‘HAUL OUT THE GUILLOTINE!’ Trump Campaign Uses Dark Imagery of Beheading in Email Attacking Rivals
The campaign arm of former President Donald Trump is relying on remarkably dark imagery to drive fundraising for his 2024 presidential campaign: the beheading of his political rivals.
An email message sent early Wednesday morning landed in inboxes nationwide. The subject line read, “Haul out the Guillotine!” Talk of Trump exacting revenge on his political rivals and media critics has become a narrative, and this sort of messaging will do little to disabuse that notion.
The email opens with the same attention-grabbing subject line but quickly pivots to a dark period in Trump’s presidency featuring self-proclaimed D-list comedian Kathy Griffin.
“Remember when that Sicko Kathy Griffin made the rounds parading my BEHEADED head when I was President?!” the message reads. “The radical-left CHEERED! Obama and Biden were SILENT! And the Fake News BLASTED it everywhere!”
The email message then ramps up the fear-mongering to another level: “And it’s not just me they want going, THEY’RE REALLY COMING AFTER YOU! SICK SICK SICK!”
Screenshot
This seems a clear and apparent reference to the “off with their heads” ethos of another, less democratic or judicial era. The phrase “off with his/her head” was used in Shakespeare’s Henry V, and it was an oft-repeated phrase in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
