MaddowBlog-'Hating' Democrats apparently wasn't enough: Trump says political foes are 'evil,' too
With increasing frequency, the president has begun referring to journalists and political opponents as "evil." Such talk is unusual, radical and dangerous.
A lot of folks might not fully appreciate just how frequently Trump accuses Democrats and other Americans he doesnât like of being, in his words, "evil people," whom he considers worthy of his "hatred" tinyurl.com/w82st8u2
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-09-11T15:47:30.841Z
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/hating-democrats-apparently-wasnt-enough-trump-says-political-foes-are-rcna219622
This week, at a White House Faith Office luncheon, the president went even further condemning Democrats as evil.
Trump on Democrats during his speech to a faith group: "They're evil people in many ways."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-07-14T17:40:20.241Z
......As the New York Times noted in an analysis published this week, evil is a word getting a lot of airtime in the second Trump term.
It is not enough anymore to dislike a journalistic inquiry or disagree with an opposing philosophy. Anyone viewed as critical of the president or insufficiently deferential is wicked. The Trump administrations efforts to achieve its policy goals are not just an exercise in governance but a holy mission against forces of darkness.
Its an important detail. Intense partisan fights are not new to the American tradition, but its not normal for a White House to explicitly go to the public with a message rooted in the idea that its political opponents represent forces of unholy malevolence......
Its against this backdrop that the incumbent president, using language foreign to American ears, wants the public to believe that journalists and his partisan opponents are not only worthy of hatred, but should also be seen as evil.
Such rhetoric is dangerous, and it fuels the kind of radicalism that has become the new normal at the White House.