This past week, 13 men belonging to paramilitary groups were arrested in a horrifying plot to kidnap Michigans Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Based on what can be gleaned from the mens social media pages, they fit a familiar profile of far-right vigilantism in America.

They are white men. Most appear to be supporters of President Donald Trump. They consume disinformation and conspiracy theories online with abandon. They see a new American civil war on the horizon, and theyre more than eager to fire some of the first shots.

Ive met these types of men before, all across the country, over the last four years while covering the American far right as a reporter. Ive also seen the damage theyve caused, and spoken to the people whose lives theyve upended.

These men are part of an insurgent Make America Great Again fascist movement here, the size and power of which keeps me up at night. Although its a movement with origins that long predate the president, its one that today generates much of its cruel energy and momentum from his words.

LIBERATE MICHIGAN! Trump tweeted in April in a show of support for the armed protesters gathering outside Michigans state Capitol to protest Whitmers COVID-19 lockdown measures.

In the weeks that followed, these supporters would march into the state Capitol carrying long guns. They stood along a balcony and looked down menacingly at legislators. Among them were some of the 13 militia group members arrested this week.

Whitmer blamed Trump for the plot to kidnap her, telling reporters Thursday that the presidents rhetoric incites more domestic terror .

Scholars of fascism, who have long warned of this link between a leaders rhetoric and the violence committed by his followers, agree. Jason Stanley, a professor of philosophy at Yale University and author of the book How Fascism Works, told me once that hateful speech from public leaders, left unchallenged, can become normalized.

And then violence occurs like five to six years later, Stanley said. Look at Myanmar, look at Rwanda, look at Nazi Germany. You have some years between the onset of the hate speech and the normalization of violence and mass violence.

In fascist movements, Stanley said, theres always a relationship between the rhetoric and the unofficial militia. Thats what were looking at right now.

Americas unofficial militias, its white vigilantes , have been feeding off Trumps hateful speech for years now. He launched his presidential campaign in 2015, after all, by calling Mexicans rapists. That same year he called for a complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the U.S.

He won the 2016 election perhaps not despite those racist statements but because of them, and, in the four years since, headline after headline has described escalating acts of political violence committed by his supporters and by those who share his hateful worldview headlines so frequent and relentless as to make them routine.

I wrote some of those headlines and it feels urgent now, in the final weeks leading up to this presidential election, to revisit those stories, and to recount the scale and intensity of MAGA hate and terror, lest it all becomes even more normalized.

The months after Trumps inauguration were fraught with uncertainty and fear. Reports emerged of terrifying hate crimes, and in May 2017, I found myself in Portland, Oregon, talking to 22-year-old Ellie Lawrence , whose boyfriend had just been murdered.