Donald Trump attracts violent behavior because he preaches violence in incoherent rants

A small sample of Donald Trump’s violent rhetoric:

Echo opinion letter published in TribLive in Pennsylvania

    • 2016 rally: “Knock the crap out of” protesters; “I will pay for the legal fees.” 
    • 2020 Oval Office: He allegedly asked officials in his administration about shooting protesters in the legs.
    • 2021 Select Committee testimony: He stated that when informed that insurrectionists of the Capitol Building wanted to hang Vice President, Mike Pence, his reply was that maybe he deserves it.
    • 2023 on Truth Social: He stated Gen. Mark Milley deserves “DEATH” for perceived disloyalty.
    • 2023: He made fun of the vicious hammer attack on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
    • 2024 rally: Liz Cheney should face “a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her.”
    • 2024 speech: He stated political opponents are “enemies from within,” worse than foreign threats.
    • 2025: He stated Sen. Mark Kelly and five other veterans’ “seditious behavior” is punishable by death because they reiterated what the Uniform Code of Military Justice states regarding unlawful orders.

• Following the death of former FBI Director Robert Mueller in March 2026, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social: “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I'm glad he's dead

Yet he wants Jimmy Kimmel fired and James Comey in prison (because Comey took a picture of a seashell formation on a beach, aka the "seashell indictment"). 

Do you think he and Melania even understand the meaning of the word hypocrite? Doubtful. 😒

All this from the self-declared stable genius who stated the “Jesus-like” image he posted of himself was actually him being a doctor. Haven’t you wondered why he’s had to take so many cognitive tests❓

From Jack Sillaman in Latrobe, Pennsylvania

Donald Trump can look in the mirror to see reflections of Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban and the ghost of Adolf Hitler

Echo opinion letter published in The New York Times:

Donald Trump’s Dismantling of Our Democracy

Authoritarian takeovers in the modern era often do not start with a military coup. Instead, they involve an elected leader who uses the powers of the office to consolidate authority and make political opposition more difficult, if not impossible. Think of Vladimir Putin in Russia, Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and, to lesser degrees, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, Viktor Orban in Hungary and Narendra Modi in India. These leaders have repressed dissent and speech in heavy-handed ways.

Over the past year, Donald Trump and his allies have impinged on free speech to a degree that the federal government has not seen since perhaps the Red Scare of the 1940s, and 1950s. Trumpzi's administration pressured television stations to stop airing Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show when Mr. Jimmy Kimmel criticized Trump supporters after the murder of Charlie Kirk; revoked the visas of foreign students for their views on the war in Gaza; and ordered investigations of liberal nonprofit groups. Donald Trump so harshly criticizes people who disagree with him, including federal judges, that they become targets of harassment from his supporters.

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) German dictator during the Nazi period from 1933, until his death by suicide

Opinion Letter To the Editor: I urge you to add another measure to your index of autocratic and anti-democratic developments under the Trump administration: a research-backed measure of the president’s personality characteristics.

Autocratic leaders tend to share many characteristics, including narcissism, manipulativeness, a need for power and a lack of remorse. To not include a personality category when measuring a slide toward one-person rule is to miss the point. It is akin to issuing a police bulletin that outlines a crime but offers no mention of the perpetrator.

Everything autocrats and their acolytes do must be viewed, at least in part, through the lens of personality. To fail to do so is to abet their power. It is to paint their actions with a sheen of respectability that is dangerously misleading.

From Marian Place in Durham, North Carolina
The writer is a licensed clinical social worker.