racist legislation. Some of the former president’s lap-dog Republicans have continued to spread anti-semitic remarks which align with the white supremacist wing of the Trump base. For example, Trump supports Rep.Marjorie Taylor Greene, a blatant anti-semitic, conspiracy theorist, and humiliation to the US Congress.
In Atlantic Magazine, Adam Serwer, author of ” The Cruelty Is The Point” summarized incidences of cruelty led by Trump and enabled by his supporters during the Trump presidency. His policies inflicted suffering on people who he felt were of no value to him. Examples of the cruelty that has become the face of the Trump-Republican party and its voters are;
- Publicly mocking the testimony of Chrisy Blasey-Ford during her testimony about the memory of being assaulted by Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh in college
- The separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents without creating a database to help reunite them with their families
- The attempt to overturn the Affordable Care Act which would have left 20 million people without health insurance
- An attempt to ban visas for same-sex partners of foreign officials
- Complicit supporters chanting ” lock her up” about Hillary Clinton and Christine Blasey- Ford
- Encouraging police officers to cause physical harm to people in custody who have not yet been convicted of a crime
- Border patrol officers were seen laughing at immigrant children who were crying for their families
- A Trump advisor observed mocking an immigrant child with Down Syndrome
- Trump mocking the Puerto Rican accent during Hurricane Maria
- Public attacks and attempts at humiliation by Trump towards opponents, the disabled, decorated war veterans, and women
- The Trump Administration’s banning of transgender Americans from the military
- A blanket ban of all Muslims from entering the United States
- The conscious, politically strategic lying about COVID which contributed to the preventable deaths of tens of thousands of Americans
Trump has shown an affinity with historical dictators by emulating their autocratic rhetoric and racist worldview. As president, he continued his obvious alliance with cruel autocrats by embarrassingly fawning over North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, defending Vladimir Putin over US Intelligence proof of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, and not confronting Saudi Prince Mohamed Bin Salman for his role in the murder of US resident journalist Kamal Khashoggi. Trump’s refusal to publicly denounce the insurrectionists, many of who wore racist, anti-Semitic slurs on their clothing, aligns him with groups of people who feel justified in treating other human beings with intense cruelty. Racism and anti-Semitism are terms synonymous with cruelty.
The eeriest part of the Trump pattern of cruelty is the shared enjoyment it generates between him and his supporters. Sewers are quoted in the Atlantic as saying,
“Trump’s only true skill is the con; his only fundamental belief is that the United States is the birthright of straight, white, Christian men, and his only real, authentic pleasure is in cruelty. It is that cruelty, and the delight it brings them, that binds his most ardent supporters to him, in shared scorn for those they hate and fear.”
