Trump’s Rants to Generals Spiral Into Madness as Dem Erupts: “Idiot!”

In a speech to military officials, President Trump went full fascist: He said America is under “invasion from within,” declared that the generals in the room will be enlisted in a “war” against that enemy, and bizarrely insisted that U.S. cities should be used as military training grounds. We think this is Trump’s most explicit declaration yet that he sees large swaths of the United States as themselves constituting a kind of enemy nation within our borders. The display prompted Senator Ruben Gallego to scorch Trump at length as an “idiot,” suggesting that mockery and contempt is a good approach in situations like these. We talked to Ian Reifowitz, a history professor at SUNY Empire State University and co-author of the new book Riling Up the Base. He explains how Trump is relying on longtime right-wing political tropes that trade on grievance and hate, how Trump-MAGA are supercharging this in a newly emboldened way, and why it’s all heading to a very dark place. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.