With the approach of this year's midterm elections in the United States, domestic terrorism is starting to dominate the political landscape. First, barely two weeks before Election Day, an angry supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump began sending 14 bombs to prominent Democrats and others whom Trump has frequently attacked. (None of the bombs exploded.) Then things became much worse, with the murder, on a Saturday, of 11 Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Today, a polarized and anxious American public finds itself with a president totally unsuited to, and not very interested in, comforting the nation, much less trying to lead it away from the hate and deadly partisanship that he has stoked.
Had the 14 crude bombs, which the FBI called "potentially destructive devices," worked as intended, the bomb maker could have killed or gravely injured a who's who of Trump adversaries. The list included two former presidents (Bill Clinton and Barack Obama), Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Eric Holder; a former CIA director; a former director of National Intelligence; two likely Democratic presidential candidates in 2020; a black congresswoman whom Trump frequently describes as "low IQ" (a common racist charge); two prominent Jewish billionaire philanthropists, one of whom, George Soros, is a frequent target of Trump and the subject of various right-wing conspiracy fantasies; and the actor Robert De Niro (who began his speech at this year's Tony Awards ceremony by declaring, "F—k Trump").
Though Trump had frequently singled out many of the bomber's targets at his rallies — still attacking Hillary Clinton, his election opponent in 2016, for example, and then smiling as his audience chanted "Lock her up" — Trump's defenders tried to throw the spotlight elsewhere. The mail bombs, they claimed, were a "false flag" operation by the left, with some of the Democrats even sending the bombs to themselves in order to blame Trump.