In the aftermath of the July 7, 2005 bombings in London, U.S. President George W. Bush gave fairly generic remarks about the need for vigilance, as well as condolences for the loss of life. He concluded with this: "[W]e will spread an ideology of hope and compassion that will overwhelm their ideology of hate."
You can say a lot about Bush, about how he used terror alerts to instill fear in Americans, how his bullshit war in Iraq did more to create terrorists than all the promises of paradise ever could, and so much more. We should never forget and never forgive him for how awful he was and how much harm he did. But, if absolutely nothing else, in moments of tragedy associated with terrorism, he didn't freak the fuck out.
This is a marked contrast to our current president, a man who treats every occasion as a chance to grab his tiny balls and squeeze them so they puff up a little and look less raisin-like. Golden raisin. In the wake of Saturday's attack in London, where three delusional fucknuts decided to take out their fundamentalism-induced sexual repression on people who were enjoying an evening of eating and drinking at Borough Hall, Donald Trump went total cockknob.
His first tweet wasn't an expression of sympathy. No, it was meant to inspire fear so he could get his bullshit policies back on track: "We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!" He pledged to helped the UK, he criticized Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, and completely misinterpreted what Khan had said, he mocked people who want stronger gun laws, called repeatedly for the original "Travel Ban!" to be passed, kept calling it a travel ban, even though his lackeys had gone to great lengths to say it wasn't a travel ban, doubled down on his criticism of Khan, calling him "pathetic," praised himself and his apparently impressive forethought, and, yet, still, three days later, he has not once said anything about the victims or their families.
In fact, this blithering maniac's sociopathic staff didn't even issue an official statement of sadness, resolve, or anything, other than a readout of a phone call "Trump" had with British Prime Minister Theresa May. ("Trump" meaning that there's no way the actual Donald Trump was as coherent as the press release makes him seem, if he even made the call.)
At this point, Donald Trump is doing more to terrorize Americans than every ISIS goatfucker combined. He publicly demeans the laws of the nation and the treaties and agreements we have with other countries, calling them "deals," like he's negotiating the price of cheaper concrete to be used in one of his ugly goddamn buildings. He uses any occasion to demonize Democrats, including his constant, bewildering accusation that Democrats have anything to do with slowing down the confirmation of his nominees to various positions, something that Democrats have virtually no power to do. He is making his political opposition into his enemies (and Republican guzzlers of Trump's chode gleefully go along with it), and he has centralized power with a group that could politely be called "a cabal of motherfuckers," which includes three of his children. I'd say they were out of their depth, but that implies that they have any depth to be out of.
More to the terrorist point, Trump's continued bashing of "radical Islamomuslim extremists" or whatever the fuck you're supposed to say, along with his essentially winking at white supremacism, has led to an upsurge in real and actual racist violence in the United States. Yeah, I'm not afraid of the Muslims in my neighborhood harming me. They're cool and friendly. But the buzzcut white guys at the local bar? They make me nervous because that lot feel empowered and free now, like Trump released their asshole powers so they could shit all over the rest of us.
This doesn't even get us into the anxieties induced by Trump's policy positions. How many people are now gut-level terrified over losing their health insurance? If you don't think that, at some point, that's gonna lead to a violent response, well, you don't know how desperate people can behave. This could go on. How many LGBTQ youths will be denigrated and denied help because of Betsy DeVos, the cruel Secretary of Education, and her refusal to condemn discrimination against them? What about the people who are affected by the shift away from civil rights enforcement by the Justice Department and others? Or the limitations of the voting rights of so many Americans? And let's not even begin to go down the black hole of how damaged the nation is now in the eyes of the world.
The terrorism wrought on Americans by Trump makes the color-coded threat levels of the Bush administration seem almost quaint. We've got to get this presidency over with. But because the stream of threatening, deranged statements and lies is nonstop, because Trump and his spokespeople and cabinet aren't on the same page, it is adding a level of anxiety that cannot be sustained without an enormous damage to how we live our lives, how we interact with each other, how we think about our government and our neighbors. It will, at some point, fundamentally change who we are as a nation, and it will pit us against each other even more intensely than it already has because, surely, Trump has an army of Americans who love what he's doing to the majority of us.
Osama bin Laden couldn't have done better.
