Persecuted: Donald Trump and the Football Kicker?

So-called ‘cancel culture’ is not crucifixion

It’s hard to imagine anything more surreal than former President Donald Trump’s red-tied allies cosplaying in matching suits, fawning in courthouse-adjacent press conferences over the man facing 34 felony charges for a hush-money case that included testimony from ‘an adult film actor,’ (The last, somehow a now-common news phrase). But then U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls piped up outside the courtroom, comparing supporters at Trump’s campaign rallies to believers gathering for blessings from the pope.

The pope.

I first saw this footage in coverage that also mentioned how the Trump campaign had sent out a fundraiser email falsely claiming President Joe Biden was “locked & loaded ready to take me out.” (This was a wild distortion of language in standard FBI warrants that, in this case, granted permission for the 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago for classified documents.) To be clear, there was no assassination attempt. But that wasn’t all the ugly spewing out of the Trump campaign. Trump’s social media posted a video touting possible headlines sparked by a November Trump presidential win, including references to a “unified Reich.”

In turn, Biden chastised the Trump campaign’s use of “Hitler’s language.” Trump’s campaign claimed…