The president of the United States is radicalizing unstable and conspiracy-minded Americans to commit heinous acts of violence and terrorism.

And no, I’m not just talking about the tragedy that took place in El Paso this past weekend.

On Monday, Cesar Sayoc was sentenced, in federal court, to 20 years in prison for sending more than a dozen mail bombs to prominent Democrats and members of the media last year.

Sayoc’s terrorist acts have largely been forgotten — overshadowed by the daily outrages emanating from the White House. But his motivation for committing them shows how the president’s hateful words — and the support they receive in conservative media, like Fox News — are empowering right-wing extremism.

Sayoc pleaded guilty to charges related to using weapons of mass destruction and transporting explosives. But in a sentencing memo, his lawyers offered a disturbing glimpse into what spurred him to act.

Sayoc, his lawyers said, “was born with cognitive limitations and severe learning disabilities.” Abandoned by his father, sexually abused by a teacher, and estranged from his family, by 2018 he was abusing steroids while living in his van and working as a pizza deliveryman. His life had hit rock bottom.

In this darkness, his lawyers told the court, “Mr. Sayoc found light in Donald J. Trump.”

Though previously having shown little interest in politics, beginning in 2015, Sayoc became an enthusiastic, obsessive supporter of the president. He watched Fox News “religiously,” even planning his days around certain programs.

His Facebook page was a compendium of the lowlights of the conservative fever swamp — with everything from posts praising Trump and warnings about Muslims and ISIS to clips from Fox News and stories that appeared at conservative conspiracy outlets like Breitbart and InfoWars.

He even plastered his van with signs and stickers supporting President Trump and criticizing Trump’s political opponents.

In the run-up to midterm election, Sayoc’s lawyers noted that “Trump warned his supporters that they were in danger from Democrats.” They quoted the president saying of his political rivals, that “they want to destroy people. These are really evil people.” Sayoc took these words to heart. “He believed,” they write “liberals, under the direction of Democratic leaders, sought to harm and kill him because of his support for Donald Trump.” It’s this paranoid fear that led him to act.

Sayoc’s descent into madness is not atypical. A mentally ill loner cast out from society finds kindred souls online. It’s little different from the trajectory seen in ISIS recruits or white nationalists. The difference, of course, is that Sayoc was parroting the language and conspiracy theories of the president and conservative media.

Even more disturbing is his lawyers assertion that in this rhetoric and the hundreds of right-wing Facebook groups that he joined, “Mr. Sayoc found the sense of community that he had been missing for so many years.”

In short, Sayoc was radicalized — but by the president and his supporters.

There is already evidence that the 21-year-old gunman in El Paso experienced the same sort of encouragement. “This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas,” he wrote in a manifesto posted online shortly before the shooting. This language is almost identical to that used by the president to describe immigrants seeking to enter the United States.

The killer’s manifesto rails against “open borders, free health care for illegals,” and “legalizing millions of new voters,” which are all talking points used by Republicans (and Fox News hosts).

The gunman even evoked the expression “fake news,” a term that Trump has turned into a rallying cry for any story that he doesn’t like.

One cannot say with certainty that the El Paso shooter was directly influenced by Trump and/or Fox News — even if the rhetoric is remarkably similar. In the case of Sayoc, it appears to be unquestionable.

Defenders of the president will probably argue that Sayoc was unstable. The same goes for the shooter in El Paso or the man who murdered 12 people in a synagogue in Pittsburgh railing against George Soros and an immigrant invasion of America. The president can hardly be held responsible for the actions of sick and delusional individuals, or so the argument goes.

But this is precisely why Trump’s rhetoric is so dangerous. Few Americans may take Trump’s words to heart and act on them. But in a country awash with high-powered guns and explosives, the hateful, delegitimizing, and eliminationist rhetoric of the president and his favorite media source can — and has — served as a spark, empowering and enabling unhinged conspiracy-addled Americans like Cesar Sayoc.

Thankfully, Sayoc’s attempted killing spree killed no one. For those mourning the dead in El Paso, the story is of course very different. And the next domestic terrorist may be out there — watching Fox News, railing against immigrants and liberals on Facebook, attending a presidential rally, writing their manifesto, and planning their attack. A president whose job it is to keep Americans safe is putting all of us at risk.