Trump Is Not Sui Generis

I asked Stephen Miller, one of Donald Trump's top advisors, what is the evidence for saying that Caracas and Venezuela are safer than the United States. He began by answering that it is the government's numbers. I asked him if he trusted Maduro's numbers. And this was his… pic.twitter.com/qkXTNiGmt0

— José María Del Pino (@josemdelpino) September 11, 2024

If you're like me, you are inclined to skip the video and look for a written summary.  Trust me on this: watch the video.  Trump is not unique.  The people he relies on are as brittle and ignorant and challenged as he is.

Miller even resorts to the same "evidence" as Trump: what he says he saw on TeeVee.  Except I suspect by "TeeVee" he means YouTube, where you can find whatever bullshit somebody wants to put on, and which they can label "Aurora, CO" and "Venezuelan gangs."  Do Venezuelans look distinctly different from people in other countries?

Police in Aurora say no Venezuela gang is running an apartment in Colorado. 

Nor does Miller have evidence Venezuela gangs exist in America. 

But he gets upset very quickly when his words are not accepted as gospel, and he tries to fall back on horror stories which imply the only violence in America is committed against children, and only by non-Americans.

But the funny part is, this journalist is not worried about losing access.  He wants facts.  Miller doesn't have any.  Miller has stories that feed his xenophobia, because only "immigrants" are threatening the lives of our children.  Like Trump, when Miller doesn't find an audience who simply listens, or stops asking questions, he just walks away in frustration.  He lives to spew his venom and have it drunk like wine.

You see in Miller what you see in Trump.  Neither of them are fit for civilized society, much less to sit at the pinnacle of power of that society.