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By Maya Mehrara
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A shop selling Donald Trump merchandise in Vernon, Connecticut, was vandalized in the early morning hours of October 21 with spray paint and "urine manure spray," store manager Ken Krajewski told Boston.com.
At New England for Trump, a store that sells Trump-themed hats, flags, T-shirts, and more, the vandals reportedly spraypainted the words "fascist" and "Nazi" on the outside of the building, along with images of genitalia before leaving, Krajewski said.
The shop manager said that prior to the incident, two people came into the store on Sunday and sprayed a liquid that smelled like urine on the hats before running away. The same two people returned that evening to vandalize the store further, he said.
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Newsweek reached out to New England for Trump, the Vernon Police Department, and the Trump campaign via email for comment.
In a statement provided to Newsweek by the Trump campaign, speaking of the vandalism, RNC Spokesperson Taylor Rogers said, "This vandalism seems to mirror the desperate message coming from Kalama and other dangerously liberal Democrats. These ugly smears are intended to intimidate Trump voters and supporters who know that when it comes to the economy, the border, and our nation's presence as a world leader, Kamala broke it and Trump will fix it."
The store is part of a chain with locations in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Georgia and Texas. The Vernon location has been open since August.
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Vernon Police Lieutenant Robert Marra said that the department was investigating the matter on Wednesday but did not provide further details, according to The New Haven Register.
The store reportedly reopened on Tuesday. The manager said that multiple people in the community have called to offer their assistance in cleaning up the vandalism.
Describing the damage done to the store, Krajewski told Hartford news station WFSB, "I cleaned most of it off with some cleaner and a scraper. I covered it up with some flags until we figure it out."
The spray-painted words "fascist" and "Nazi" may be in direct reference to Trump's former chief of staff, John Kelly's allegations that, while president, Trump said he needed "generals like Adolf Hitler had" and praised the dictator's leadership.
Kelly also alleged that Trump said he saw "good things" that Hitler did during his dictatorship and said that he believed the former president was a "fascist."
Trump responded to Kelly's claims in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday in which he called him a "lowlife" with "Trump Derangement Syndrome."
Police in Massachusetts are also investigating after yard signs in support of Harris, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, and Democratic Representative Jim McGovern were set on fire last week.
The man who owned the vandalized signs, Blaine Bershad, wrote on Facebook: "It was just a few signs, easily replaced. The point is clear the signs are about free speech. This act shows a lack of respect for other's opinions as well as other's properties."
"We feel threatened, wouldn't you? This is how it starts. Fascism is alive in Sterling, Massachusetts," he added.
Newsweek spoke to Reed Wood, a professor at the University of Essex, about the prevalence of electoral violence in the U.S., and how it has increased in the period ahead of the election.
Wood noted that in comparison to other countries globally, in the past few decades, the U.S. had lower levels of domestic political violence than the global average, although they were higher than those in the U.K. and other Western European countries. However, he specified that electoral violence began increasing in the mid-2000s, and accelerated in 2016.
He said, "In addition to a general increase, violence appears be more organized and more persistent in the U.S. What were probably more isolated incidents by individuals have become repeated events and, in some cases, more coordinated. One of the big concerns I see here is the rise in paramilitary-type groups in the U.S. Probably beginning around the 2012 election or maybe just before, firearms became increasingly common—though still rare—at political rallies, particularly among the Tea Pary Movement."
Wood continued, "But by 2016 organized well-armed groups, sometimes in uniforms, became a frequent feature of the campaign period and elections. While most of these groups are right-wring populists, there are an increasing number of leftwing, anarchist, and other groups. Coupled with rising political polarization, tribalism, and the perception that politics is increasingly zero-sum, there is a real potential for significant violence. And I think people in the U.S. are aware of this. A recent YouGov poll found that 25 percent of Americans fear large-scale violence after the coming election."
While Wood said that violence against politicians and candidates is not new, threats and attacks against them have begun to rise in the U.S. and Europe.
He also specified that the nature of the domestic political violence in the U.S. has begun to change, as "Americans seems to feel much greater animosity toward citizens on the other side of the political spectrum, and more Americans seem to tolerate violence against their political opponents or see violence as justified. In fact, recent studies are suggesting that non-trivial numbers of citizens see violence as a potentially necessary and justifiable means to achieve the political outcomes they want. Even though this is probably the case for only a smallish minority of citizens, that it is becoming more common is a serious concern. These features are antithetical to the stable liberal democracy that Americans have enjoyed for the past century."
Updated 10/25/24, 10:45 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comments from the RNC and Reed Wood.
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