The Hidden Message In Trump's Transgressive Rhetoric
Forget what he "really" means. He's sending a message about power.
Perhaps because he holds fewer rallies than he used to, each time Donald Trump goes before an audience of MAGA cultists, the former president makes sure to say a good many things that are not only repugnant and disturbing to any remotely sensible person who hears them, but seem to be an intentional escalation of his previous offenses. A predictable pattern of reaction and counter-reaction then ensues, in which both the news media and Trump’s opponents respond in logical ways to the odious spectacle — but ways that actually serve Trump’s purposes.
As you might have heard, at a rally over the weekend, Trump digressed from a riff about the auto industry to say, “Now if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole – that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.” One might view this to be as much an instruction to his followers as a prediction, especially given the fact that he has said many times that any election he loses could only have been stolen.
This is then the cycle that ensued, in this case as in so many others:
On the first day, the news media pay little attention to his words and their implications
Liberals and Democrats shout that this deserves more attention than it is getting
At least somewhat in response, journalists write stories about Trump’s statements, including implausible denials from his spokespeople explaining why they were benign
Other Republicans are asked about it, and say “Those aren’t the words I would have chosen” while still defending Trump
Trump soon repeats the offensive comments, perhaps even ratcheting them up further
Among other things, at this weekend rally Trump also repeated his dehumanizing rhetoric about immigrants who commit crimes — rhetoric of a kind that has preceded most every genocide in human history, with the eventual victims referred to as “vermin,” “insects,” or a disease infecting the nation (as Trump says, immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country”). And as has become a quasi-religious ritual, the attendees stand to listen to a recording of January 6 rioters singing the “Star-Spangled Banner” in jail, part of a broader effort on Trump’s part to transform that attempt to overthrow the government into a tale of patriotic heroism.
The misguided debate over what Trump “really” means
The discussion around what Trump “really” means when he says something like the “bloodbath” comment only serves a key goal Trump pursues when he says intentionally outrageous things. There’s the surface message — encouraging violence, or promoting xenophobia, or promising to dismantle components of the democratic system — and then there’s the accompanying message, sometimes implicit and sometimes explicit, which is one about what is allowed to be said and who has the power to transgress.
So for instance, in that same rally, Trump said this about (some) immigrants: “I don’t know if you call them people, in some cases they’re not people, in my opinion. But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left say it’s a terrible thing to say.”
He’s not allowed to say it? He just said it! There’s a term in rhetorical theory for this move: It’s called paraleipsis, in which the speaker simultaneously says a thing and denies saying it (“I won’t bring up my opponent’s recent arrest”). Unlike in many cases, though, Trump is not deploying paraleipsis to retain plausible deniability. He calls attention to the fact that what he’s saying is transgressive and will inevitably be condemned. The purpose is to say to his audience, We know those censorious libs are going to attack me for this, but they can’t stop me.
When his spokespeople offer denials to reporters, saying “This is just more liberal media bias: When Trump said he wants to ‘hang our enemies in the town square and set fire to their still breathing bodies’ he was clearly talking about America being number one economically,” that’s part of the act too. His supporters can giggle and high-five each other as they watch news stories dutifully repeat these explanations, no matter how ludicrous they are. It’s a variation on the core tactic of alt-right internet trolls: Say something vile, then when challenged, say “C’mon, I was just kidding — don’t you have any sense of humor?”
The news media concentrate on the first part of the message, which is indeed important; every voter should be aware that Trump is a repugnant bigot who is promising violence in his attempt to lay waste to our democracy. But they ignore the second part of the message, and what it communicates to his followers about the power he embodies and promises for them. Look what I can get away with, he says. I am free of restraint. If you’re with me, you are too. When he trolls the media and the liberals, his supporters can be thrilled not only by the exasperation of people they hate, but by the knowledge that their leader can do whatever he pleases to those bastards.
This all requires a lack of shame, but Trump learned long ago that shamelessness can be a kind of superpower.
How shamelessness works
Let’s view this through the lens of media fact-checking, which has two goals, one explicit and one implicit. The explicit goal is to affect audiences, to deliver the truth to them in such a way that they will not be persuaded by deception. A large amount of academic research has been conducted to test whether it’s working, and the results, while somewhat positive overall, are rather underwhelming. Fact-checks can help, but they’re not exactly constructing an impenetrable armor citizens can wear to resist the arrows of deception raining down upon them.
The implicit goal of fact-checking concerns the politicians: The idea is that if they tell a lie, and a fact check says “This thing the candidate is saying is false,” they’ll stop telling the lie. Trouble is, that only works if the candidate has a sense of shame. Which many of them do. But not Donald Trump. So the fact-checks — which are read by a relatively small number of people anyway — dutifully document his deception, and he just goes on lying.
Even in cases where the fact-check spreads across all reporting, it doesn’t seem to work. The clearest example is Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Reporters are careful to repeat again and again that this is a lie, yet polls show around 70 percent of Republicans still think it’s true.
When Trump learned his lesson
There was a key moment in 2016, now largely forgotten, that helped create what we see today. The Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump is heard bragging about his ability to sexually assault women with impunity, was released at the beginning of October. For a couple of days it looked as though it would be a fatal blow to Trump’s candidacy; many within Trump’s party were calling on him to pull out of the race. Somehow, people around Trump convinced him to make a public apology, which he did (“I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize”).
The fact that today it seems bizarre that he actually did that is revealing. He has never apologized for anything since, and has come to understand that the horror and condemnation that greets so many of his remarks is a tool to keep his cultists energized.
As I say in an MSNBC piece that will be published soon, authoritarian cults send their adherents a message about power, that of both the leader and the followers. The leader stands outside society, unconstrained by its annoying rules and norms. He does what he wants. And if you follow him, some of that power can be yours as well. You too will be liberated, free of shame, newly able to live how you want and crush your enemies.
This intoxicating promise of liberation has always been central to Trump’s appeal, and though he has never convinced a majority of Americans to follow him, he’s come pretty close. And now he is again.
In crowds and power Cannetti wrote that following certain rituals including dressing in certain ways showed the leader respected the limits of their power and were in some ways constrained by it. Trump shows in terms of his dress and hair and how he is only bound by his own constraints not by any one else’s.
MAGA isn’t so much about racism as it’s about letting certain types of people be their worst selves whether it be racist or grifting or you name it.
"Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."
Frank Wilhot
The media is also ignoring a lot of the things they should be covering. With Trump loudly proclaiming how he is going to stop Medicare fraud the media should be shining a spotlight on the Medicare fraudsters he pardoned. I though I pay attention to politics but I missed that shocking story:
“ If Trump Wants to Curb Medicare Fraud, Why Did He Free This Fraudster From Prison?”
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/03/philip-esformes-donald-trump-clemency-medicare-fraudif/