Late Friday night, the former president of the United States—and a leading candidate to be the next president—shockingly insinuated that America’s top general deserves the death penalty. This astonishing statement would be unthinkable in any other prosperous democracy. However, Donald Trump, utilizing his social media platform, Truth Social, claimed that Mark Milley’s phone call to reassure China after the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, surpassed all boundaries and “in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.” It’s worth noting that the phone call was explicitly authorized by Trump-administration officials. Trump’s threats against Milley arose after The Atlantic published a profile of Milley by this magazine’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. The profile detailed Milley’s attempts to safeguard the Constitution from Trump.
Surprisingly, this post did not capture significant attention from the nation’s front pages. Headlines such as “Trump Suggests That Top General Deserves Execution” or “Former President Accuses General of Treason” were conspicuously absent. The majority of Americans who do not follow Trump on social media are likely unaware that this event even took place.
Trump’s rhetoric not only poses a danger because it can incite violence against public officials but it also reflects the numbing effect such threats have had on society. These threats are more commonly associated with broken, authoritarian regimes, and it is alarming that the United States appears oblivious to the path it is careening down. There is a significant risk of political violence surrounding the 2024 presidential election, and the country seems largely unaware of this impending danger.
Trump often relies on plausible deniability, but it is clear that he knows the impact of his words. If a mob boss were to state, “In times gone by, people like you would have had their legs broken,” it would be recognized as a veiled threat, not a historical observation. Trump holds one of America’s most influential megaphones, which targets millions of well-armed extremists who view the government as illegitimate and believe in conspiracy theories like the “deep state” plot. To experts, this type of incitement is termed “stochastic terrorism.” It involves an influential figure demonizing others, with a high probability that some followers will take those words literally. So, when Trump implies that Milley deserves capital punishment, some followers might interpret it as a call to action. Even though the number of individuals who act on these words may be small, the consequences can be horrific.
Shockingly, one of Trump’s Congressional allies, Republican Paul Gosar of Arizona, has echoed Trump’s call for violence. Gosar wrote in his taxpayer-funded newsletter that “in a better society, quislings like the strange sodomy-promoting General Milley would be hung.” There is no ambiguity in his message—it explicitly endorses killing Milley.
As a political scientist who studies political violence globally, I believe that the absence of high-profile assassinations during the Trump and post-Trump era in the United States can be attributed to mere luck. In 2018, one of Trump’s deranged followers, Cesar Sayoc, sent pipe bombs to public figures and a media organization that were often targeted by Trump on Twitter. Miraculously, no one was killed, not because the risks of Trump’s rhetoric were exaggerated, but because Sayoc was incompetent at building bombs.
As we approach one of the most consequential and divisive elections in American history, all the ingredients for political violence are already present. The blend consists of high-stakes, winner-take-all politics; widespread delusions detached from reality; the suggestion that political opponents are not true Americans; a large pool of armed extremists; and a leader who praises those who have engaged in deadly attacks on the government.
Eventually, luck runs out. Precisely predicting political violence is challenging, but it would come as no surprise if Trump’s violent rhetoric leads to real-world attacks leading up to the 2024 election or in its aftermath if he loses.
For all these reasons, Trump’s recent unhinged rant about Milley should serve as a wake-up call. Unfortunately, in today’s political climate, the incident barely registers. Trump’s scandals have become mundane, and American journalists often find themselves chasing after multiple distractions simultaneously. They are like golden retrievers chasing tennis balls; every time they pursue one ball, a new one appears, prompting another chase.
However, this endless pursuit of distractions needs to cease. The constant bombardment of authoritarian extremism from a man who may soon return to the presidency has skewed our scale and perspective. The American press and the public cannot afford to be lulled into complacency. The profound story of the 2024 election is that a former president, who incited a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol to overturn an election, is now openly fostering political violence and explicitly endorsing authoritarian tactics in anticipation of his return to power. Everything else pales in comparison to this central narrative.
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