Originally published at: Trump’s Projection Of Strength After Assassination Attempt Borrows From Authoritarian Playbook
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation. In the days since the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, supporters of the former president have used the incident to project an image of power. T-shirts of a bloodied Trump with his fist clenched…
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I wonder if Hitler was nervous after seeing images of Mussolini hanging by his heels.
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By shooting himself and his dear ones and having their bodies incinerated, he did work to deprive the Soviet victors of that opportunity.
Never thought about it that way, though. It does make sense.
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The PA “assassin” was a radical gun nut, who simply aspired to become talked about as a shooter. He had researched both Trump and Biden.
That this has boosted Trump’s approval in any way is tragic since it is GOP’s liberal gun policies that made the assassination attempt possible, and their 2nd Amendment rhetoric that inspired the shooter.
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Projection of strength - while he hides from a real interview.
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Adolph was not incinerated well at all. The Soviets had his skull and also part of him was put under a paved driveway at a military HQ so that he could be run over at will.
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When is trump’s big boy press conference?
In two weeks. You won’t believe how strongly it will be.
ETA. We can run this Q and A again in two weeks.
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donnie initially claimed his ear was blown off. Images tell a different story entirely
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Falling short could never have happened to a more deserving guy.
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Trump is the luckiest bastard on the planet for being given this gift of a near-fatal assassination. On the other hand, he doesn’t really project strength the way authoritarians have done in the past when he speaks in front of a rally crowd.
His vocal style is a weak sing-song patter as he swivels his head from one side to the other reading the teleprompters. Then he’ll smile, shake his head about how horrible America has become, throw a few insults at Dems, make a few jokes.
It’s not the vocally powerful delivery of a Hitler, Mussolini, or Stalin when speaking to a crowd. Maybe because he thinks of himself as an entertainer at heart. He’s always trying to get the crowd to like him more for himself, than for what he’s actually saying.
Anyway, it still works to fire up the personality cult members who travel to these rallies. Maybe we’re lucky that he hasn’t studied the speaking style of historical authoritarian figures, so he comes off as a clown to the rest of us who aren’t in the cult.
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While the assassination attempt may be celebrated by Trump supporters, the rest of us still hate Trump. So nothing changed, really.
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Maybe the supporters have, but Trump continues with his nonsense. He can not string together a sentence.
This guy is not fit to be human, let alone President.
He is a vague cloud of nothingness!
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I’ll say it plainly as I can …
TRUMP IS A COWARD
Remember after the Uvalde school killngs were over? trump said he woulda run in unarmed and taken the shooter down. Well after there was any danger had he even been present on that awful day. Bluster and bragging are characteristics of cowards.
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His followers are increasingly coming off as clowns too; maybe one or two will get the message.
These are the same people complaining about gas prices, right?Dozens of Trump supporters were irate that they had their cars towed for parking illegally at the last Trump rally in NC, and they had to pay $380 to get their cars back late in the evening. Many of them drove there from out of state. pic.twitter.com/VVziEhgWJm
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 26, 2024
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I’m still deeply annoyed at the universe for placing that photographer in exactly the right moment at exactly the right place to capture that fist-raising image with the flag behind him. The other images show a frightened old man getting carried along by others. If those images were the only ones we had, this whole propaganda effort would be much less effective. What are the odds that such a good photograph would happen in that split second? Damn it.
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Being a natural-born loser, Donald easily becomes a natural-born victim.
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Pro Tip: If your car is towed, pay up and get your car back before you start cussing the tow company.
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So much strength …
First, Tesla’s Twitter disaster, now Thiel’s JD catastrophe … I’m starting to get the idea that the super rich aren’t that super smart.
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