Pro: Elegant, stylish nod to the Queen City
— Yoni Appelbaum (@YAppelbaum) August 1, 2019
Con: This is a presidential nominating convention. That is a literal British crown. pic.twitter.com/gUXIS6pLBl
[A] group calling itself the Lion Guard has launched a web site, seeking to organize supporters of Donald Trump into a militia to counter protests at Trump rallies. The group claims to be “dedicated to the safety and security of Trump supporters,” but has also declared itself willing to use violence, “willing to forcefully protect” Donald Trump from people it perceives to be threats.
Over the weekend, the Lion Guard organized a Twitter account, which quickly gained over 500 followers, but then shut down in under 24 hours. This led many to believe that the Lion Guard was defunct. Attention to the militia faded, but it soon popped up again at a different Twitter account, and now is organizing through its own web site, at LionsOfTrump [.net].
The first question that comes to mind is why the militia calls itself the Lion Guard or the Lions of Trump. What’s up with the lion?
Actually, lion imagery is found throughout imagery used by Trump supporters, in bumper stickers, on tshirts, and on campaign buttons, as well as on graphics online. It’s not an accident that the Lion Guard chose that name for itself, or that it chose to create an image of a lion as its icon and as the header for its web site.
Donald Trump, the Lion, yet again
The reason Trump supporters use the lion in their materials is revealed in the main image from the Lion Guard web site, the image you see at the top of the article. The image of a lion is accompanied by the motto, “Better to be a lion for a day than a lamb for eternity.”
That motto is almost a word-for-word translation of a favorite saying of Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who said, “It is better to live a day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” Is it a coincidence that the Lion Guard used this phrase in its call to form a militia for the “defense” of Donald Trump from protesters?
