THREAD: Here’s the deeper story of how Donald Trump unleashed a domestic terrorist movement—and what national security experts say must be done to defeat it motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
2/ This story goes to the heart of Trump’s impeachment trial—he conducted a campaign of stochastic terrorism. It's the strategic incitement of violence using veiled language, a method historically known to counterterrorism experts from ISIS, al-Qaeda and anti-abortion extremists 
3/ Remarkably, veteran national security experts came to see Trump literally as a terrorist leader. As @JulietteKayyem put it, “He tells them where to go. He tells them what to do. He tells them why they’re angry.” motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
4/ Evidence of Trump’s deliberate campaign of incitement was building long before his grim rally the morning of January 6—not only with his speeches and tweets, but also with deranged videos he promoted on social media and even a wifi password his campaign used
5/ Alarm bells were blaring by late December when the Proud Boys—some of whom stormed the Capitol—vowed to put “boots on the ground” and “turn out in record numbers.” Trump, one Proud Boy leader said, had given them “the green light” motherjones.com/politics/2021/… (photos: Nate Gowdy)
6/ “Historically, within right-wing extremist movements, leadership has produced rhetoric to spin up their members, increase radicalization and recruitment, and then stand back and let small cells or lone offenders follow through with violent action” washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
7/ It’s crucial to recognize that the Trump-fueled insurrection at the US Capitol was not an ending but a beginning. That’s been the consensus among the half dozen national security experts I’ve spoken with, as well as others quoted in the Washington Post and elsewhere
8/ What to do about this rising domestic terrorism threat? In 2017, Trump moved to gut an anti-extremism program at DHS led by counterterrorism expert George Selim—who says the resources now needed could be tenfold greater. An "all of government" approach. motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
9/ So much ink was spilled during the Trump presidency trying to understand his voters' grievances, but as @juliettekayyem points out, violent far-right extremism also requires a starkly different solution—starting with accountability for the Terrorist in Chief himself
10/ The world also learned something important after the siege of Congress in terms of combatting the enormous ripple effects of Trump's incitement: #deplatforming works motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
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