The ever-indispensable Orwell, cluing us in on Trump from 1946:
Many political words are … abused. The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies "something not desirable." The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another. In the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using that word if it were tied down to any one meaning. Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different. Statements like Marshal Pétain was a true patriot, The Soviet press is the freest in the world, The Catholic Church is opposed to persecution, are almost always made with intent to deceive.
—Orwell, Politics and the English Language
Actually, Trump is playing a variation on the theme described by Orwell. The ambiguity in Trump’s statement about “Second Amendment people” “doing something” about Hillary and her Supreme Court nominees isn’t any sloppiness or mistake; it’s intentional. Trump is using that ambiguity to accomplish all of the following:
- Make his red-meat base believe he wants Hillary and her Supreme Court nominees assassinated.
- Reassure his mainstream-GOP allies that he only wants to encourage Second Amendment enthusiasts to vote.
- Induce people on the fence to give him the benefit of the doubt.
In other words, there is no single meaning of what Trump “truly” meant. Trump truly wanted his statement to accomplish multiple goals.
It’s too soon to say the extent to which he’ll succeed. Most people outraged by the assassination dimension to his statement were outraged at him already; or were going to end up outraged at him before November by another of the umpteen outrageous things he’s bound to say by then.
Trump has already written the decent people off; they never factored into his calculation.
Understand—it doesn’t much matter to Trump whether or not Hillary is really assassinated. (Given that she’s the second-most-unpopular major party nominee in the history of polling—after Trump—he’d probably prefer she not be replaced by a potentially more appealing candidate like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren.) Trump’s objective is to fire up his base more than he energizes his current opponents or makes new ones.
It’s not policy. It’s propaganda.