It takes remarkable skill, when you think about it, to claim victimhood when your enemies are threatened with assassination. But for President Trump, his state media and his cultish following, victimhood is central to their identity and critical to their mobilization. A party in control of every branch of government is the victim. White males — even a wealthy Yale graduate with a lifetime appointment to the federal bench — are victims. The cops who shoot unarmed black teens are victims. Residents of the small towns in the Rust Belt where few, if any, illegal immigrants live are victims of immigrants. Forget the crime statistics; we’re victims of criminals who are here illegally. Conservatives who control an entire media universe devoid of journalistic standards are victims of the mainstream media. Americans are victims (ripped off!) by an international system that made us the world’s only superpower.
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As we learn that one suspect is in custody in the mail-bomb investigation, we still do not know the exact motives behind the assault on our democracy. But one thing is for sure: Trump will take no responsibility for his incendiary language, not even for his praise of a congressman who body-slammed a reporter, his dehumanization of immigrants, his incitement of violence (“I’d like to punch him in the face”) or his insistence that the media is the “enemy of the people.” He’s not only not responsible for the bombing attempts in any way; he’s a victim of the media citing his inflammatory language as inspiration for political violence.
The consistency is always there:
- I didn't hit you
- But if I did, I didn't hit you hard
- But if I did, you had it coming because you told everybody that I've threatened to hit you
- You made me do it
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