'Violence, malice and menace': Why Trump’s threats must be taken seriously as walls close in on him

With two criminal indictments already on the books – one in a federal courtroom in Florida, the other brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg – and two more reportedly imminent, one political analyst suggested people keep an eye on Donald Trump's increasingly violent rhetoric as his legal problems overwhelm him.

In his column for Salon, Chauncey DeVega noted that the former president had no problem whipping up his supporters when he merely lost the 2020 presidential election and now, with jail time possibly on the horizon, there is more at stake for him.

As DeVega wrote, Trump could face spending the rest of his life in prison if found guilty in special counsel Jack Smith's Mar-a-Lago document indictment that now totals 40 charges and, if the past is prologue, how he will respond is plainly evident.

"He will threaten and encourage, through direct means as well as stochastic terrorism and other veiled commands, acts of violence, chaos, mayhem and murder. To that point, in response to his impending indictment and arrest for the crimes of Jan. 6, Trump is behaving like an unrepentant reprobate, as he rants and throws a fit on his Truth Social disinformation platform," he wrote.

Noting that the former president is now 77 years old, he suggested there is little reason that Trump will change his ways and lower the temperature of his rhetoric.

"Violence is core and central to his personhood, identity, and way of being in the world. As mental health professionals continue to warn, Trump has shown himself to be a sociopath if not a psychopath," DeVega wrote.

To bolster his argument, he pointed to Trump's recent sharing of the address of former President Barack Obama which was followed by one of the president's followers being taken into custody after being found nearby with a van full of guns.

Alluding to a recent audio file Trump posted on his Truth Social account with the warning, "If you f--k around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before," DeVega suggested, "Violence, malice, and menace are the animating energy for Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and his Hitlerian promise of a final battle and revenge against him and his MAGA movement's perceived enemies such as the Democrats, liberals, progressives, the news media, and any others who dare to oppose them and their plans to end multiracial pluralistic democracy."

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