"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."
"The dynamic Trump observed is that he had created a bond with his supporters that no outside facts could break, even something as blatant as a cold-blooded killing on an American street. And that is the nub of the crisis into which we have plunged over the past decade. All politicians spin and distort to some extent, of course. Trump's innovation was to grasp that, because the conservative movement had trained its devotees to ignore mainstream media."
Donald Trump's 2016 assertion that he could shoot someone and retain support foretold a deeper dynamic of unshakeable partisan loyalty. That dynamic produced a bond in which supporters reject outside facts, enabling leaders to act without accountability. Customs and Border Patrol agents killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis; the administration labeled him a "domestic terrorist," alleging intent to massacre federal officers because he carried a firearm while filming and clashing with agents. Multiple videos show agents shot Pretti after pinning and disarming him, undermining the administration's justification. Conservative rhetoric has long valorized gun ownership as protection against tyranny, exemplified by defense of Kyle Rittenhouse.
Read at The Atlantic
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