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The visit takes place as a sharply divided America experiences a spiral of violence and unrest. Since the 1960s, the United States has not experienced such widespread race riots, and right-wing civil protection groups appear to be playing an increasingly central role.
The fact that the United States has been hit by the worst economic crisis in decades and a pandemic that has claimed nearly 190,000 lives does not ease the situation.
Spencer Sunshine, who investigates right-wing groups in the United States, fears for developments leading up to the elections. He believes there will definitely be more shootings in the future.
– It can be much worse because I think neither side will give in, he says.
Last week, three people were killed in connection with protests that erupted after police shot and wounded an African-American man during an arrest in Kenosha.
Two of the victims were anti-racist protesters in Kenosha, while the third was a right-wing white nationalist who was killed in Portland, Oregon, in the northwestern United States.
– Whites fear revenge
When Trump visits Kenosha on Tuesday, it is despite warnings from the state’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers. He has called Trump in an attempt to persuade him to stay home. According to Evers, the city needs peace to recover after what happened, and he believes many residents are already traumatized.
One of them, Gregory Bennett, says he no longer feels safe in the city after a 17-year-old, who was probably part of a white civil defense, was arrested for shooting and killing two people who demonstrated against the police violence and racism. .
– The local targets are afraid, they are looking for a reason to defend themselves, and we have people here looking for a reason to attack.says Bennett, a social worker who has previously been in the military.
Out of fear of revenge, he never goes out without a bulletproof vest and a gun on his belt.
In the United States, the right to defend oneself is part of the national identity, and about 30 percent of the adult population owns at least one firearm.
Trump meets with the police
Trump comes to Kenosha with the message that he must win the November 3 election if the United States wants to emerge from the chaos. He has no plans to meet the family of Jacob Blake, the 29-year-old who was paralyzed from the waist down after being shot by police on August 23.
Instead, he will speak to police chiefs and businessmen and inspect the vandalism that has taken place in the city in the wake of the shooting.
Democrats and supporters of police reform see Kenosha as a symbol of the institutional racism that has led to the murder of several suspected African Americans in front of the police.
Trump has made it very clear that his priorities are exactly the opposite. He believes that it is the Democrats who are contributing to greater anarchy in the cities they rule. In Kenosha, you will meet the people who you think “have done a good job for me,” not the politicians.
More weapons
Since Trump was elected president, there have been frequent clashes between groups of the right and the left in cities such as Seattle in the west, Washington in the east and Portland in the north.
However, what is new, according to Spencer Sunshine, is that many people carry firearms.
“A little over four years ago, you only saw an armed demonstration in places like Arizona, where they have a very liberal gun law,” he told the AP news agency.
The changes have been significant since May 1, when hundreds of men with rifles tried to break into the building that houses the Michigan State Capitol to protest coronary restrictions.
New recruits
According to Sunshine, this also showed that white nationalist groups have managed to recruit new members. Also present were right-wing populists and Trump supporters defending conspiracy theories. Motivation is fear of what will happen to the United States if they do nothing.
– While the 2020 presidential elections are fast approaching, the prospects of extremists resorting to political violence are very real, says the Southern Poverty Law Center, which oversees right-wing extremist groups.
The center also believes that the right is trying to take advantage of the historically powerful polarization the United States is experiencing.
On the other side is a more heterogeneous assembly of activists, whom Trump often refers to as antifa (anti-fascists), and whom he accuses of rioters, anarchists, instigators and thieves.
They are less organized than the right wing, but they will probably also be more violent, says Daniel Byman of the Brookings Institution think tank.
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