Trump supporters shout down a protestor interrupting a campaign rally in Worcester, Mass., Nov. 18, 2015.

What do you get when you put a self-interested egomaniac who doesn't really need politics on the presidential campaign trail? A completely unaccountable candidate who doesn't care what people think of him, how he's being received, or what role he's playing in creating the culture that surrounds him. That candidate, of course, is Donald Trump. And whether he's really a racist or just employing racist rhetoric to attract support is really beside the point now given that tempers are regularly flaring between supporters and detractors at his campaign rallies. Ben Schreckeninger tracks the origins of those altercations:

Last month, protesters interrupted a Donald Trump rally in Virginia with chants of “Dump Trump” and clashed with his supporters, one of whom was caught on camera spitting in a protester’s face. Another video caught a protester chanting “black power” and a Trump supporter responding with “white power” as a police officer stood between the two. Multiple groups of Hispanic protesters interrupted the mogul at a rally in Miami, where video showed a Trump supporter dragging a protester to the ground and kicking him. In September, outside a Trump rally in Dallas, dozens of police officers, some on horseback, pushed back hundreds of shouting protesters after breaking up a tense standoff with the real-estate tycoon’s supporters. On Wednesday, a protester who was once convicted of bringing a bomb to a military facility was arrested at a rally in Massachusetts, and on Saturday video showed supporters punching and kicking a protester who interrupted a rally in Alabama, while Trump himself later suggested that the man had it coming. Welcome to the most combustible presidential campaign in recent memory.

Trump, for his part, is reveling in the confrontations his campaign has provoked.

“Isn't a Trump rally much more exciting than these other ones?” Trump said on Wednesday as police escorted a protester yelling, “Trump’s a racist” from a rally in Worcester, Massachusetts. “That kind of stuff only adds to the excitement,” he added.

And his campaign officials, anonymous in this case, are blaming protesters for trying to get in on Trump’s action.

“Black Lives Matter just wants attention,” said the person, referring to Saturday’s incident. “Everyone gets more attention around Trump.”

Right, BLM activists are just riding Trump's coattails to fame and notoriety.

There seems to be some back and forth in the media about whether Trump's at fault or his detractors are causing the problem. That is ludicrous. Trump has picked a fight with virtually everyone who isn't a white Christian—Mexicans, Muslims, black Americans, Syrian refugees, and immigrants more generally. From day one, he has used his bully pulpit to target multiple minorities. Newton's third law of motion applies here: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Is it any wonder that people are defending their integrity and humanity, their lives, and their families?