A look at America shows: It was not Donald Trump who destroyed the USA, but hatred of him that almost destroyed Donald Trump.
The world's oldest democracy will survive the 22nd assassination attempt on a president just as naturally as it would cope with another term in office for the stubborn but Democratic Republican.
The ZDF studio in Washington takes a different view: its director Elmar Theveßen reports on the country that, according to him, should be destroyed. “The Destruction of America: How Donald Trump is changing his country and the world forever” is the title of Theveßen's book published in 2020.
Four years later, America remains unchanged and Thevessen's resentment is also unchanged. In a recent podcast with Markus Lanz and Richard David Precht, the ZDF broadcaster put Trump on a par with Mussolini and Hitler: “I personally see him as a fascist who, as an authoritarian ruler, wants to destroy American democracy with a wrecking ball,” he said - completely unimpressed by the fact that this has not happened in the four years of Trump.
Before Trump's election in 2016, it was said that Trump was a racist and a “white supremacist”. After his time in office, he still enjoys a lot of support among black Americans.
What the left says about Trump often has nothing whatsoever to do with his actual policies. For them, Trump is a projection screen for everything bad: fascism, racism, narcissism. In short: evil.
Trump is a “malicious narcissist”, said the ZDF man in the aforementioned Lanz podcast. In 2020, he was already a “malignant narcissist with an exaggerated striving for recognition, the exaltation of his own person out of a great lust for power and a deep sense of insecurity, with shameless lies as part of an alternative perception of reality”, according to Theveßen in his book. The fact that he cultivates his very own alternative perception of reality could be seen in the latest ZDF program.
Very important after attempted assassinations: emphasizing that the person who was almost murdered had only “presented” himself as a victim in the past.
It does not occur to Theweßen that the years of demonization of Trump could lead to someone intending to prevent the supposed threat of fascism with an imaginary tyrannicide, i.e. that the incitement of the left could have “shot along”, as is so often said in reverse cases.
Instead, the ZDF journalist fears retaliation from Trump supporters because Trump spoke of “revenge” a month ago. Theweßen is now retrospectively arranging this interview appearance in such a way that the victim side ultimately appears to be the perpetrator side.
What was it about? Trump had said that if he won the election, he would take action against the Democrats who, in his opinion, had unjustifiably subjected him to a flood of lawsuits.
There is nothing to suggest that Trump supporters will take this announcement out of context - as Theveßen did - and interpret it as an invitation to avenge the attempted assassination.
Without solid evidence, there is speculation about a “spiral of violence”, while Trump, on the contrary, had called for national unity.
The obsessive hatred of Trump ensures that the ZDF expert cannot perceive the ex-president as a victim. Reality must be reinterpreted in such a way that the right-wing side once again represents evil.
This has nothing to do with political analysis.
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