The fear of terrorism returns to the United States where political violence peaked last July in Pennsylvania with the first assassination attempt against Donald Trump, who in less than three weeks will take office as president of the country. While it has already been confirmed that the multiple car accident last Wednesday in New Orleans was a terrorist attack inspired by the modus operandi of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, authorities continue to investigate the causes of the explosion of a Tesla car outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas. The FBI has already ruled out a connection between the two events, which took place on the same day.
Two months after an election marked by fear of an outbreak of violence spurred by Trump himself, the country begins the year with fear of a return to terror. The FBI, which had reinforced the security of the Capitol ahead of January 6, when Congress will have to certify the Republican’s victory, now fears a contagion effect from the multiple car accident in New Orleans, which has left at least 15 dead. The attack comes in a month full of massive events linked to the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter on January 9 and Trump’s inauguration on the 20th. The day before, on the 19th, the Republican will also hold a rally in Washington to harangue his followers.
In a bulletin issued this Friday, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the US National Counterterrorism Center warn that these types of actions “will probably continue to be attractive to potential attackers due to the ease of acquiring vehicles and the low level of skill necessary to carry out an attack.
In the hours after the New Orleans car accident, Trump suggested on his social network Truth Social that the perpetrator of the attack was an immigrant and blamed current President Joe Biden. “With Biden’s ‘open borders policy’ I have said many times during rallies and elsewhere that radical Islamic terrorism and other forms of violent crime would become so serious in America that it would be difficult to imagine or believe,” he wrote Thursday. . But the reality is that the alleged perpetrator of the run-over, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was from Texas and served for ten years in the US Army.
The post’s almost apocalyptic tone—“America is falling apart”—resonates with Trump’s inaugural speech eight years ago talking about “American carnage.” From the lectern, Trump presented a sinister image of the country, describing cities plagued by crime, a political elite that had forgotten about ordinary people, and a landscape of closed factories. A few weeks before the inauguration, it cannot be ruled out that Trump will repeat the imagery of “American carnage,” this time using the fear sown by the New Orleans attack.
“A violent erosion of Security, National Security and Democracy is occurring throughout our country. Only force and powerful leadership can stop it,” Trump wrote in Truth. During the campaign, the Republican already instrumentalized the current international panorama, marked by the war in Gaza and Ukraine, to present himself as the strong leadership that the country supposedly needs in the face of external enemies. The terrorist threat reinforces this illusion and predicts a sinister outlook in the fight against terrorism.
The inspiration in ISIS of the perpetrator of the New Orleans attack also fuels the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment suffered by the Arab population in the country since the outbreak of the Gaza war. In his previous term, Trump carried out one of the harshest policies against Arabs and Muslims with the “Muslim Ban.” It was a series of executive orders approved by the magnate that banned travel to the United States for 90 days from seven Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, and suspended the resettlement of all Syrian refugees.
The return of terror to the United States, especially inspired by the Islamic State, is a card that the Republican also plans to take advantage of to continue his crusade against migrants. Last November, Trump confirmed that he intended to use the military to carry out his mass deportation of migrants. For this purpose you must first declare a state of national emergency.
In his previous term, Trump already tried to do so, but since there was no real justification, it ended up triggering a conflict with the legislature. The fear of possible new terrorist attacks changes the perception of security. Aligned with this narrative, billionaire Elon Musk, who has become Trump’s right-hand man, has shared publications in recent hours in which he presents the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, as the type of leadership that the States need. Joined. Bukele has managed to reduce crime in the country at the cost of cutting the rights and freedoms of citizens.
The New Orleans attack is the deadliest attack in the United States since a 40-year-old man with mental problems killed 18 people in a shooting in Maine in 2023. The connotation of the attack this time is different due to Jabbar’s radicalization , who carried an Islamic State flag in the car with which he drove into the crowd.
Wood for conspiracy theories
The Cybertruck explosion in front of the Trump hotel in Las Vegas continues to raise questions. Especially because it cannot be ignored that the vehicle is a Tesla, a company owned by Musk, and that it just exploded in front of one of the president-elect’s hotels. After Trump suffered two assassination attempts during the election campaign, the coincidence is juicy enough for the MAGA sphere.
“This is a Tesla vehicle, and we know that Elon Musk is working with President Trump, and it’s the Trump hotel, so obviously there’s cause for concern and it’s something we’re continuing to look at,” Las Vegas Sheriff Matthew McMahill said. during the press conference. Even so, the motive of the driver, Matthew Livelsberger, who was an active military man and who allegedly committed suicide with a gunshot to the head before the explosion, is still unknown.
On this case, Trump has not yet commented, but Musk has. The billionaire is not only taking the opportunity to campaign in favor of his vehicle having contained the explosion, but he is already calling it a “terrorist attack.” The future advisor to the Trump government is also sharing publications from the MAGA orbit where Jabbar and Livelsberger are linked to Ryan Routh, who tried to assassinate Trump last September.
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