It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump

by Stuart Stevens

Trump, who went to great lengths to avoid serving in the military, where he might encounter actual violence, gleefully urges his supporters at rallies to “beat the crap out of” protesters, just “knock the hell…I promise you I will pay for the legal fees. I promise, I promise.” He’s praised a congressman who attacked a reporter, saying, “Any guy who can do a body slam, he is my type!” In a speech in front of law enforcement officers, Trump urged them to get “rough” on gang members.21 When the Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough asked Trump in 2015 about Vladimir Putin’s record of killing journalists, Trump answered, “Well, I think that our country does plenty of killing, too, Joe.”22 Trump has lamented that other Republicans aren’t “tough enough.” In an interview with Breitbart in March 2019, Trump said, “You know, the left plays a tougher game. It’s very funny. I actually think that the people on the right are tougher, but they don’t play it tougher. O.K.? I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump. I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough—until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.”23 At a rally before the 2018 midterm elections, when a protester was removed, Trump reacted, “You see these little arms, these little arms?…Where are the Bikers for Trump? Where are the police? Where are the military? Where are—ICE? Where are the border patrol?” As Jonathan Chait wro...