Trump’s Aurora visit highlights rising MAGA crime rate

Republican candidates for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District were asked if they had ever been arrested during a debate in Fort Lupton on January 25, 2024. From left, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, Trent Leisy, State Rep. Mike Lynch, Chris Phelan, former State Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg and State Rep. Richard Holtorf raised their hands to say “yes.” (Screenshot from Republican Women of Weld Facebook page)

In announcing former President Donald Trump’s visit to Aurora, the Trump campaign outlined the Republican presidential nominee’s crime-fighting goals.

The Biden administration’s border policies have left Colorado’s third-largest city vulnerable to criminal migrants who have “turned once-safe communities into nightmares for law-abiding citizens.” Trump, the announcement said, would deport these “criminals” and “make America safe again.”

Most Americans realized long ago that Trump lacks normal regulatory qualities like consistency and shame. Embarrassment could deter most criminals from making reckless criminal accusations against others. Not Trump. And he cares even less that his dire characterization of Aurora, where he is scheduled to speak on Friday, is a complete fabrication.

But law-abiding citizens should take his absurd rhetoric as an opportunity to reflect on the breathtaking scale of banditry that is a fundamental feature of Trumpist politics. Any policy that purports to make America safe again would have to address MAGA’s violent tendencies and criminal behavior patterns.

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One of the most startling moments of Colorado’s 2024 election cycle occurred during a candidates’ forum in January, when two-thirds of Republicans on stage simultaneously admitted that this was the case They had arrest records created not a moment of humility and regret, but rather exhilaration worthy of a saloon.

Among them was Lauren Boebert, a sitting congresswoman who is scheduled to appear with Trump in Aurora. Two of them were state legislators, and all wanted to represent the residents of Colorado’s 4th Congressional District in the nation’s capital. Her confrontations with the law led to no apparent reservations about her suitability for the office, either in the audience or on stage.

This expression of lawlessness was nothing short of hypocritical for the former Law and Order Party, whose members reflexively embraced the fear-mongering of a “crime wave,” particularly in the context of immigration.

Current 4th District representative, MAGA Republican Greg Lopez, recently gave a speech in the plenary session of the US House of Representatives, in which he, like Trump, claimed that Venezuelan criminals were terrorizing Aurora. Almost the whole thing was false, but what is true is that Lopez himself has a criminal record. He and his wife each pleaded guilty to harassment following a domestic violence incident in 1994. Lopez was mayor of Parker at the time.

The Colorado pattern is consistent with the Republican Party’s MAGA evolution. No previous presidency in U.S. history compares to the Trump administration’s record of misconduct. At least eight Close Trump confidants were sentenced to prison. Many others around him have been convicted of crimes, charged with crimes or faced formal disciplinary action, such as former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis, who was licensed to practice law in Colorado exposed after her pleaded guilty in Georgia to a criminal case for aiding and abetting false statements and writings.

Although previous Republican administrations produced scores of lawbreakers — there were dozens of Nixon-era Watergate indictments — Trump wins criminal gold for being the first president to achieve felon status. He is accused of a crime two other pending casesand a jury made a decision in a civil case he raped a woman. One of the criminal proceedings against him refers to his role in the violent January 6 insurrectionTrump was impeached for inciting it and more than a thousand people were criminally convicted for their participation.

When Trump appears in Aurora, he will be by far the most consequential criminal to ever set foot in the city.

Aurora came into the national spotlight after conservative local figures, particularly City Council member Danielle Jurinsky, spread false claims that Venezuelan gang members had taken control of several Aurora apartment buildings. The city’s police chief debunked the claim, and even Jurinsky has walked back some of her rhetoric. But the national right-wing media went along with it, regardless of the facts and Trump took hold of it as the talking point of an anti-immigration campaign. Last month he mentioned Aurora during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, and later promised he would visit Auroraby slandering the entire city by claiming it is so dangerous that “you may never see me again.”

Aurora police recently arrested a handful of people they identified as Venezuelan gang members, and Aurora residents should be grateful for this routine response from local law enforcement.

But the suspects had not taken over any part of the city. And whatever threat they posed to the community is dwarfed by the threat the Trump gang poses to the country.

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