Trump doesn't care about domestic terrorism — unless Teslas are the victims
With his alleged white supremacist, anti-government views, Casap fits the profile of someone whose name might have been in the national domestic terrorism database — that is, if such a thing still existed. Last month, the Trump administration
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This came at a time when incidents of targeted violence and terrorism were surging, according to a statement from the now-defunct
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The project
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When it comes to domestic terrorism these days, the Trump administration's top priority seems to be protecting Teslas.
In what appeared to be a protest against unelected Elon Musk's dismantling of the federal government, some Tesla
In a post on his social media site, the president even suggested that the perpetrators, who he called 'sick terrorist thugs,' should serve 20 years in the same Gulag-style prison in El Salvador where hundreds of immigrants abducted from this country — the
Last month,
Bondi made this comment days before the terrorism and targeted violence project was discontinued.
Dating back to his first term, Trump established what has been a persistent theme in his political life: a complete disregard for domestic terrorism, the vast majority of which is committed by white far-right extremists.
In 2017, he defended neo-Nazis at the Charlottesville, Va., hate rally where
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When asked during a presidential debate in 2020 whether he condemned the Proud Boys, which the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as a hate group, he instead said, 'Proud Boys —
And in one of Trump's most damning actions since returning to the White House, he issued
At every turn, Trump has given aid and comfort to this democracy's greatest enemies.
Casap's alleged actions would seem to meet the definition of domestic terrorism, but Trump has had nothing to say about it. That includes the fact that the suspect's manifesto is reportedly rife with praise for Adolf Hitler and other antisemitism — which Trump falsely claims to care so much about.
With similar cases, there's been a tendency to classify suspects as lone wolves, but in the darkest corners of the internet, dens of such wolves lie in wait. Now, instead of shining a light in those hidden places and restoring efforts to track extremist groups or individuals potentially plotting violent acts, Trump is standing back, standing by, and saying nothing.
Renée Graham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
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