By Asha Rangappa

Dear Listener,

Last week, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted that former President Donald Trump has been entertaining the idea that he will be “reinstated” — presumably in the Oval Office — by August of this year. Trump’s speculation has led to varying responses, from ridicule to sober explanations of why this is constitutionally impossible to cynical analyses of how this will be another one of Trump’s fundraising grifts. All of these responses, of course, are true. The claim is ridiculous, not legally possible, and will undoubtedly be the basis of another GOP money-making scam. But all of this should not distract us from the fact that even floating this idea is providing shape and coherence to an emerging terrorist ideology.

What separates terrorism from just random acts of violence is that the former is motivated by a worldview that sees violence as a means to a specific economic, political, or religious end. Terrorist ideologies have a particular narrative structure designed to both encourage violence and inspire people to join the movement. The most effective terrorist ideologies have three main components: First, they offer a noble cause, in which the righteous “warriors” are allied against a decadent, immoral, or illegitimate enemy. Second, because the cause is righteous, the ideology justifies the use of violence against all those who oppose it. Finally — and this is important — the ideology promises the “return” of a utopian future, in which the victors establish their own ideal society.