The Knock at My Door

The United State president hates me.

He hates my friends. My family. He hates my neighbors, my political representatives, my governor, my senators, my mayor.

How do I know this? He told us.

“I hate my opponent,” Trump told the crowd at the memorial for Charlie Kirk, a man who was himself a world-class hater, “and I don’t want the best for them.”

Why isn't there more discussion of this? Trump clearly hates anyone who opposes him, which means he hates more than half of people in the country he is supposed to lead.

It's not as if I'm shocked by this statement exactly. I mean this administration is demonstrating its hatred daily by stripping people of healthcare, food assistance, free speech and due process, among other things. Its agents are kidnapping innocent people off the streets and throwing them in secret prisons and its arresting opposition leaders when they try to speak out.

But has there ever been another president in US history that outright confessed how much he hated his country's own citizens?

Now, you may be thinking that Trump didn't really mean what he said. That he was talking about some other opponents--who they might be we don't know. Or that this was just hyperbole.

But given the opportunity to walk back the president's remarks, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said after the event that Trump was just being "authentically himself."

Huh.

Of all the horrible things Trump has said and done, of which there are many, I feel like this one deserves more attention. Not just because it is so starkly blunt. So nakedly aggressive. So mean. But because the president’s hatred of me and those who, like me, believe our government should be working for the betterment of all of its citizens, gives license to his supporters to hate me as well.

In fact, I might go so far as to suggest that hate has become this administration’s currency, so to speak. Hate the poor. Hate the brown people. Hate the nonbinary people. Hate the sick. Hate the weak. Hate the constitution. Hate the law. Hate anyone who questions whether your policy of hate might be a bit... fascist.

And as we know, hate is a close cousin of violence. Hate is dehumanizing. Once someone is no longer human, or less human than you, it's easier to make the next leap.

And once the state hates you… well, we’ve seen that movie before. When American was a slave-owning nation. In Germany during World War II. In South Africa during apartheid. In Rwanda in the 1980s. And we’re seeing it now in Gaza. And, increasingly, on the streets of this country’s major cities.

The shift from state-sponsored hate to state-sponsored violence can happen in the blink of an eye. We know that. So, again, I have to ask, why is Trump’s full-throated declaration of hatred for Americans who disagree with him not getting more attention?