Lt. Christopher Hasson (Facebook)

I was planning to write a story about the Neo-Confederate Alabama publisher who called for the KKK to ride through Washington, D.C. and hang people. But yesterday and even more shocking story hit the news. This is typical of the news cycle in the Trump era.

On Wednesday, several news outlets reported Lt. Christopher Hasson, an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard, was discovered to have compiled a hit list of prominent Democratic politicians, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and media figures. Hasson was also a long-time skinhead who wanted to spark a race war and make America a “white homeland.”

Even more disturbing is the fact Hasson had a stockpile of 15 guns and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition. He also had extensive military training, having previously served in the Marines. Hasson also used steroids because he believed they heightened his senses.

Hasson’s arsenal (U.S. attorney’s office.)

Here is some more in-depth analysis:

Hasson was emboldened by Trump’s rhetoric. Of course, Hasson was a Trump supporter and judging by some of his comments he bought into Trump’s white nationalist, anti-press, pro-Russia rhetoric. According to Heavy, he said, “liberalist/globalist ideology is destroying traditional peoples (especially) white.” Hasson wanted to target the media, who Trump regularly calls “the enemy of the people.” One of his targets was Joe Scarborough, who often criticizes Trump on his MSNBC show. Hasson also conducted Google searches on what to do if Trump was “illegally impeached.”

Hasson had a career in the military. This is also not surprising. Many neo-Nazis join the armed forces because it allows them to receive military training. The military and the police continue to have problems with white nationalists embedded in their ranks. A 2008 FBI report on white supremacist activity in the military stated: “Military experience is found throughout the white supremacist extremist movement as the result of recruitment campaigns by extremist groups and self-recruitment by veterans sympathetic to white supremacist causes.” In addition, Lance Cpl. Vasillios Pistolis was recently drummed out of the Marine Corps after he participated in the “Unite the Right” march, where counter protestor Heather Heyer was killed.

He was a fan of Anders Breivik, a Norwegian white nationalist, who killed 77 people because he was angry about immigration to Europe. Like Hasson, Brevik wanted to spark a race war.

Hasson was thoroughly steeped in white nationalist/alt-right rhetoric. I found it interesting that Hasson used the term “white homeland.” This phrase also used by Richard Spencer, the wife-beating, media-savvy figure, who became the face of the alt-right. This shows Spencer’s odious views are being picked up by other members of the far-right.

As shocking as Hasson’s arrest is, it’s really not surprising. Several national security experts have warned that far-right domestic terrorists are resurgent in the age of Trump. They are a much more pressing threat than illegal immigration, which has been declining since 2000. Additionally, domestic terrorists can’t be stopped by a border wall, because they’re already here and many of them, like Hasson, have easy access to weapons.

So we caught Hasson and Sayoc, but how long are we going to keep getting lucky? How many other Trump-inspired terrorists are out there, and what happens if one of them is successful?

Unfortunately, Trump has been inspiring acts of violence since 2015, according to The Intercept’s Mehdi Hasan.

“Since the summer of 2015, a bevy of Trump supporters, fans, and sympathizers have beaten, shot, stabbed, run over, and bombed their fellow Americans. They have taken innocent lives while aping the president’s violent rhetoric, echoing his racist conspiracy theories, and, as in the case of Sayoc, targeting the exact same people and organizations that Trump loudly and repeatedly targets at his rallies and on Twitter: Muslims, refugees, immigrants, the Clintons, CNN, and left-wing protesters, among others,” said Hasan, in an article about Cesar Sayoc, the so-called MAGA bomber, who was arrested last year. Sayoc also targeted Democratic politicians and members of the media.

So we caught Hasson and Sayoc, but how long are we going to keep getting lucky? How many other Trump-inspired terrorists are out there, and what happens if one of them is successful? This is what we live with in the Trump-era, where the president of the United States inspires domestic terrorists to attack American citizens!