It is a sentence that echoes like a thunderclap in a democracy already crumbling under the weight of its own erosion: “I will take a look at it.” That’s how Donald Trump responded Wednesday when asked whether he would pardon the men who, in 2020, plotted to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer – a terrorist act, planned in the heart of America. And the man who is once again president is seriously considering granting clemency. For terrorists. For Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr.
The incident was no fantasy, no paranoia from left-leaning media. It was reality. Armed men, driven by far-right contempt for the state and ideological degeneration, planned a violent abduction – with the goal of toppling a democratically elected official. They spoke of blowing up bridges, shooting police officers, and “executing” Whitmer. Fox and Croft Jr. were convicted in 2022. And now Donald Trump says it looked “like somewhat of a railroad job” – a show trial?
This rhetoric is no smokescreen. It is an ideological breach. Because what Trump is doing here is more than reverting to his usual attacks on the FBI and the justice system. It is a direct endorsement of extremism – the normalization of political violence.
From Drunken Louts to the “Misunderstood”
“They were drinking and saying stupid things.” That’s how Trump sums up months of preparation for a subversive plot. He reduces a terrorist conspiracy to the level of drunken banter among misguided men. Anyone who talks like this isn’t merely contradicting a court’s judgment – he’s undermining the democratic consensus.
Because these weren’t just “stupid things.” This was a paramilitary cell – armed, organized, aligned with the Boogaloo movement, and inspired by Trump’s own incendiary rhetoric. Whitmer wasn’t randomly targeted – she was enemy number one for those far-right circles that Trump had been feeding and validating for years. Through his tweets, his speeches, his silence.
The men wanted to kidnap Whitmer and put her “on trial” – a mock tribunal for a sitting U.S. governor. If that isn’t fascist thinking in its purest form, what is?
A President on the Side of the Perpetrators
Trump siding with these men is no accident. It is a strategy. He repeats a pattern that has defined his political career: anyone loyal to the Trumpist cause – no matter how radical, violent, or unconstitutional – deserves understanding, sympathy, maybe even a get-out-of-jail-free card.
That this free pass could now apply to convicted domestic terrorists marks a new low. It joins a list of downplayed atrocities: Charlottesville, the Proud Boys, the storming of the Capitol. Somehow, it’s always someone else’s fault – never the perpetrators themselves. Never the radicals. And if they are at fault, well, they were “just drinking.”
Democracy as a Stage Prop
Trump’s words are no slip. They are further proof that he doesn’t view democracy as a system, but as a stage. If you serve him, you are protected. If you criticize him, you are smeared. And if you prepare to use violence against political opponents – you might win his favor.
Gretchen Whitmer survived. But the message Trump is sending is deadly. It says: the state will no longer protect you if you’re a Democrat. And it will honor you if you rise up against that state – so long as you kneel to the right man.
Those who downplay this have not understood the threat. And those who defend it are complicit.
Because a republic in which kidnappers are recast as victims and presidents become patrons of violence is no republic at all. It is an abyss. And Donald Trump is prying it open once again.
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