The GOP's big, mysterious enemy: "They"
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Former President Trump during the Republican National Convention. Photo: Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images
MILWAUKEE — Again and again this week at their convention, Republicans have railed against a mysterious enemy responsible for many of Donald Trump's problems: "They."
Why it matters: To Trump supporters speaking here, "they" are responsible for Trump's convictions in New York, his federal indictments, his multimillion-dollar fines in civil lawsuits, record illegal border crossings — and even the attempt to assassinate Trump last weekend.
- In Trump's MAGA world, exactly who "they" are usually isn't defined.
- But it's typically some combination of Democrats, the federal government, what the former president's supporters call media "elites," and other shadowy forces.
Zoom in: It's all an escalation of the GOP's rhetoric about elitist forces working behind the scenes to take down Trump, whose political identity is partly rooted in playing a victim who's seeking retribution.
- Concepts like "the swamp" and the "deep state," working in the shadows against conservatives, have become key parts of the MAGA ideology and have even fueled conspiracy theories associated with QAnon.
- Now, even more mainstream Republican leaders are implying a connection between media bias, various legal investigations and the shooting — without explicitly naming the culprits.
What they're saying: "They said [Trump] was a tyrant. They say he must be stopped at all costs," vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) said during his prime-time speech Wednesday night.
- "They literally shot him," Vance claimed at a press conference earlier in the day, referring to last weekend's shooting that authorities say was done by a 20-year-old registered Republican.
- "They use the unelected bureaucracy to impose their will on us without our consent, and they weaponize political power to target their political opponents, like they've done to our own nominee," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in his speech Tuesday.
- "Now, Donald Trump stands in their way, and he stands up for America."
Between the lines: In reality, "they" are a composite of real but distinct controversies — often the most radical or exaggerated elements of the left — that together offer a single target to demonize.
- "First they tried to silence him. Then they tried to imprison him. Now they try to kill him," Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) tweeted after Trump's assassination attempt.
- In an interview with CNN Tuesday, Mills clarified that he wasn't necessarily suggesting President Biden was responsible for the shooting.
- But when pressed to be specific about who "they" is, he said that was up for investigators to determine.
Zoom in: There are real and serious questions about how law enforcement failed to prevent the attempted assassination at Trump's rally in Butler, Pa., last Saturday — violence that stunned the nation and drew calls from both parties to lower the temperature of political discourse.
- But a political motive has yet to be determined, and there's no evidence Democrats incited the shooter.
- To make the narrative more straightforward, Republicans have leaned on a generic bogeyman they've cast as being responsible for years of alleged "witch hunts" against Trump.
- And as the GOP convention has shown this week, that bogeyman is quite useful in rallying Republicans against a common enemy.
