Trump Delivers Fascist Speech in Suffolk County

This afternoon, Donald Trump traveled to Long Island to give a speech at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood, before an audience of Suffolk County police officers.

It was a belligerently white supremacist and nakedly fascist speech, during which Trump claimed "that the 'Second Amendment would be gone' if it weren't for him" and promised (or, more accurately, threatened): "We're going to secure our border against illegal entry and we will build the wall, that I can tell you."

But perhaps the most alarming part of his remarks was this:

Trump on handling suspected criminals: "Don't be too nice" to "thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon" https://t.co/rZyICcW4Yr

— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 28, 2017

[Trump stands at a podium in front of an audience of uniformed police officers] And when you see these towns, and when you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon — you just see 'em thrown in, rough! — I said, "Please don't be too nice." [laughter] Like when you guys put somebody in the car, and you're protecting their head, you know? The way you put the hand over... [mimics an officer putting a hand over a suspect's head as they're loaded into a police car, as the audience laughs] Like, don't hit their head and they've just killed somebody? Don't hit their head! I said, "You could take the hand away, okay?" [cheers and applause; Trump turns to face the officers and lifts his arms to bask in their approbation]

Rough, he says. That is a dog whistle.

It sounds like the President of the United States just advocated the sort of "rough ride" that killed Freddie Gray. Absolutely sickening. https://t.co/S7H5EwapZ8

— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) July 28, 2017

And it is a dog whistle heard by a police force whose former chief "is serving a federal prison sentence for beating a prisoner and orchestrating a cover-up."

A dog whistle in a community that is majority non-white:

Roughly 70% of the population of Brentwood, NY is Hispanic. Trump's speech was intended as a threat to non-white populace.

— eastsidekate (@eastsidekate) July 28, 2017

This is happening. The United States president is talking about building walls and empowering police violence, with a wall of police behind him in a Hispanic community. This is real. And we must resist it, and its attendant bigotry and dangerous othering, with everything we've got.