To the Editor:
I was relieved and happythat Waco/Trump did not devolve into a violent event. In fact, print reporters who were there said that there was a lot of yawning, and people began to hit the exits a half-hour into the rally. The only brief cable news reporting of the event I saw was not on Fox, but CNN, and the actual speech wasn’t featured.
There was no indictment by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg last week as Trump had predicted, but hecontinued to raise the spectre of violence if he becomes the first former president in US history to face criminal charges. On Friday, Trump warned of “potential death and destruction”if he’s indicted, calling Bragg “an animal,”and his office “human scum.” Even his latest lawyer, bombastic Joseph Tacopina, admitted that Trump’s language was threatening and legally unwise.
On his social media website, Trump retweeted a picture of himself aiming a baseball bat at Bragg’s head which hislawyer claimed Trump hadn’t seen or authorized, butwas a mistake made by his staff (who don’t take a bathroom break without his permission) and was then removed from his site.
From his inauguration, he has painted a dark picture of America as “carnage.”Trump repeated his remarks that the biggest threats to America are not brutal dictators like Putin and Xi, who are “brilliant” or “great,” but are Americans who do not agree with him.
Trump is doing what he has always done. He is playing the wounded warrior/hero, triumphant in his wealth, generous only in his love and approval of his base (though disdainful in private), who makes a virtue of flouting the law, paradinghis perpetual victimhood and “persecution,” vengefulness, resentment,and fear of failure.Fantastically, MAGA buys it.
He has so far avoided indictment for a variety of alleged actions,but in a country of laws, rather than of political mythology, he must at some point be made accountable and be held to guilt or innocence, just like any other citizen.I don’t know all the details of the tawdry hush money case in Manhattan, and I wish the more democracy-threatening investigations (January 6, and the National Archives documents cases) were at the bar.
I can hope that violence will be avoided even though the de facto head of the MAGA Republican Partyconstantly signals the need for it to reestablish his power.

Kelly Scoles
Fillmore, Ca.