45 Words:
“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever! projects.propublica.org/...
Donald J. Trump tweet January 6, 2021 at approximately 6 pm (deleted just 1 hour later)
I am not a writer or someone who uses language as a craft. I did, however, have several excellent English teachers during my public school education who opened my eyes to those who did. Hidden meanings, tone, purpose, and other things present in writings can pass unnoticed in our reading while still having powerful influence in shaping our thoughts and feelings. As a young student I was slow to understand the significance of this, but grew to recognize and appreciate the impacts in word-crafting that are not obvious to us.
The 45 words tweeted on June 6th by Trump deserve attention (“&” counts as a word). This 45 words are Trump’s coda to a day of infamy. In my reading they are also revealing of far more than most people take away from reading or hearing them. I don’t believe that these words were actually written by Trump, the messaging is more complex than his 4th grade speaking style, but I am convinced he believed they were.
In short, the meanings of these 45 words is practically Trump’s confession. Trump justifies the mob’s actions as inevitable, a given, because of his mob/supporter’s belief in Trump’s and the Republican Party’s Big Lie.
To explain, I offer some diagraming my 10th grade English teacher might have used to help me understand their true messages:
A. These are the things and events / B. that happen when / C. a sacred landslide election victory / D. is so unceremoniously & viciously / E. stripped away from great patriots / F. who have been badly & unfairly treated / G. for so long. / H. Go home / with love & in peace. / I. Remember this day forever!
A.
These – plural, familiar, speaking to an audience with shared awareness of the subject
Are – fact, to be believed
The things – multiple objects: emotions, experiences
And events – actions: occurrences
Trump is speaking to an audience and acknowledging their shared experience of the events of the days, specific things and events which shape their sphere of common knowledge and emotions. Trump is speaking in the first person, placing himself in their shared experience; they have been in this together.
B.
That – predictive, certainty
Happen – causal, result
When – conditional, predicate
Trump is using a bridge to the cause for what has happened, framing it linearly: when this- then that, an excuse.
C.
A sacred – adjective: religious, sacrosanct, holy
Landslide election victory – the holy object of sacred being referenced by “when”
Trump uses a religious identifier, sacred, for the fictional “landslide election victory”. This is a glorification of his big lie in a religious framing. Knowing that Trump is in no way a believer, his appeal to an implied shared spiritual belief reflects his manipulative understanding of his supporters. A pattern with Trump.
D. is so unceremoniously & viciously /
Is – present tense, existing
So – the bridge to conditional “when” above
Unceremoniously – adjective: absent courtesy, abrupt
And – in combination with
Viciously – adverb: cruel or violent action
Here Trump characterizes the treatment of the holy object, their landslide election victory, to again reinforce his lie of a landslide victory. “Unceremoniously” is an implied disrespect and contempt of his mob’s deserved respect of the big lie by the others. “Viciously” is used to imply a violent action, by these others, against their person and beliefs.
E. stripped away from great patriots /
Stripped – violent act of removal, sexual connotations
Away – taken
Trump’s repetitive use of violent verbiage is intended to reinforce to his supporters that it is they who are under attack. The usage of stripped carries an implied emasculation as well feminine victimization, and is a gender neutral means of challenging their man/womanhood.
From great patriots.
Trump connects the violent actions of others as being directed against who his mob believe themselves to be: “great patriots”. In doing so he communicates that these perceived enemies of Trump’s mob/supporters are the opposite: haters of great patriots like them. This is a reinforcement of another of Trump’s big lies: that true patriots must also support Trump. Trump is reinforcing his supporters in their belief that it is they who reflect the true Constitution, which is integral to his incitement of his invited mob.
F. who have been badly & unfairly treated /
Trump includes an appeal to a shared grievance among his mob/supporters: that the great patriots in this country are not given respect and are in fact punished by these others for their patriotism. This exploits his mob’s grievances that these “others” have used their power against them specifically because it is they who are the “real Americans” (nod to Sarah Palin). This is boilerplate white supremacy, Nazi stuff, and reveals another characteristic Trump expects of his mob/supporters.
G. for so long /
Trump is reinforcing and justifying his mob’s grievances which these “true patriots” have been subjected to.
In A. – G. Trump is absolving his mob for their actions on June 6th. Trump is telling them that the events and actions of that day were justified; that their actions were the inevitable response of great patriots to a stolen election. In doing so, Trump reinforces the big lies of having won a landslide victory, that unnamed forces violently stripped Trump and his supporters of their rightful victory, and that those actions are a continuation of the many mistreatments these “great patriots” have endured for many years. In these words, Trump is speaking only to this audience: the insurgents, the mob. Trump does not identify the forces responsible for any of this aggrievement; he does not need to as his audience, the mob, already knows in each of their minds who is to blame. His failure to acknowledge any awareness or feelings for anyone other than the mob that day is a deliberate and conscious decision: those people did not matter, to Trump or the mob.
Trump then concludes his coda with an absolution of his mob/supporters:
H. Go home with love & in peace. /
Trump is issuing them an order, instructing his followers that it is time to go. Their work is done. For now. No regrets, no shame
I. Remember this day forever!
This is Trump’s send-off: an implied greatness for their actions, for their patriotism, and for their devotion to Trump. The mob’s violence was rewarded by the only person that mattered to them: Trump.
This is Trump’s public capsulation of the things and events of June 6th, only 45 words. A message which straddles that day, June 6th, from the 4 to 5 years of Trump and right-wing messaging before, and for many years to come.
“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!
