Trump and the Trifecta of Violence

• In Event: Crime, Law, Justice and the Trump Administration 1: Punishment, Impunity, and Corruption

Abstract

The Trifecta of Violence is “a theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between violent ideology/rhetoric, violent laws/policies, and violent actions perpetrated by individuals and the state,” introduced by Lenning, Brightman, and Buist in 2021. This presentation will explore President Trump’s violent rhetoric around citizens who are not white, not male, not heterosexual, and not cisgender (e.g., immigrants, women, racial minorities, LGBTQ people) and the devastating and violent policies he has advanced to further marginalize and erase those populations. In light of the ideological tone set by the Trump administration, and the flurry of legal changes that have occurred in the wake of Trump’s second term in office, we will consider how acts of interpersonal violence and abuse, committed by state actors and civilians, are and have been the inevitable result of his election into office.

Authors

• Sara Brightman, Fayetteville State University

• Emily Lenning, Fayetteville State University