Opinion | Rather than unify after Kirk’s killing, Trump stokes divisions

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The juxtaposition of a 9/11 anniversary and the shocking assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk should have marked the moment when President Donald Trump finally called on all Americans to reject the political violence that has become characteristic of this country.

Instead, as is his wont, Trump and his acolytes used the incident to encourage more partisan mayhem — by blaming Kirk’s killing on “radical left political violence” while keeping silent on MAGA (and Trump) threats against judges, along with violent attacks and political killings of Democratic officials by Trump supporters.

Such incitement is hardly surprising from the leader who pardoned and lionized the Jan. 6, 2021, mob of violent cop bashers that brayed for the hanging of Vice President Mike Pence.

The list of violent political incidents incited by the far right could fill this column. Yet, too few Americans appear to grasp that the president’s demonization of any opposition not only threatens our democracy but also endangers our security abroad.

Trump’s divisive politics reflect his dangerous affinity for dictators like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, whose unfettered power he is trying to emulate. But Putin and Xi have become masters at exploiting the president’s overt admiration as a weakness and playing it to their advantage.

The very same day as the shooting in Utah, Russia fired 19 drones over Polish territory via Moscow’s satellite state, Belarus, in a dramatic aerial incursion over a NATO country. Military analysts, and the Polish government, have made clear this was no accidental overflight of drones gone astray, as Trump suggested.

Putin was clearly testing whether Trump would back up NATO by strongly condemning Russia’s action. He hasn’t. In fact, the same day, the United States lifted the flight ban on the dictatorship of Belarus.

In the three weeks since Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin in Alaska and bragged that a Russia-Ukraine peace deal was nearing, the Kremlin has massively increased its attacks on Ukraine. All while Trump has repeatedly blown through self-set deadlines to punish Putin.

Since the Alaska summit, Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, has stripped 37 top current and former CIA officials — the cream of U.S. experts on Russia — of their security clearances, thus robbing the U.S. of critical needed expertise.

Trump has praised Gabbard for her actions. Meantime, pro-Putin Russian TV is crowing that Trump and Gabbard were just following Putin’s orders, according to the Daily Beast’s wonderful Julia Davis, who translates the content of Russian talk shows for U.S. readers.

Do I think Trump and Gabbard are on the Kremlin payroll?

I don’t surmise the president is a paid asset or being blackmailed. I just believe Trump is entranced by the Putin model of never having to answer to anyone for his behavior. He simply cannot believe the Russian leader who flatters him so richly is using him so openly. And, of course, lacking any Russian experts and unwilling to listen to anyone who knows Russia, he can’t read the jokes about his ignorance that proliferate in the Russian press.

Similarly, he has been unable to grasp the significance of Putin, Xi, and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un marching together in Beijing a week ago, along with former U.S. ally and Indian leader Narendra Modi, who has been alienated by Trump’s impulsive tariffs. Trump refuses to see that the first three are united in their efforts to play him for a fool.

The president has backed off from sanctions against exports of key computer chips to China because Xi out-toughed him. He has watched Putin defy him, over and over, as the Russian refuses to make any concessions about his plan to destroy Ukraine’s independence.

And Trump has done nothing about Putin’s overt threat to NATO on Wednesday, except grumble.

Instead, in a display of American “power,” Trump sent out three ships of the mighty U.S. fleet to blow a small Venezuelan motorboat out of the water because it allegedly carried drug dealers. (And for those who point to the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear sites as a sign of Trump’s toughness, I will point out that he only acted after Israel had destroyed Iranian air defenses.)

Clearly, it is much easier to make war when there’s little or no danger of retaliation.

So Trump sends masked, unidentified U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to arrest immigrants and sometimes U.S. citizens on the streets. He announces war vs. Democratic-run U.S. cities.

And, at this writing, it is unclear how he will follow up on his violence-inciting rhetoric about the shooting of Kirk.

The world is getting the message. Trump wants to join the axis of authoritarians, but is too weak and fearful to confront them when they threaten U.S. and European security. It’s so much easier to talk tough and stand tall against his perceived opponents at home.