'I’m your macho leader': Expert explains what Trump’s 'contempt for the rule of law' shows

Former President Donald Trump's history of racist rhetoric has been amplified over the course of his political career. In an August report, PBS News notes the 2024 MAGA hopeful "has used terms such as 'animal' and 'rabid' to describe Black district attorneys. He has accused Black prosecutors of being 'racist.' He has made unsupported claims about their personal lives. And on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump has deployed terms that rhyme with racial slurs as some of his supporters post racist screeds about the same targets."

During Sunday's episode of MSNBC's Velshi, guest host Charles Coleman Jr. spoke with Yale University professor of philosophy Jason Stanley about the ways race has shown up amid Trump's legal troubles.

"Donald Trump is no stranger to attacking his political enemies," Coleman said. "But is it fair to say — because this it's something I've watched and other people have noticed — that when it comes to people like [Manhattan District Attorney] Alvin Bragg, like [Fulton County District Attorney] Fani Willis, like [New York Attorney General] Leticia James, for example, that his attacks carry a different level of vitriol than when it comes to talking about a [ex-Vice President] Mike Pence, for example, or even a [ex-House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Is that a fair observation? And if so, what does that tell us?"

Stanley replied, "Contempt for the rule of law, in the first instance. Race, of course, the idea of a woman holding him to account. Because there's a kind of hierarchy in Donald Trump's vision. It's the hierarchy that he's appealing to, and it's very appealing. Patriarchy — the idea that a wealthy white man, macho businessman, should be able to do what he wants, is above the law, is not subject to white people, to women or African Americans. Because that violates what he regards as the natural hierarchy, and many of his supporters do too. And this brings in both men of any race, and it brings in white nationalists.

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He continued, "This idea of hierarchy — democracy is committed to the rule of law, and what that means is that anyone, Black or white, woman or man, non-binary person, who is in that position as a judge, is and has the sacred duty of democracy and protecting the rule of law. So the contempt that he is showing is an attack on the equality that democracy, that democratic rule brings. The attack on the rule of law, and he's saying it's racial and gender hierarchy, 'and me, I'm your macho leader who is the real law.'"

Watch the video below or at this link.

'I'm your macho leader': Expert explains what Trump's 'contempt for the rule of law' showsyoutu.be

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