Donald Trump plans to start killing people again
Donald Trump’s two principal, overarching needs entail ceaseless strokes to his ego and finding boundless infusions of cash. What better way to multitask both of those Trump essentials than for Trump to stage yet another series of his Nuremberg-style rallies? Rumor now has it that’s exactly what he’s going to start doing again — next month.
The question is, where? Trump has cheated enough venues and refused to pay enough previous hosting cities for security from overtime-working cops that he’s understandably become persona non grata in a lot of potential locales.
Then there’s that other thing, the thing that looms large over any such Trump undertaking these days. The last time Trump staged one of his rallies was January 6th, and the lucid among us recall all too well what happened then. It might give even a city he hasn’t screwed pause.
People close to Trump refuse to say where the next rally will be, possibly because he can’t find a place that’s willing to host him, or possibly to avoid alerting sensible citizens who don’t want one of Trump’s putrid rallies in their city time to organize.
Whatever the reason, I’m reminded that at the back of everything that comes out of Trump and his festering organisation is a proclivity to deceive. After 118 glorious days of Biden administration transparency, it’s easy to forget that there was a time when every festering, stinking word that oozed out of the White House was a scam, a misdirection or a lie delivered in scolding, reproving tones, as if we were all naughty children who didn’t deserve such a wonderful leader, let alone the truth.
In any case and wherever they’re held, there’s a good chance Trump’s next few rallies will be of the airplane hanger superspreader type, according to the Daily Mail. Even with the recent and ill-advised relaxation of mask-wearing rules, such rallies could run afoul of state and local COVID restrictions. It’s a near statistical fact that somewhere there’s one or more persons who are alive right now who will die this year because Donald Trump decided to hold rallies again.
I am not here suggesting the so-called butterfly effect that we’re all subject to. We all make innocent decisions that potentially and sometimes tragically impact others every time we walk out the door. I’m talking about the foregone conclusion that attendees at Trump’s rallies will be deliberately incautious, that they will deliberately flout conventions of hand washing, social distancing and mask-wearing because Trump made it a Republican badge of honor to do so. People will die because Trump made taking precautions against a deadly pandemic uncool, a misbegotten trope that MAGA hat-wearing loonies frequently use to “own the libs.”
Recently, for example, an aide to Marjorie Taylor Greene barked “take your mask off, Congressman” after the still mask-wearing US Representative Eric Swalwell stepped outside while exiting the House floor. Swalwell asked the aide who he was and then told him, “Don’t tell me what to do.”
The point is Swalwell was doing no harm to anyone by wearing a mask outdoors. Wearing a mask is nothing to be ashamed of. Trump has created the illusion that it’s shameful not to rip your mask off the moment you can, as an overt act of macho, freedom-loving defiance, and stupid people mistakenly believe they can be rude to members of Congress if they don’t follow in lockstep with this rank absurdity.
When you get a sufficiently large collection of such stupid people together in one place it’s called a Trump rally, or, more accurately, a superspreader event. So Trump plans to start killing people again. Since it’s in the service of his titanic ego I have no doubt that he and his drooling fan base will all think it’s worth the sacrifice. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.