On Friday, a Trump-and-confederate-flag waving "Trump Train" of Texas pickup trucks intercepted the Biden-Harris campaign bus as it traveled on Interstate 35, headed to Austin, Texas, for a planned rally. The pro-Trump drivers used their vehicles to surround and slow the bus, and appeared to cause at least one intentional accident when one hit the vehicle of a Biden-Harris staffer closely following the bus.
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Neither Biden nor Harris were on the bus at the time, but the situation quickly devolved to the point where police were called to escort it to its next destination. The actions of the gun-waving pro-Trump drivers both on the interstate and in Austin were considered dangerous enough to cancel two subsequent Democratic rallies. For those familiar with the anti-civil rights thuggery of past eras, especially in the South, the "Trump Train" was easily recognizable for what it was: an attempt to intimidate the opposition into fleeing, either via the threat of mob violence or violence itself.
The orange fascist himself was ecstatic at the display, both on Twitter and, now, in his rallies.
It turns out Trump's giddy thrill at causing car accidents for Dear Leader was not the aspirational dictator's only link to the intimidation. Several days prior to the Texas encounter, Donald Trump Jr. explicitly called out to those drivers in an attempt to make the incident happen.
In another of his possibly cocaine-tinged videos promoting his father, Trump Jr. made the request:
"It’d be great if you guys would all get together, head down to McAllen and give Kamala Harris a nice Trump Train welcome. Get out there, have some fun, enjoy it."
It is unusual, to say the least, for an American president or his offspring to promote such behaviors. The tinpot Trump clan has proven willing and eager to praise both intimidation and violence on behalf of Leader Dearest, however, and gun-waving pickup-truck-based terrorism is (ahem) certainly on brand for the dumbest of violent American movements.
It serves as warning as well. The Trump "movement," if it can be called that, is an authoritarian-premised cult of personality more beholden to its white nationalist agenda than to democracy itself. There may be similar attempts to "surround" polling sites on Election Day. If Trump loses, it is almost assured that some within his base will use it to justify violence and terrorism.
We are well past the point where deluded, conspiracy-obsessed Fox News-watching white nationalists can be ignored without consequence; our best hope is that the American people speak out so forcefully with their votes as to politically bury its Republican enablers—permanently.
