Donald Trump’s Dangerous Embrace of Extremism Is a Threat to America

Back in 2016, Donald Trump’s presidency beckoned for the extreme before a vote was even cast.  He took fringe elements of our society—those motivated by hate and violence—and embraced them.  He courted them.  He saw them as a legitimate voting bloc.  In return, they not only voted for him and helped him win the presidency, but by the end of his first term, they also fought for him.  And they will again.

There would be no “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” under Trump.  Instead, he would play into fears of a great replacement and white extinction by calling immigrants, who are the very fabric and foundation of this country, criminals, rapists, and drug dealers.

It’s a dog whistle that played well into the hands of those he seduced.  Today on social media his followers openly disparage with vicious animosity immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, Blacks, Jews, and others who do not fit into their—and Trump’s—worldview.  Long gone are the days when biased and hateful thoughts remained in one’s head.  Today they are shouted loudly and without fear.

Trump made it okay to hate.

This was none more apparent than the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.  At that event, a neo-Nazi rammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one person and injuring others.  Yet Trump declared that there were “very fine people” on both sides.

One year after the Unite the Right rally, in 2018, Southern Poverty Law recognized 1,021 hate groups in the United States.  That number dropped under the Biden administration, but that doesn’t mean that those who subscribe to extremist ideology have simply gone away.  They lie in waiting.

When he ran again for the presidency in 2020, Trump was unabashedly cozy with the extreme elements of our country.  His campaign logo borrowed imagery from the white supremacist group VDARE, with red and blue stripes, white stars, and the image of a lion in the center.

His endorsement of the Proud Boys during a 2020 presidential debate, telling them to “stand back and stand by,” turned the group into a household name.  Back in 2020, there were just over 40 Proud Boys chapters in the United States.  Today, with Trump’s support and endorsement, the group has flourished into more than 150 chapters, and they pompously proclaim they are “standing by, Mr. President.”

More dangerous though, is that this time around, Trump has nothing to lose.  Unlike the beginning of his first administration, this time there are not competent, experienced professionals lining up to join his administration.  The good people know better.  They know their careers will be irreparably damaged and they’ve seen what happens to those who say “no” to the president.  The experienced and skilled need not apply.  The administration will be filled with Trump’s donors, cronies, and family, as it was towards the end of his first term.

Trump has also given hope to those convicted for their attempts to destroy our democracy on January 6, 2021.  Promises of pardons only incentivize future bad behavior.  More than that, the former president himself has acted with a brazen disregard for the rule of law.  The checks-and-balances engrained in our system of government have all but failed us with a Congress so divided and dysfunctional it struggles to pass routine laws, and a Supreme Court that has blessed unlawful behavior—from sharing national secrets with the public to inciting a crowd to attack Congress—because they’ve declared presidents are not subject to laws.  This, too, incentivizes more extreme behavior from Trump, because he knows now he can get away with it.

More than ever, the security of our nation is in jeopardy.  It is not some terrorist group plotting against us from a remote corner of the earth that poses the greatest threat to our safety and to our democracy.  Today’s most urgent and serious threat is the one from within.  It is from a former president who embraces hate and empowers the violent.  It is from a former president who has openly declared that he will enact revenge on those he views as an enemy.  Surrogates and vigilantes are ordained to divvy out “justice” to anyone who dares to challenge Trump, his policies, or his beliefs.

Chaos, violence, inhumanity, and the degradation of the United States’ position in the world is all but guaranteed under another four years with Donald Trump as president.  A vote for Trump in November is an endorsement of a man who is more focused on retribution and promoting extremist ideology than on making America great.  Vote wisely.

About the Author: Julie Farnam

Julie Farnam is the CEO of Pandorus Intelligence, LLC and is a former Division Chief with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.