The Fear Is The Point: Rachel Maddow Exposes The Reason Behind Trump’s ICE Raids

Rachel Maddow said on Thursday that Donald Trump’s planned ICE raids across the country, which are set to begin this weekend, are just a stunt meant to scare immigrants and rile up his base ahead of 2020.

“The White House has obviously been trying to stoke as much fear and confusion as possible,” the MSNBC host said. “Part of their MO here seems to be that … the more pain and fear you can instill in immigrant communities, somehow that redounds to the White House’s benefit.”

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Maddow said:

There’s obviously real concern over what might be about to happen. The White House has obviously been trying to stoke as much fear and confusion as possible. Part of their MO here seems to be that the worse you treat immigrants, the more you demonstrate cruelty toward immigrant communities, the more you try to terrify people, the better that is for the country somehow. The more pain and fear you can instill in immigrant communities, somehow that redounds to the White House’s benefit. That seems to be their calculus.

Trump is trying to rile up his base ahead of 2020 – and real lives will be impacted as a result

The thing about running a campaign based solely on minority resentment and fear is that you have to keep increasing the dosage.

It used to be enough for Donald Trump to call for a Mexican-funded wall on the southern border to keep out immigrants, who he characterized as criminals and rapists when he launched his presidential campaign.

But now he is trying to inflict very real cruelty on human beings not because it’s a sound policy move, but because he believes it will help rile up his base and boost his political fortunes heading into 2020.

One can only imagine what Donald Trump’s rhetoric and cruel policy decisions will look like a year from now when the presidential campaign is in full swing and he is looking for new and more inhumane ways to get his voters motivated.

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Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.