Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.
This past week saw a shocking spree of terrorist violence and hate crimes in the United States — from a hardcore Trump supporter mailing pipe bombs to 13 people Trump has attacked in the past, to a racist white man killing two black people in a Kentucky supermarket, to an anti-Semitic mass shooter murdering 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
And despite all of this, Trump chose the day after the Pittsburgh massacre to launch a personal attack on one of the mail bomber’s intended targets, a prominent liberal donor whose late father was Jewish.
On Sunday afternoon, Trump attacked billionaire Tom Steyer, who was mailed a pipe bomb that was intercepted by authorities on Friday.
Following Steyer’s appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Trump referred to the hedge fund manager and philanthropist as “Wacky Tom Steyer” and called him a “crazed & stumbling lunatic” in a tweet.
Steyer responded quickly to Trump’s attack.
“It is unthinkable that in the midst of the horrible political violence our president would resort to name-calling instead of repairing the damage to the fabric of our country,” Steyer tweeted.
Steyer isn’t the only target of an attempted bombing Trump has continued to shamelessly attack.
Trump quickly victim-blamed the free press just hours after the New York headquarters of CNN was evacuated due to a pipe bomb arriving in the mailroom.
At a rally in Illinois Saturday night, Trump singled out another of the bombing targets, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), to jeers from the crowd.
Trump also continued to attack philanthropist and Holocaust survivor George Soros after Soros received a package bomb. At an official White House event following the bombing attempts, Trump repeated a chant of “Lock him up” from the crowd that was directed at Soros.
Steyer and Soros, along with former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, were also targeted by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in a tweet that Steyer called “a straight-up anti-Semitic move” during his CNN appearance.
The horrific mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue clearly hasn’t inspired Trump to turn down the volume on any of his political attacks. In fact, he chose to respond to the shooting by blaming the victims for not having “protection inside the synagogue.”
And at an official event following the shooting, Trump once again derided “globalists,” a well-understood euphemism for “Jews” among alt-right white supremacists.
Attacking Steyer is further proof that not only does Trump plan to take no responsibility for the role his viciousness may have played in this week’s violence — he also plans to continue being as vicious as ever.
And if history is any guide, Trump’s fellow Republicans will probably let him get away with it once again.
Published with permission of The American Independent.
