SKULL-THUGGERY DELUXE: Trump as Violence Personified

“Violence is an expression of impotence… Power [defined as the capacity to work in concert for a public purpose] and violence are opposites; where the one rules absolutely, the other is absent… While violence can destroy power; it is utterly incapable of creating it… The practice of violence, like all action, changes the world, but the most probable change is a more violent world.” Hannah Arendt

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities”. Voltaire

“Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death”. Adolf Hitler

“What links Donald Trump, Viktor Orban, Andrej Babis, Jaroslaw Kaczynski and Marine Le Pen is one simple character trait: hypocrisy. These politicians aren’t tribunes of the people, they are hucksters. They aren’t bitter enemies of the Western system; they are con artists who seek to profit from it.” Anne Applebaum.

“Mr. Trump’s eagerness to invoke Capone reflects an important shift in the image he wants to project to the world. In 2016, Mr. Trump played the reality TV star and businessman who would shake up politics, shock and entertain. In 2020, Mr. Trump was the strongman, desperately trying to hold on to power by whatever means possible. In 2024, Mr. Trump is in his third act: the American gangster, heir to Al Capone — besieged by the authorities, charged with countless egregious felonies but surviving and thriving nonetheless, with an air of macho…