Donald Trump’s Response to Orlando Plays Directly into the Hands of Terrorists
With his fear-mongering, hate-speech, and un-American ideas, the GOP presidential candidate is emerging as the No. 1 threat to U.S. national security.
Donald Trump is the presidential candidate Osama bin Laden made. Nothing demonstrates that like Trump’s performance in the wake of the shooting that took place in Orlando on Sunday.
If the goal of a terrorist is to spread terror, then his most potent weapon is not a gun or an explosive vest, but the fear-mongers within a targeted society — especially those who embody or inflame the impulses that support the terrorist’s narrative about his enemies. And in that regard, it is hard to imagine a more effective ally of extremism than Trump, who uses his global platform to trumpet views that are a caricature of the ignorant, hateful American. His words seem designed to support the narrative that the United States is intolerant, racist, and at war with all the people of Islam.
Trump made this clearer than ever in the hours after the news of the attack on the Pulse nightclub. He renewed his call for a ban on all Muslims from entering the United States, tossing aside the freedom of religion on which America was founded and ignoring the fact that the shooter in Florida was, in fact, a U.S. citizen who would not be affected by such a ban. He called on the president of the United States to resign, thus politicizing a terror attack and magnifying its impact in the worst possible way. Also, of course, he appeared triumphant even in the wake of the shooting, claiming that it validated his views on extremism — thus showing his willingness to place his demagoguery and narcissism ahead of the sensitivity and leadership an attack like this ought to generate in a would-be president.
In a speech on Monday, he compounded these damaging missteps. He went to new heights in his grossly unconstructive and self-serving effort to spread hysteria when he suggested that if we don’t change our policies on terror, “we’re not going to have a country anymore — there will be nothing left.” This places the threat posed by the relatively small number of extremists in the world (there are perhaps 30,000 members of the Islamic State) on a par with the existential threat posed by the USSR during the Cold War. It is absurd. It is wrong. And it is damaging. It serves only one purpose: to stir up fear and support for his out-of-control policies.
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Originally Posted by acptulsa
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