Go to bed a skeptic of the extremist politics of former President Donald Trump, and one day you just might wake up to find yourself considered “an enemy from within.”
Sounds dystopian, even like something Mussolini would have said, but it’s merely the latest dark and noxious rhetoric Trump is using as he stokes paranoias and sows conspiracy on the way to Election Day.
In an interview with Fox News, he said, “I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within, not even the people that have come in and destroying our country, by the way, totally destroying our country. The towns, the villages, they’re being inundated. But I don’t think they’re the problem in terms of Election Day. I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re the — and it should be very easily handled by — if necessary, by National Guard or, if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”
Labeling anyone who disagrees with your politics a godless socialist or communist and a danger to America isn’t new. Historically speaking, the “enemy from within” meme could have its own T-shirt. The difference is the scale of the liar and the size of his mass media bullhorn.
The Know-Nothings of the mid-1800s were certain the Irish, other immigrants, and Catholics generally were going to ruin their America. As Lorraine Boissoneault writes in Smithsonian Magazine, “Party members supported deportation of foreign beggars and criminals; a 21-year naturalization period for immigrants; mandatory Bible reading in schools; and the elimination of all Catholics from public office.” But they had to get the word out with pamphlets, posters, a limited press and the public square.
All pro-fascist Father Charles Edward Coughlin had a radio show and Sunday pulpit. He found the inside enemy in the Jews and assured his millions of listeners democracy was doomed and fascism was the way forward. Communist snipe hunter Joe McCarthy got by with a seat in the U.S. Senate and a gaggle of reporters taking notes about his list of card-carrying commies inside the U.S. Department of State.
Trump receives all the help he needs in amplifying his conspiracies and hate speech from Fox News and America’s X man, Elon Musk. He’s not only a top Trump fanboy, but has been busy amplifying harmful disinformation in the aftermath of deadly hurricanes.
Some of Trump’s darkest scenarios are aimed at the federal government, which Trump and his allies are bent on destabilizing or dismantling altogether. It’s hard to name an agency that he hasn’t vilified during his endless grievance campaign. It’s no coincidence many ideas he’s claimed as his own amount to Project 2025 talking points.
Nevadans know plenty about this kind of reactionary rhetoric. There was a time the disparaging of other races, shouting sepia-toned conspiracy theories and declaring wide-open white supremacy were common in the state’s political class. Many of the best-known practitioners were Democrats of a previous generation, U.S. Sens. Francis Newlands and Pat McCarran, and Rep. Walter Baring among the most noted. Whether they were championing racial restrictions, searching the sagebrush for commies or denouncing civil rights as anti-state’s rights, those famous fellows were hard to top.
Add to that the reactionary politics of the followers of the cowboy-themed Sagebrush Rebellion, recalcitrant ranchers Wayne Hage, Dick Carver and Cliven Bundy among them, and “the enemy from within” American society talk with its nativist themes is well worn in the Silver State.
But they all look like political pikers next to Trump, who will go on claiming pet-eating immigrants and socialists are taking over the nation. Why? Because a substantial percentage of the public will be inclined to believe him.
We should believe retired Gen. Mark Milley when he tells writer Bob Woodward in his book War that, “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump. Now I realize he’s a total fascist.”
His base is OK with him encouraging a deadly insurrection and attempting to stop the peaceful transfer of power and calling it “a day of love.” His diehards cheer when he declares those who oppose him are criminals and the skeptical, fact-checking press is the “enemy of the state.”
Trump has no sense of decency, but they don’t care. He speaks their language, and it sounds a lot like their America.
John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in New Lines, Time, Readers Digest, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Reuters and Desert Companion, among others.
