Can We Call A Fascist A Fascist? The Right’s Phony Concern Over Political Violence
By Team Zeteo, Prem Thakker, and Asawin Suebsaeng Photos: Wikimedia Commons In the wake of an alleged gunman’s attempt to breach the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the incendiary Republican Party is now… blaming the left for “inciting violence.” How are Republicans (who have been busy vilifying Americans, aiding Israel’s genocide, and supporting masked agents kidnapping and murdering people blaming others for violence? What is up with their obsession with Trump’s ballroom? How is the media (once again!) both-sidesing it all, and peddling Republican talking points? “The God Emperor Donald Trump wants the ballroom. So this violent incident from Saturday night at this glitzy affair in Northwest Washington, DC is the perfect incident to try to turn that into an ad campaign, basically, led by the upper crust of the Republican Party to try get… this corrupt ballroom that basically nobody else asked for, shoved down [the American people’s] throats,” says Swin. Prem adds: “For those who are only now condemning political violence, and who are now using this alleged gunman to argue for giving DHS even more money, you want to talk about political violence? DHS – the reason why it’s so unpopular is because just this year, two of its agents murdered Americans in broad daylight. Two masked agents carrying out a political agenda carried out violence. If that’s not political violence, I’m not sure what is.” Whenever political violence against Trump, or against some of his most prominent allies, occurs, national Democratic Party leaders always rush to condemn the shootings or incidents. Conversely, Trump and his allies routinely encourage political violence, and this president openly celebrates the deaths of his political and cultural enemies. The GOP also regularly calls their liberal opponents “fascists,” and refuse to tame their rhetoric even when it’s tied to racist hysteria that directly fuels murders. But whenever a violent event occurs where they are threatened – as happened on Saturday night in Washington, DC, during an alleged assassination attempt against Trump officials at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner – virtually everyone in the upper tiers of Trumpland and the conservative movement instantly starts whining about how the Democrats caused this by correctly diagnosing Trump’s authoritarianism. It’s the classic move of a spoiled bully: The moment they face even the slightest pushback, they play the victim and demand special treatment. That’s exactly what’s happening today – and it is a choice to fall for their transparently bad-faith efforts to get people to stop calling out Trump and his cohorts for what they are. “Those who constantly, falsely label and slander the president as a fascist and threat to democracy and compare to Hitler to score political points are fueling this kind of violence,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s White House press secretary, said at a press briefing Monday. The president, the White House, the Republican National Committee, and other major GOP organizations and elected officials are now rushing to make the same claim – and they’re doing it on behalf of a man with his own ever-rising body count. As Swin notes on this week’s episode of ‘Ask The Editor,’ he’s spoken with several senior Trump administration officials and other advisers to the president who expressed their frustrations at how ever since Trump was nearly assassinated in 2024, the Republican Party has largely failed to paint the Democrats as the party of political violence. These senior Republicans look at the polling and see what everyone else does: The country is deeply divided, with essentially one half of the electorate always blaming the other side for political violence, and vice versa. Some of these sources, though, are a little bit more self-aware, albeit in an anonymous, private context. They concede that there’s more than enough blame to go around on their side – and that, because Trump so frequently revels in encouraging, celebrating, or making light of violence against his foes, it is “sometimes hard to make the case” that the left is driving the political bloodlust in the US, in the words of one senior Trump administration appointee. Imagine that. Subscribe to Zeteo
Black News 
By Team Zeteo, Prem Thakker, and Asawin Suebsaeng
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
In the wake of an alleged gunman’s attempt to breach the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the incendiary Republican Party is now… blaming the left for “inciting violence.”
How are Republicans (who have been busy vilifying Americans, aiding Israel’s genocide, and supporting masked agents kidnapping and murdering people blaming others for violence? What is up with their obsession with Trump’s ballroom? How is the media (once again!) both-sidesing it all, and peddling Republican talking points?
“The God Emperor Donald Trump wants the ballroom. So this violent incident from Saturday night at this glitzy affair in Northwest Washington, DC is the perfect incident to try to turn that into an ad campaign, basically, led by the upper crust of the Republican Party to try get… this corrupt ballroom that basically nobody else asked for, shoved down [the American people’s] throats,” says Swin.
Prem adds: “For those who are only now condemning political violence, and who are now using this alleged gunman to argue for giving DHS even more money, you want to talk about political violence? DHS – the reason why it’s so unpopular is because just this year, two of its agents murdered Americans in broad daylight. Two masked agents carrying out a political agenda carried out violence. If that’s not political violence, I’m not sure what is.”
Whenever political violence against Trump, or against some of his most prominent allies, occurs, national Democratic Party leaders always rush to condemn the shootings or incidents. Conversely, Trump and his allies routinely encourage political violence, and this president openly celebrates the deaths of his political and cultural enemies. The GOP also regularly calls their liberal opponents “fascists,” and refuse to tame their rhetoric even when it’s tied to racist hysteria that directly fuels murders.
But whenever a violent event occurs where they are threatened – as happened on Saturday night in Washington, DC, during an alleged assassination attempt against Trump officials at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner – virtually everyone in the upper tiers of Trumpland and the conservative movement instantly starts whining about how the Democrats caused this by correctly diagnosing Trump’s authoritarianism.
It’s the classic move of a spoiled bully: The moment they face even the slightest pushback, they play the victim and demand special treatment. That’s exactly what’s happening today – and it is a choice to fall for their transparently bad-faith efforts to get people to stop calling out Trump and his cohorts for what they are.
“Those who constantly, falsely label and slander the president as a fascist and threat to democracy and compare to Hitler to score political points are fueling this kind of violence,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s White House press secretary, said at a press briefing Monday.
The president, the White House, the Republican National Committee, and other major GOP organizations and elected officials are now rushing to make the same claim – and they’re doing it on behalf of a man with his own ever-rising body count.
As Swin notes on this week’s episode of ‘Ask The Editor,’ he’s spoken with several senior Trump administration officials and other advisers to the president who expressed their frustrations at how ever since Trump was nearly assassinated in 2024, the Republican Party has largely failed to paint the Democrats as the party of political violence. These senior Republicans look at the polling and see what everyone else does: The country is deeply divided, with essentially one half of the electorate always blaming the other side for political violence, and vice versa.
Some of these sources, though, are a little bit more self-aware, albeit in an anonymous, private context. They concede that there’s more than enough blame to go around on their side – and that, because Trump so frequently revels in encouraging, celebrating, or making light of violence against his foes, it is “sometimes hard to make the case” that the left is driving the political bloodlust in the US, in the words of one senior Trump administration appointee.
Imagine that.
