Trend Lines

The storming of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., by pro-Trump insurrectionists earlier this month was both shocking and utterly unsurprising. After all, for anyone paying attention to the rioters’ social media posts in the days and weeks leading up to the event, they made their intentions clear. A subset of the participants appeared to have technical training, and had laid meticulous plans well in advance of Jan. 6.  The attack on the Capitol, then, was a culmination—not just of the insurrectionists’ efforts to train and arm themselves for a violent revolt, but also of years of recruitment and radicalization by right-wing militias and other violent groups in the United States, all too often egged on by Donald Trump and his supporters.  But Jan. 6 was also the beginning of a dangerous new era in which attacks by violent extremists could become commonplace, says Colin Clarke, a specialist on domestic and transnational terrorism at the Soufan Group, an intelligence and security consultancy. This week on Trend Li