There is something even more terrifying than the way Donald Trump gives permission to political violence with his toxic rhetoric. It’s that we Americans have become accustomed to its poison.

The nation collectively shrugs. It’s just Trump being Trump. And I’m not just talking about his millions of supporters, who laugh, clap and ignore

,

or, in too many cases, acting on his provocations, or threatening to do so. How can this man be the overwhelming favorite of one of our political parties to become president again?

Trump will not change, but we voters and the media must, and before the 2024 elections. We must stop normalizing the unpleasant; our detachment is dangerous. If Trump could ever credibly deny that he did not incite violence with his bilge, he has lost

it’s that excuse

on January 6, 2021. Numerous other incidents testify to the perverse power of his words. He knows what he’s doing.

Take that

l

like a few weeks. Several news stories about a Republican senator,

a 20-year-old former Trump aide,

a four-star general

a former Trump aide in his 20s

and a political spouse came and went too quickly, all tied by a common thread: the real threat Trump poses through his relentless attacks on his fellow Americans.

You may have forgotten these news clips, if you heard of them at all. They would have been major, multi-day news stories if the offender had been President Biden instead of Trump, for example. (Heck, a report that old Biden supposedly wears tennis shoes to protect himself from pratfalls got more attention.) That these stories weren’t bigger news is a testament to our lamentable tolerance for Trump’s exhortations.

In mid-September, the Atlantic reported that Senator Mitt Romney of Utah is spending $5,000 a day on keeping himself and his family safe, given the threats he receives as a Trump critic and frequent target. Romney complained that other Republican senators have been mostly silent about Trump, even though they despise him as much as Romney, and did not vote to convict him after his post-January. 6 impeachment. But, Romney admitted, the others cannot afford protection.

As he mused, it only takes one truly crazy person.

Think about that: US senators won’t convict the despicable Trump because he’s afraid for his life. Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon famously briefed politicians, but their enemies lists were not hit lists.

Then there was the news that Trump, outraged by a profile of General Mark A. Milley detailing Milley’s efforts as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to block then-President Trump’s crazy and unconstitutional demands, suggested that the general was guilty of treason and deserved execution (DEATH!). Trump repeated the accusation of treason on Friday during a visit to California.

That outrage predictably heightened concerns about retaliation by Trump’s MAGA militants. Milley

has

said he has adequate security and

is something

taking appropriate measures to ensure my safety and the safety of my family. Imagine a four-star combat veteran forced to take protective measures because of the words of the former (and future?) commander-in-chief.

A Fox News analyst excused Trump’s words: In fairness, the former president was responding to the backlash over Milley’s unflattering comments about Trump. The analyst also pointed out that Trump had not directly called for Milley’s execution as some reports claimed. That’s a bit like saying that Trump’s tweet in the weeks leading up to January 6, Be There, will be wild! I didn’t mention a Capitol disaster.

Then there’s the recent reporting on Cassidy Hutchinson, Trump’s former White House aide who showed more courage than Republican senators last year with her scathing testimony before the House committee on January 6. Now she has written a book. What’s new, what stands out, is her account of the price she paid for provoking Trump, who hit back (he, down) and thus triggered his supporters: Hutchinson, who was 26 years younger than Trump’s daughters, was told by security officials that she was not safe in Washington. She went into hiding in Atlanta.

He is dangerous to the country, Hutchinson warns. Believe her.

California Republicans clearly don’t. On Friday, Trump headlined their fall convention, mocking last fall’s grim hammer attack on Paul Pelosi by a far-right conspirator seeking to kidnap former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. How is her husband doing anyway? Everybody knows? Trump teased. The wall around their San Francisco home wasn’t doing so well, he added with a grin. His audience laughed, cheered and applauded. They should be ashamed.

That same day, special counsel Jack Smith, spurred by Trump’s recent inflammatory words, including against potential trial witnesses, filed an updated request for a silence order with the judge hearing the federal case alleging that Trump plotted to to overturn his 2020 election loss. Judge Tanya Chutkan, herself the recipient of Trump’s invective and the MAGA death threats that invariably follow, has scheduled a hearing for October 1. 16.

As difficult as it would be to enforce a silence order against a suspect-cum-presidential candidate, there should be no doubt that Trump must be suppressed for the sake of the judge, jury, prosecutors and witnesses. Think about that again: A former and possibly future president is so reckless in inciting political violence that he deserves a court order to keep his mouth shut.

Trump is injecting poison into the nation’s bloodstream as fast as his thumbs can hit and his mouth can move. Scholars have a term for it: stochastic terrorism, the use of mass media to provoke random acts of ideologically motivated violence.

Yet we have become virtually immune to this poison. As Biden noted last week in Arizona, when speaking about the threat to democracy from political violence, the silence is deafening. He meant from the Republicans, but his admonition applies to each of us.

@jackiekcalmes