Trump amplifies violent rhetoric against his perceived enemies as civil fraud trial begins

Amna Nawaz:

In Manhattan, former President Donald Trump weighed in on the speaker battle today, but he did not endorse a McCarthy successor.

Donald Trump, Former President of the United States: A lot of people have been calling me about speaker. All I can say is, we will do whatever is best for the country and for the Republican Party.

Amna Nawaz:

He was speaking to reporters at the courthouse where the civil trial accusing him of fraud is under way. That trial has become a vehicle for the former president and front-runner for the GOP nomination to amplify violent rhetoric against his perceived enemies, from judges to legal clerks and the attorney general.

White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López has been following the developments and joins me here.

Laura, good to see you.

Laura Barrón-López:

Good to be here.

Amna Nawaz:

So the judge in this New York case is Arthur Engoron. He imposed a gag order on Mr. Trump yesterday. Why? What led to that?

Laura Barrón-López:

So, Judge Engoron imposed this gag order very quickly on Trump, saying that he can't make comments about court staff.

And this came hours after former President Trump attacked that judge's principal law clerk on social media, on TRUTH Social. Trump baselessly accused the law clerk of having a relationship with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and also said that: This law clerk is running the case against me. This should be dismissed immediately.

And this is clearly a pattern from the former president, where he is directly attacking any officials that are involved in these cases against him.

Amna Nawaz:

You have reported on this other pattern before. We were seeing former President Trump directing some of his most derogatory attacks against officials of color. Are we seeing that same pattern again?

Laura Barrón-López:

We are, Amna.

He did it just this week again when he was in New York City directly attacking New York Attorney General Letitia James when he was there for the civil fraud trial. And here's what he had to say about James.

Donald Trump:

We have a racist attorney general who is a horror show. This is a disgrace. And you ought to go after this attorney general, because she's turning off everybody from coming in.

Laura Barrón-López:

Again, Amna, that's a pattern from the former president.

Specifically, when he talks about Black jurists, Black judges, Black prosecutors, he uses words like racists, animals, rabid, thugs.

Amna Nawaz:

So these are just a few recent examples. I know you have been tracking some of the rhetoric we have seen from former President Trump. You have been tracking many more before that, though.

Tell us about that.

Laura Barrón-López:

Violent rhetoric, again, is a feature, not a bug, of Trump's campaigning style. It goes back to 2016, Amna, when he used to use a lot of violent rhetoric during his campaign.

But, recently, there has been, over the course of the last two weeks, an increase. And so if we break it down, on September 22, Trump suggests that General Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, should be executed.

September 29, he mocks the assault on Paul Pelosi. That was a violent political attack, September 29, as well in that same speech, calls for shoplifters to be shot on sight. You will remember he said in 2020, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.

And then, on October 3, he said — which was just yesterday, Amna, when speaking to right-wing media, he said, migrants are — quote — "poisoning the blood of our country."

Now, I checked with a historian, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, and she said that language that he's using, talking about migrants, Amna, echoes language used in Nazi propaganda by Adolf Hitler when Adolf Hitler actually said that Jewish people and migrants were — quote — "causing a blood poisoning" — end quote — of Germany.

Amna Nawaz:

Laura, this is language we have seen before. It's often dismissed or categorized as brash and erratic. And, over time, some, I think, become numb to it, because it's what we have come to expect from former President Trump.

When you talk to people who track this rhetoric and its impact, what do they tell you about why it matters?

Laura Barrón-López:

All the experts I have talked to, Amna, in extremism and far right extremism, as well as the historians, say that this rhetoric directly leads to violence.

January 6 was, of course, the most — was the largest event that we saw in terms of the former president's language inciting people to go to the Capitol and storm it. But they also point to other incidents, death threats against the Black judge overseeing the January 6 federal case.

Those death threats led to arrests, as well as the attack on the FBI Ohio office just last year shortly after Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort was raided. So, essentially, at the end of the day, all extremism experts that I talk to, Amna, say that this not only normalizes violent rhetoric, but it also encourages violence.

Amna Nawaz:

White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López joining us tonight.

Laura, thank you.

Laura Barrón-López:

Thank you.