Make America Terrifying Again
Jimmy Kimmel was just the tip of the iceberg
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” explained Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr on conservative commentator Benny Johnson’s podcast. He may as well have left a bloody horse head in the bed of ABC’s President because within hours Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show was suspended indefinitely. Apparently Trump wasn’t thrilled that Kimmel made fun of him when mourning Charlie Kirk. Jimmy Kimmel wasn’t the first sacrificial lamb (Stephen Colbert was cancelled a couple months back, remember?), and he definitely won’t be the last (they’re targeting The View next and Trump also wants Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon canceled). These corporate media goons are acting like they’ve been made an offer they can’t refuse, but if they keep caving like this they’re gonna end up with nothing but re-runs of The Apprentice to air, and the precious regulatory approvals they’re chasing won’t be worth the paper they’re printed on.
It’s unfortunately no longer surprising or even shocking frankly when the Trump administration goes after its perceived enemies. And if you’re curious how Trump does it, I wrote an essay on game theoretic explanations for Trump’s use of sanctions and payoffs to get private institutions to bend to his will. But with Charlie Kirk’s horrific murder, the administration finally has an excuse to roll out a much more aggressive and systematic attack plan.
The plan, which has been in the works for a while, is a Stephen Miller special, and Miller expounded on it at some length on the Charlie Kirk Show this past Monday, which J.D. Vance hosted. It was a lot of smoke, but that’s because Charlie’s murder ignited a fire, as Erika Kirk—Charlie’s widow—observed in her powerful remarks to the nation on September 12th, just two days after Charlie was killed.
Ms. Kirk, who will be taking over Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk’s political empire, promised Charlie’s legacy would propel a bigger, stronger, and more powerful movement than anyone could imagine. And boy is that promise delivering. Charlie Kirk’s murder is getting more attention online than almost any political moment this decade, and his social media channels have since gained millions of followers. His books, podcasts, and songs are topping the charts. Most importantly, in my view, Turning Point USA—which has over 1,800 college and high school chapters—has received 18,000 requests to start a new chapter since Kirk’s murder. This is not a wave, it’s a tsunami. At this rate, if Charlie Kirk is not named Time’s 2025 Person of the Year, I will be shocked.
While anger is undoubtedly an effective fuel for powering movements, it’s just too soon to tell whether Turning Point USA under Erika Kirk’s leadership can effectively sustain and channel this growth. That said, there are a lot of early indicators that it could be a social movement with plenty of bite to go along with its bark if it can sharpen its focus. I don’t think I’ve ever agreed with Stephen Miller on anything, but he had a particularly astute observation on Monday’s episode of the Charlie Kirk show:
“The thing about anger is that unfocused anger, or blind rage, is not a productive emotion, but focused anger, righteous anger, directed for a just cause, is one of the most important agents of change in human history.”
And Miller has just the cause for the occasion: taking down Trump’s political enemies. Here’s how Miller described his plan for strategic, righteous vengeance for Charlie Kirk’s murder:
“With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people. It will happen. And we will do it in Charlie’s name.”
Miller is referring to American NGOs—non-profit, nongovernmental organizations—that serve and advocate for various communities and causes, as well as the charitable foundations that fund them. Vance specifically name-checked the Ford Foundation and Open Society Foundations, but those of us in the NGO world are aware of many other foundations and hundreds of NGOs they are threatening to investigate, sanction, or even prosecute.
You might be wondering what these groups have to do with Charlie Kirk’s murder, and this is where the logic necessarily gets very loose and slippery. Miller’s basic argument is that these groups engage in hateful rhetoric towards Trump and his allies, which then incites violence like Kirk’s murder, or Trump’s assassination attempts.
Taken at face value, this is not the most insane theory, and 100% we are in a very scary moment when it comes to the prospect for an escalating cycle of political violence in the United States. I am sure Charlie Kirk’s murderer was motivated by hate and extremist ideology. But here’s the thing. For the last two decades, I’ve worked for and volunteered with the kinds of NGOs this administration is targeting, and the only relationship they have with hate groups or extremists is their advocacy against them.
And because I refuse to live in a post-factual world, I have to note that the vast majority of deaths caused by political violence since 2001 have been from far-right extremists, like those who ransacked the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021 in an attempt to violently overturn the results of 2020 presidential election. When Trump encouraged and incited, and later pardoned, the January 6 insurrectionists, he made political violence the official policy of his presidency. This is not an administration that gets to pretend they give a shit about political violence.
When you dig deeper, it’s not too hard to see an even more basic version of Miller’s argument that equates opposition to the administration with criminal behavior. We saw this on display from Trump himself this week when a reporter asked him about Attorney General Bondi’s unconstitutional threat to prosecute “hate speech” by the administration’s critics in the wake of Kirk’s murder. “We will probably go after people like you, because you treat me so unfairly, it’s hate,” Trump threatened the ABC reporter. Whenever you hear verbal gymnastics about fighting terrorism or crime or political violence from Miller, Vance, or other administration officials to justify their unlawful crackdowns, just read this Trump quote to yourself 10 times in a row:
“We will probably go after people like you, because you treat me so unfairly”
He really means “you" by the way. If you’re perceived as being part of Trump’s political opposition and fail to mourn Kirk in the appropriate manner, you’re very much at risk of being fired (dozens already have been). And whether you realize it or not, you’ve almost certainly changed the way you talk about Trump and the broader MAGAverse because instilling fear is the name of the game. Seeing this chilling effect play out before our very eyes is quite…chilling. This is a MAGA “You Too” movement that is attempting to purge society of the voices of the political opposition, whether by government sanction or by cancel culture on steroids. I guess this is what Make America Terrifying Again looks like.