News
Right-wing media figures vow revenge after Trump conviction
Editor’s Note: A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. Sign up here to receive the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape.
CNN –
Donald Trump’s media allies are demanding retribution after his conviction.
Following weeks of attacks Taking aim at the historic case of silence against the former president, prominent right-wing media figures immediately flooded public discourse on Thursday with extreme and disturbing rhetoric after Trump was found guilty on 34 criminal charges.
On Fox News and other right-wing media outlets, pro-Trump media personalities have exploded in anger, blaming everyone from Judge Juan Merchan and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to President Joe Biden and the entire US justice system for the “disgraceful” conviction.
While not surprising, the furious fanfare that reverberated through right-wing media outlets still had its intended effect, destroying public trust in America’s key institutions and leaving a lasting impact on the economy. Legitimacy of the Rule of Law in the United States.
The toxic comment is also inflaming Trump supporters’ desire for revenge, with popular right-wing media figures openly declaring their hope that the Republican Party candidate will openly seek revenge on his critics if he emerges victorious in November and return to the Oval Office.
Julian Rigg/CNN
A news board displaying Donald Trump’s conviction is seen on Fox News in New York on May 30.
In fact, it’s not just MAGA Media personalities who attack the Guilty verdict returned by a jury of 12 New Yorkers, finding it unfair and fraudulent. Some of the right’s most popular talking heads openly call for weaponizing government to seek revenge against Trump’s political opponents.
Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire, which has millions of subscribers on YouTube and social media, said after the verdict that Trump “should make and publish a list of ten high-level Democratic criminals he will arrest when he takes office.” Federalist Chief Executive Sean Davis said he wants “to see lists of which Democratic officials will be put in prison.” And Jesse Watters of Fox News declared, “We will defeat the forces of evil that are destroying this republic.”
Suffice to say, unbalanced, reckless, and dangerous rhetoric is not normal. And it even exceeds some of the highly charged rhetoric that occurred during the Trump administration, when then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller investigated the then-president over his ties to Russia. But as the legal walls really begin to close in on Trump, commentary in right-wing media outlets is becoming angrier, more threatening and taking on a markedly darker tone.
In the hours after the verdict was handed down on Thursday, talk of the United States having turned into a third world dictatorship was the norm in the pro-Trump media, with the term “banana republic” regularly bandied about. In fact, there was little room for disagreement with the radical and distorted point of view.
“Import the Third World, become the Third World. That’s what we just saw,” right-wing extremist Tucker Carlson declared on X. “That’s not going to stop Trump. He will win the elections if he is not killed first. But it marks the end of the fairest justice system in the world. Anyone who defends this verdict is a danger to you and your family.”
As has become the new normal, Fox News has also promoted a parade of dishonest right-wing arguments to its sizable audience. Laura Ingraham declared that “Democrats are showing [the country] what real power is… the kind of power we typically see dictators wield in China, Cuba and North Korea.” Sean Hannity complained that “the foundation of our constitutional republic” is “literally dying before his eyes.”
This rhetoric is obviously disconnected from reality. The United States is not a third world country. Trump had his day in court and was treated by the judge, by all accounts, quite fairly. Biden did not direct so-called deep state forces to engage in a “legal war” against Trump.
But the endless torrents of poison flooding public discourse have consequences. Not only does it offer a preview of how ugly the race to 2024 will soon become, it sets the stage for Trump, if he manages to return to the White House, to abuse power and deform federal institutions to serve his purposes.
Perversely, it led large numbers of Americans to believe that such behavior was not only justified but necessary.