On Saturday, shortly after a pressure cooker bomb blew up a trash can in New York City—and, it is very much worth adding, before anyone knew anything about the explosion—Trump went on stage in Colorado and declared, “A bomb went off in New York City.” Trump was right, but that’s beside the point. He was all too eager to exploit terrorism and uncertainty for political gain. Similarly, his willingness to jump to conclusions without adequate information—without any information, in this case—is terrifying, should he be elected president.
On Monday morning, Trump went on Fox & Friends—he only goes on Fox & Friends now that he’s feuding with both CNN and MSNBC—to tell Americans that they should channel their fear into a vote for Donald Trump:
Trump on Fox: "...[Terrorist strikes] maybe...you know, will happen perhaps more and more all over the country." pic.twitter.com/KTjbJ0iLl9
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) September 19, 2016
Because he has no national security experience, Trump argued that he has superhuman predictive powers, that he can see terror attacks coming. (Presumably the argument is that he will start to use this power to help people if elected.)
Trump on @foxandfriends: "I knew this was going to happen." pic.twitter.com/Qai99XSAxe
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) September 19, 2016
For the record, Trump doesn’t have a meaningful plan to defeat ISIS and has never presented one, instead utilizing an even less convincing version of Nixon’s “Secret Plan to Win Vietnam” argument from the 1968 election. His main argument is that hordes of brown people are flowing into the country and you should be terrified.
Trump: "...and you know they stay together, so nobody really knows who it is, what's happening. They are plotting." pic.twitter.com/nXJLBSEV4v
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) September 19, 2016
Donald Trump doesn’t have a plan to defeat terrorism besides “Be afraid—and vote for me.”