In addition, he has ratcheted up his demonization of immigrants by branding them not only as rapists, drug dealers and criminals but also as Mideast terrorists.
He's also publicly and proudly stated that he's a nationalist (code for a noxious strain of beliefs espoused by racists and white nationalists), emboldening right-wing extremist groups such as the Proud Boys, the American equivalent of the Nazi Brownshirts.
'Weaponizes language'Incapable of both empathy and self-reflection, Trump uses language in the service of lies, vilification and violence.
His inflammatory rhetoric does more than legitimize and accelerate acts of violence; it weaponizes language as a tool of political opportunism without regard for the suffering and misery it inflicts on individuals and entire groups considered disposable.
He thrives in creating social divisions and merges ignorance and power to fuel conspiracy theories, eliminate the line between fact and fiction and give credence to the expanding media village of the extreme right.
Trump attempts to criminalize political opposition, maligns immigrants and others as losers and revels in his role as a national mouthpiece for white nationalists, nativists and myriad extremist groups.
He's unconcerned about the power of words to inflame, humiliate, and embolden some of his followers to violence. Instead, he displays a sadistic desire to relegate his critics and those he views as not white enough or ethnically abhorrent to zones of terminal exclusion.
'Abolish democracy'His call to "Make America Great Again" reveals his nostalgia for a white Christian past. Allan Nairn, the award-winning investigative journalist, gets it right in arguing that Trump and the Republican Party want "to abolish democracy"because that's the only way they can perpetuate their power" and create a form of "domestic fascism."
What's so duplicitous and dangerous about Trump is that he hides behind the institutions of representative democracy, which he attempts to destroy by stealth and through an accumulation of assaults rather than through an outright suppression of civil liberties and political rights, though that may be on the horizon.
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters following his teleconference with troops from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Nov. 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)Part of Trump's demolition of democracy is his tactic of turning his almost daily assaults into a form of political theatre. It's evident in his ongoing rallies that overflow with menace, not unlike the fascist Nuremberg rallies of the 1930s.
As the master of the spectacle, Trump normalizes through sheer repetition his ongoing attempts to fuel hatred, racial divisions and the destruction of social bonds, all of which is necessary for fascist politics to flourish.
In the Trump era, the line between deadly violence and the rhetoric of a fascist politics is dangerously thin. And as historical memory fades and civic literacy is disparaged, the rise of barbarism and brutality are on the rise.
Using language to resistThat's why critically addressing Trump's language is a crucial act of political resistance.
Trump's hateful rhetoric also proves that education is central to politics, because it's through language and diverse forms of communication that power materializes to shape consciousness, desire, identity and values.
It's crucial therefore in the age of Trump to use the language of resistance, one that's rooted in compassion for others, expands the reach of justice and encourages us to confront the forces of tyranny.
Language is the precondition for education, and education is central to politics itself. We need a new language that both inspires and energizes people to think otherwise in order to act otherwise.
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