There is one sure sign that Donald Trump is in trouble again, and that is this: American citizens — whether they are public officials or simple folks who are in the wrong place at the wrong time — will now have their lives and their families’ lives threatened by Trump supporters who are incapable of expressing themselves in any other way.

Now that Trump is facing multiple indictments in state and federal courts, we are seeing more of this intimidating behavior. Judges, prosecutors, investigators, witnesses and grand jurors have all been singled out — targeted and demonized by Trump in his public statements.

Meanwhile, most national Republican leaders and candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination have remained silent as Trump has put the lives of our fellow Americans at risk for his own political and legal advantage.

Shortly after Trump was charged with four felonies by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, Trump posted this message on his social media site: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” Of course, Trump would never get his own hands dirty, but he knows that a certain band of his supporters will consider his words marching orders.

Last week, Texan Abigail Jo Shry was arrested for threatening Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding in that case, leaving a voice message that said, “If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you. So tread lightly, bitch … You will be targeted personally, publicly, your family, all of it.”

After a Georgia grand jury indicted Trump last week, the names and addresses of the grand jurors who voted to indict Trump appeared on right-wing message boards. As reported by Media Matters, the jurors have been threatened with violence, and one user called the list of their names a “hit list.”

Even local election workers have had their lives destroyed by a complete fabrication produced in the interest of Trump. Fintan O’Toole, writing last week, called the Trump campaign’s attempt to frame Georgia local election worker Ruby Freeman “a grotesque travesty of justice in which the power of government was used to traduce and attempt to destroy an innocent and defenseless citizen.”

Freeman and her daughter, who were vote counters employed by their county board of elections, were repeatedly pressured, privately and on national television, to confess to false election fraud claims made against them by Trump and Rudy Giuliani. O’Toole called the actions of Trump and Giuliani “worse than a Mafia maneuver — it was a state operation. It was led by the sitting president.”

Both Black women were subjected to racial epithets online, and one Trump supporter called for their lynching, posting, “YOU SHOULD BE HUNG OR SHOT FOR YOUR CRIMES.”

Threats have always been part of public life, but they cannot be presumed to be empty threats or venting. In these times, there is an equal chance that someone is letting off steam or telegraphing a punch.

So, where are the Republican leaders who should be condemning Trump and these tactics? And what will their excuse be when it is too late, when more of our fellow citizens die doing the peoples’ business? Threats and intimidations of this kind should be treated every bit as seriously as the Jan. 6 attacks on our Capitol.

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