Trump’s gone 'off the rails' as violent social media messages reach 'another level': analyst

Donald Trump’s reckless use of social media has gone “off the rails” in recent days, The Washington Post reports in an analysis of the former president’s virtual communications that have prompted concerns about the potential for real violence.

The report cites last week’s arrest of a heavily armed man found a few blocks from former President Barack Obama’s home soon after Trump posted an address he claimed to be Obama’s on his Truth Social account.

Taylor Taranto, 37 of Seattle, who had been sought in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, was found to be in possession of a machete, two guns and 400 rounds of ammunition, according to his arrest report.

He was arrested and charged June 30 with being a fugitive from justice, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

Taranto shared Trump’s Truth Social Post on his Telegram account, where the Jan. 6 defendant wrote “We got these losers surrounded!” adding “See you in hell, Podesta’s and Obama’s!”

The Post’s Aaron Blake notes that Trump’s Truth Social Post was still on the former president’s website Thursday morning, a week after Taranto’s arrest, suggesting that although Trump’s doxing of Obama could initially have been viewed as unintentional, it now appears to have been no accident.

Read more: 'Concerned about danger': Judge worries he might have to free J6 defendant accused of threatening Obama

Blake contends that “leaving it up after all this time must be a choice,” noting that “it’s only the latest evidence of social media posts from the former president that have increasingly gone off the rails.”

“Trump’s posts have never been the staid communications you’d expect from a statesman, but even by his standards, the past week has been remarkable.”

Blake points to Trump’s Truth Social post on Wednesday in which the former president makes baseless claims over reports that cocaine was found in the West Wing, suggesting that the discovery implicates President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden. Or maybe special counsel Jack Smith?

“Does anybody really believe that the COCAINE found in the West Wing of the White House, very close to the Oval Office, is for the use of anyone other than Hunter & Joe Biden,” he posted, adding “Has Deranged Jack Smith, the crazy, Trump hating Special Prosecutor, been seen in the area of the COCAINE?

“He looks like a crackhead to me!”

Trump’s incendiary posts on the Fourth of July – suggesting that Smith be “DEFUNDED” and “put out to rest” in one, and in another sharing an image depicting a flag that says “F--- BIDEN” – typify the former president’s increasingly incendiary language.

Blake writes that “Comparing Trump’s social media posts over time is a difficult and subjective exercise. This is a man who often posts extreme memes and vulgarities, obviously bogus election claims and even violent rhetoric.

“But certainly, posting and keeping up the address of a former president who has allegedly been targeted for violence is on another level.”

Read the full article here.