Why Trump's rhetoric about 'paid agitators' sounds so familiar
Donald Trump dismissed Columbia University protesters as “paid agitators.” If the Republican's rhetoric sounded familiar, it wasn't your imagination.
Link to tweet
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trumps-rhetoric-paid-agitators-sounds-familiar-rcna150202
Former President Trump made unfounded claims Tuesday that pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University contained “paid agitators” as nationwide college campus protests escalate. ... Trump claimed in a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity during the police operation that many of the protesters did not believe in what they were protesting for.
“I really think you have a lot of paid agitators, professional agitators in here too, and I see it all over,” the former president said, claiming activism experience he does not have. “You know, when you see signs and they’re all identical. That means they’re being paid by a source.”.....
After the GOP candidate prevailed on Election Day 2016, there was related anti-Trump activism. Those involved, he said in November 2016, were “paid protesters.”
Months later, after the Republican’s inauguration, the activism continued. Trump assured the public once more that these Americans deserved to be ignored — because he assumed they were “paid protesters.”
The following year, Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination inspired another round of progressive activism. The protesters, Trump insisted, were “paid professionals.” (He also made claims about the quality of the protesters’ signs, just as he did on Fox last night.)
Now, the presumptive GOP nominee has returned to the same idea in order to dismiss campus protests.
When right-wing activists engage in activism, the Republican assumes they’re “very fine people“ and “patriots.” When those Trump doesn’t like gather for protests he disapproves of, he assumes they’re “paid agitators” whose sincerity is inherently suspect.
TFG cannot accept the concept that people acting in good faith could disagree with him and so any such person has to be a paid protestor
= new reply since forum marked as read
The notion that some people act from sincere conviction is, to him, incomprehensible. Of course he knows many of his followers are sincere but that's different. Somehow. Equally incomprehensible, but necessary and sympathetic. Therefore, all the unnecessary people who don't deserve sympathy are obviously getting paid for their efforts. Another victory for logic! 
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