Trump’s crass behavior inspires his supporters

Ever since he launched his campaign for the Republican nomination for president last June, New York City billionaire Donald Trump has shown a willingness to push the boundaries of political decency.

From his verbal attacks on the other GOP candidates in the race, to fueling the flames of hatred against immigrants and Muslims, to hurling threats at demonstrators during his political rallies, Trump has resembled the schoolyard bully surrounded by sycophants.

The tone of his campaign not only is contributing to the coarsening of political discourse, but may be inspiring his supporters to break the law.

Case in point: Earlier this month, former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields contacted law enforcement authorities after receiving multiple death threats from someone who appears to be a Trump supporter.

In an audio recording, the individual tells Fields that she had 36 hours to withdraw her allegations against Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, or she would be killed.

Fields had filed a complaint alleging that Lewandowski had man-handled her, resulting in bruises to her arm. Police in Jupiter, Fla., investigated and subsequently arrested the campaign manager. He has been charged with simple battery.

Here’s part of the exchange between the anonymous caller and Fields:

“If I find you Michelle, I’m going to kill you,” the man says.

“OK?” Fields replies.

“I know where you live,” he says. “You have got 36 hours to drop the charges. I’m dead serious.”

Fields asks, “Or what? What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to slit your throat,” he responds.

“OK, you have serious issues,” the reporter says. “Anything else? Are you just going to keep calling me and saying this?”

There were also threats against Fields over Instagram, including this: “I’m going to stab this knife in your heart, just wait. I know where you live.”

Another was even more threatening: “You are dead, b----. I have someone watching your every move. See you at the morgue.”

Climate of hatred

While there is nothing to suggest that Trump had anything to do with the threats, he does bear responsibility for creating a climate of hatred against his perceived enemies.

The front-runner for the GOP nomination verbally attacks reporters and has even suggested that the press needs to be reined in.

Indeed, after Trump publicly accused journalist Fields of making up the story of Lewandowski grabbing her to prevent her from asking the candidate a question, her employer, Breitbart, failed to come to her defense.

As a result of not receiving the level of support she believed was warranted, Fields resigned from the news organization. The website’s editor-at-large, Ben Shapiro, also quit.

To say that Fields was victimized by the Trump campaign, by Breitbart and by the caller who threatened to kill her would be an understatement.

It does not surprise us, however, that Trump, whose success in the primaries and caucuses speaks to the lowest common denominator of politics, has largely ignored what has been going on – other than to stoutly defend his campaign manager, Lewandowski.

Given everything Trump has said and done on the campaign trail, it was ironic that one of his close advisers used the words “Gestapo tactics” to describe the actions of Ted Cruz’s campaign with regard to delegates.

Paul Manafort, who is responsible for managing the Trump campaign at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the campaign of Texas Sen. Cruz is using “Gestapo tactics – the scorched-earth tactics” to win over delegates to the convention.

It’s unfathomable that Manafort would liken what’s taking place to Adolf Hitler’s fascist policies in Germany that resulted in the deaths of millions, especially Jews who were the targets of ethnic cleansing.

In advocating the deportation of 11 million illegal immigrants, many from Mexico, banning the entry of Muslims into the United States, and playing into the fears of white middle-class, blue-collar workers, Trump’s policies and his campaign rhetoric serve as a reminder of the dark days of Hitler’s Germany.