US political analyst warns: Trump supporters will “most likely” try to kill people | US elections

We are still just over a year away from the US presidential elections, but the battle for the most important post in the White House is already in full swing. Republican Trump, who was president from 2016 to 2020, has run for office again after his defeat by Joe Biden almost four years ago.

Trump – who is currently on trial in five lawsuits – will first have to be officially nominated as the Republican presidential candidate. But he is leading in all polls, making the GOP (Republican Party) primaries considered a formality.

In recent months, the ex-president has regularly been in the news again with his winged statements, which often have an undertone of violence. For example, he recently said he would support a law that would allow store owners and employees to shoot thieves in “places where the rules are really not being followed.” That kind of violent statements worries critics.

Brian Klaas, professor of World Politics at University College London, shares the concern about Trump’s increasingly violent rhetoric and warned of the consequences during an interview with the American news channel MSNBC. He called Trump’s aggressive language “the biggest story of the 2024 election.” “But it’s not being treated as such in the press,” the analyst said. “I think that’s a real flaw. His crazy calls for violence are a has become banality, but the things he says could kill people.”

He gave a recent example of Trump making a comment about Paul Pelosi, the husband of former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, who was attacked with a hammer in his own home last year. “The audience laughed when he referred to an 82-year-old man being hit in the head with a hammer,” Klaas said.

Through various channels, including his own social media platform Truth Social, and also during speeches, he has managed to “demonize” several people. “This is related to a term called ‘stochastic terrorism’,” the prof explained. “That means someone very powerful is targeting and demonizing individual groups in the general public. A small number of the followers will take this as orders.”

Klaas fears that these statements will incite a small group of Trump’s – very well-armed and extremist – supporters to violence and even murder.

In October 2018, Trump supporter Cesar Sayoc sent letter bombs to Democrats and opponents of Donald Trump, including current President Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton (his Democratic opponent during the 2016 elections) and his predecessor President Barack Obama. His attempt failed and he was arrested. According to Brian Klaas, it was due to Sayoc’s incompetence in bomb making, and not to the failure of Trump’s rhetoric.

LOOK. America correspondent Romina Van Camp about Trump’s mugshot: “This will be the campaign image”