Demagogues typically thrive by sowing division among citizens and inciting scapegoating and violence, and no American president before Trump fomented us-versus-them thinking to such an extreme degree, much less tacitly endorsed violence by “us” against “them.” He refers to the free press, the very bedrock of a democracy, as an “enemy of the people,” which has led some of his supporters—apparently thinking it was funny—to wear T-shirts that say NOOSE. TREE. JOURNALIST. SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED.
