"On January 23, 2016, Donald Trump notoriously declared, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters." That statement was understood at the time as a metaphorical expression of the depth of Republican voters' commitment to him. Ten years and one day later, his administration's agents shot a disarmed man on the street in full view of the public. Perhaps we should have taken him not only seriously but also literally."
"Trump's innovation was to grasp that, because the conservative movement had trained its devotees to ignore mainstream media and rely completely on information supplied by its own loyalists, his ability to control his supporters' perceptions effectively had no limit. And because his supporters would believe anything, he could do anything."
"The specific allegation it employed to support this hyperbolic charge was that, because Pretti was carrying a firearm while filming and then clashing with agents, he intended to massacre federal officers. Even if that were true, it still would not remotely justify the fact that, according to multiple videos of the incident, agents shot Pretti after they had pinned him to the sidewalk and disarmed him."
Donald Trump's 2016 boast that he could "stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody" foreshadowed political loyalty that resisted even extreme actions. That bond rendered supporters largely immune to outside facts and allowed control over perceptions through loyalist information channels. After Customs and Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, the administration labeled him a "domestic terrorist" and alleged intent to massacre officers. Multiple videos indicate agents shot Pretti after pinning and disarming him, a circumstance that would not justify the killing. Conservative rhetoric has long valorized gun ownership and defended armed actors.
Read at The Atlantic
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