This essay marks a turning point—from documenting events to naming the governing logic that connects them. The Domestic Terrorist in the Oval Office argues that Donald Trump’s presidency does not merely tolerate political violence but operates through a system of permissioned fear: enemies are named, accountability is blurred, and violence is excused without ever being ordered.
Terrorism, the essay contends, is not defined by spectacle or costume but by function—by whether fear is used as a tool of governance and force replaces democratic consent. Trump rarely issues commands, but he governs through implication, cultivating an atmosphere in which intimidation feels authorized and consequences feel optional.
What emerges is not chaos but coherence: a political method that mobilizes threat, launders violence as defensiveness, and delivers truth only after its power to correct has expired. The danger is not rhetorical excess, but linguistic failure—our refusal to name what is happening while naming still matters.
~Dunneagin
