MaddowBlog-The White House wants the left to stop sounding so much like Trump

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Karoline Leavitt was appalled that people would equate federal agents with the Gestapo, seemingly unaware that Trump has done the same thing.

The White House has uncovered the key to civility and domestic tranquility: We’d all be better off, Team Trump keeps telling us, if only the left agreed to stop saying the same things Trump says.

Take calling federal agents the “Gestapo,” for example. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-01-16T15:43:25.928Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/the-white-house-wants-the-left-to-stop-sounding-so-much-like-trump

There was a degree of irony to the circumstances. After all, the White House has spent the last week condemning Good as a “deranged lunatic” and a “terrorist,” both characterizations that suggest it has no problem with “heated rhetoric.”

Similarly, given the widespread violence and unrest in Minneapolis, singling out word choice as the principal problem is hard to take seriously.

And yet here was White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stressing a related point at Thursday’s briefing.

Leavitt on ICE: "The Democrat Party has demeaned these individuals. They've even referred to them as Nazis and the Gestapo, and that is absolutely leading to violence."

Joe Rogan was the one who compared ICE to the Gestapo…

— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) 2026-01-15T19:07:32.409Z

....The broader problem comes up all the time. Vice President JD Vance appeared on Fox News after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed to comment about incendiary rhetoric: “What is it that you want them to do when you call them ‘fascist’?”

It might have seemed like a reasonable point, except Trump has called his political opponents “fascists” many times.

Similarly, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters, “You can’t call the other side ‘fascists’ and ‘enemies of the state’ and not understand that there are some deranged people in our society who will take that as cues to act.”

But not only has Trump repeatedly called Democratic leaders “fascists,” he’s also condemned his perceived political foes as “enemies of the people,” “the enemy within,” “threats to democracy” and “evil.”

The underlying point is simple: The White House and its Republican allies believe everyone would be better off if the left didn’t sound so much like Trump.

[Midnight Writer]

1. Perhaps we should call them "The Gazpacho". Something MAGA somehow seems to understand.