Trump, a ‘Bloodbath’, and the ‘Banality of Crazy’
Mehdi’s Monday Memo on the fight over the former president’s words
What do you think the reaction would have been if Vice President Kamala Harris went on MSNBC and declared she would not be endorsing Joe Biden’s re-election campaign?
Or if Hillary Clinton had warned of a “bloodbath” if she was not elected to the White House in 2016? Or if Barack Obama had run on a platform of pardoning and freeing a bunch of violent criminals from prison?
We all know the answer. We would have been treated to endless, relentless, and breathless press coverage — as well as loud condemnations from politicians and pundits alike.
Of course, none of the above happened. And yet, on Friday, less than three days after Donald J. Trump became the official GOP presidential nominee, his own former vice president, Mike Pence, told Fox that he would not be endorsing the former president’s bid for a second term. (Congratulations to Pence for finally finding his spine. Then again, it required Trump sending a mob to murder him in order for him to do so.)
Then, at a campaign rally in Ohio on Saturday, Trump warned there would be a “bloodbath” if he’s not put back in the White House this November. The Trump campaign, and their online outriders, have since insisted that the former president was referring to a “bloodbath” in the auto industry if Biden is re-elected. Yes, he did mention Chinese car imports but, hold on, he also said “that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s gonna be a bloodbath for the country.”
Trump supporters online have continued to scream ‘but the context!’ since Saturday — and some liberal pundits have agreed with them. Okay, let’s talk context. Why give the benefit of the doubt to a man who has repeatedly warned of violence if he loses an election or a court case and who — lest we forget! — incited an armed attack on the United States government? Why give the benefit of the doubt to a man who, at that very same rally on Saturday, called migrants “animals,” referred to the January 6th insurrectionists as “hostages,” and even saluted them? In recent months, Trump has repeatedly vowed to pardon and free those convicted of crimes on January 6th, 2021.
That’s the context.
To recap: his own former VP refused to endorse him; he is warning of a “bloodbath” if he loses; and he has pledged to release violent insurrectionists from prison.
Yet all of this will be forgotten within a few days. The news cycle will move on. The pundits will turn back to Joe Biden’s age, and the border, and the economy, and the rest. Will any newspaper editorial boards call on Trump to quit the race? Nope. Will any elected Republicans? Don’t. Be. Silly.
One explanation for our ongoing normalization of a thoroughly abnormal Trump comes from Brian Klaas, an American political scientist at the London School of Economics. In a nod to the immortal words of Hannah Arendt, he has coined a new and revealing phrase: ‘the banality of crazy.’
As Klaas wrote in October, “the press has succumbed to what I call ‘the banality of crazy,’ in which they breathlessly report on every minor Biden gaffe, but barely cover Trump calling to execute generals or shoplifters. This numbing effect helps Trump — and warps American politics.”
“In today’s political climate,” Klaas noted in a separate essay for the Atlantic, “Trump scandals have become predictably banal. And American journalists have become golden retrievers watching a tennis ball launcher. Every time they start to chase one ball, a fresh one immediately explodes into view, prompting a new chase.
“Eventually, chasing tennis balls gets old. We become more alive to virtually any distraction: The media fixate on John Fetterman’s hoodie instead of on stories about the relentless but predictable risk of Trump-inspired political violence.”
Here at Zeteo we will not be normalizing Trump or his brand of right-wing extremism; we will not be seduced, distracted, or numbed by the ‘banality of crazy.’ There is nothing banal or normal about the fascism that is heading our way in November.
Yes, fascism.
What I Am Reading
My friend Naomi Klein, the legendary author, activist, and academic, is one of the best writers I know and her latest Guardian column on the genocide in Gaza, and Jonathan Grazer’s much-discussed Oscars speech, is — in my humble opinion — one of the best pieces she has ever written.
“Everyone I know who has seen the film can think of little but Gaza. To say this is not to claim a one-to-one equation or comparison with Auschwitz. No two genocides are identical: Gaza is not a factory deliberately designed for mass murder, nor are we close to the scale of the Nazi death toll. But the whole reason the postwar edifice of international humanitarian law was erected was so that we would have the tools to collectively identify patterns before history repeats at scale. And some of the patterns – the wall, the ghetto, the mass killing, the repeatedly stated eliminationist intent, the mass starvation, the pillaging, the joyful dehumanization, and the deliberate humiliation – are repeating.”
What I Am Watching
The Israel-Palestine ‘debate’ hosted by podcaster Lex Fridman, between Norman Finkelstein and Mouin Rabbani, on the pro-Palestine side, and Benny Morris and Steven Bonnell (aka ‘Destiny’), on the pro-Israel side, is a whopping five hours long. So good luck!
Money quote (Finkelstein to Destiny): “With all due respect, you’re such a fantastic moron. It’s terrifying.”
Where I Have Been Interviewed
Now that I am no longer with MSNBC, I can appear all over the place. And now that I have a new media company to promote, I am appearing all over the place.
Me versus Piers Morgan, on Gaza, Trump, and the ‘woke left’:
On Democracy Now with Amy Goodman and Nermeen Sheikh, on Gaza and the media:
On the Deep State Radio podcast, with David Rothkopf and guests, on Gaza, Ukraine, and global authoritarianism.
On the Dean Obeidallah radio show, on Gaza, Trump, and the elections.
And on Mediaite’s Press Club podcast, discussing Zeteo, our mission, and the failings of the ‘mainstream media.’
What I Am Quoting
“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” - Nelson Mandela
***Reminders***
Zeteo is still in soft-launch mode. Our shows, and full content and list of contributors, won’t be released until late April.
In the meantime, have you seen our trailer? Or my announcement post for Zeteo? Or my viral video on the top seven lies about Gaza?
As you indicate, ‘the banality of evil’ is by now an immortal phrase. But what stops me in my tracks, unable to process for a moment what I am reading, is the pettiness of the evil of Israel’s tactics. The pointed cruelty, the vindictiveness, the obscene dancing of the Israeli military, wearing women’s underwear, stuffing their mouths with cream cakes to entertain starving children. Israel has created a nightmare, the one where you’re trapped, paralyzed with dread…I lived through the London blitz as a child, had nightmares for decades afterwards, but nothing my terrifying dreams match the horror of Gaza today.
Too many people are not LISTENING to Trump "bloodbath" context. Exactly like you pointed out, Like I had when he said it in Ohio, he's stating the tariffs of car industry will be nothing in comparison to the "bloodbath in the country". Trump is signalling, again. What happened last time? Jan 6.