Opinion | Republican reaction to FBI raid on Trump’s home reveals a nation on the edge of lawlessness

While the former US president and the Republican Party have traditionally presented themselves as advocates of law and order, they have now chosen to attack law enforcement

Without the constraints of office, Trump has been a loose cannon, inclined to further widen the rift within the country to benefit himself

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Supporters of former US president Donald Trump stand outside his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, on August 8. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:30am, 22 Aug 2022

January 20, 2021 should have initiated a stark paradigm shift. Joe Biden’s inauguration as US president should have meant a return to sanity after four years of carnage under Donald Trump. A cleansing of anti-democratic forces and a repair of constitutional norms that suffered so tremendously. However, 19 months later, the situation in the United States has arguably worsened, as the FBI’s raid on Trump’s home displayed.

The event was a reminder that Republicans are prepared to not only accept but also encourage political violence in the US as long as it benefits their agendas and helps increase their power.

The irony is that Trump and the Republicans have traditionally presented themselves as staunch advocates of law and order. Now, they have dramatically reversed course. While the Republican response to progressive Democrats’ ill-advised slogan “defund the police” was “back the blue”, they have begun to incite hatred against law enforcement after the bureau raided Trump’s estate for, inter alia, suspicion of violating the Espionage Act. According to a receipt for confiscated items, which was also released, FBI agents found several sets of top secret documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Those who thought Republicans could withhold judgment, given that national security interests may be at stake, were quickly proven wrong. Instead of criticising Trump, Republicans have been trying to gain financial and political benefit from the FBI raid – even if it further divides society, and even though everyone ought to be cognisant, at least since the storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6 last year, that words have consequences and that American democracy is currently highly fragile.

But that doesn’t stop Trump loyalists from using dangerous rhetoric. Republican politicians likened the FBI to the Gestapo, the secret police in Nazi Germany. Reacting to the FBI raid, former Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka wrote on Twitter: “They have declared war on 74 million Americans.” Former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said the FBI could be called the “American Stasi”. Republican Congressman Paul Gosar called for the “dismantling and elimination” of the FBI.

Moreover, since the raid, conservative broadcasters Fox News, Newsmax and OAN have fuelled the narrative that the raid is the beginning of the end of the American dream, yet another attack of “the deep state”, and that Democrats are coming for Republicans. Trump himself has been pontificating about an “attack on democracy” for days and critiquing the FBI harshly.

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