From the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza, after attending a Donald Trump rally in Arizona:
I had never previously been to a political event at which people cheered for the murder of women and children.
This is the crowd response to Trump’s confirmation that “he meant it when he said that he would ‘take out’ the family members of terrorists.” As usual, it’s pure affect. Trump talks big on national security: he’s the most militaristic guy you’ve ever met, he’ll ban Muslim visitors and crush ISIS, and other world leaders will unanimously back down under his steely gaze. But when you actually look at the policies he supports—giving him the benefit of calling them “policies” in the first place—Trump has made it clear that he’s actually pretty dovish. He doesn’t really want to intervene around the world. He doesn’t especially want to do the hard dealmaking of negotiating treaties. He wouldn’t instantly tear up the Iran deal because, after all, a deal’s a deal. He wants to boost military spending, but only because he thinks a big army will scare other countries away from messing with us to begin with.
But he’ll kill the families of terrorists, and his fans love it. Booyah.
