1. I think we need to start discussing this stuff as stochastic terrorism: the stirring up of animosity to increase the statistical likelihood of violence. In other words: "will no one give me retribution against this turbulent congressman?"
2. A lot of the discussion of Trump's authoritarianism has the model of 20th century dictatorships: armed agents of the state rounding up people. And that's happened to immigrants under Trump. But there's also the more modern innovation of stochastic terrorism.
3. The stochastic terrorism model works particularly well if you're a reality show president governing a country where there are many heavily armed individuals. You can stir up hatred of your foes and know that this is likely to increase the odds they will get hurt.
4. The beauty of stochastic terrorism is that you have plausible deniability. "Sure, I said somebody should do something about Schiff but I didn't order him beaten up." And it has effect.
5. Also, stochastic terrorism works because there is a media culture invested in translating Trump's threatening language into something normal. @Lollardfish illustrates how it is done:
