This is an opinion column

President Donald Trump’s “bloodbath” comments presented those of us in the media with an opportunity to build trust with our audiences. Regrettably, countless voices Americans trust continued to sell their souls and the truth for a few more clicks and their preferred political narratives. Writers, reporters, and commentators should respect our audiences enough to be honest with them even when it doesn’t help the points we’re trying to make.

At an event in Dayton, Ohio supporting Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, Trump addressed the prospect of the Chinese selling cheap cars in the United States via factories in Mexico.

“They think that they’re going to sell those cars into the United States with no tax at the border. Let me tell you something to China. If you’re listening President Xi [Jinping], and you and I are friends, but he understands the way I deal: Those big monster car manufacturing plants that you’re building in Mexico right now, and you think you’re gonna get that, you’re gonna not hire Americans and you’re gonna sell the cars to us — no.”

I can’t even begin to diagram Trump’s sentence, but he was clearly talking about the Chinese building cars in Mexico instead of the United States. He continued.

“We’re gonna put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not gonna be able to sell those guys, if I get elected!” Trump said.

Again, Trump spoke about tax and trade policies on foreign automobiles. Then Trump either pivoted to a different topic or continued the same line of conversation.

“Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s gonna to be the least of it — it’s gonna be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it,” he said.

The only way to know Trump’s intention is to look at what comes immediately after.

“But they’re not gonna sell those cars, they’re building massive factories,” Trump continued.

We teach our kids in grade school to read context clues to understand meaning. This is pretty basic stuff. Instead of doing that, countless Democratic partisans, news outlets, and social media pundits seized on the comment and claimed that Trump threatened to kill people if he loses.

President Joe Biden’s campaign immediately capitalized on the “bloodbath” comments. The campaign highlighted Trump’s admiration for authoritarians and his view of January 6th rioters as “hostages.”

To be fair, politics is a rough arena. Trump has foot-in-mouth disease that Democrats will gleefully turn into campaign fodder. That’s relatively normal as far as elections go.

The bigger problem is so many in the media being complicit with a political narrative when it’s clear that Trump was referring to an economic “bloodbath” resulting from an influx of cheap Chinese automobiles via Mexico.

I’m not a Trump acolyte by any stretch of the imagination, but his comments don’t represent a particularly close call in terms of his meaning. When we lie about political opponents as columnists and reporters, we lose credibility. Both Biden and Trump are walking gaffe factories. Anyone with eyes, ears, and an honest conscience knows that.

Calling out Trump’s problematic views, like rank economic protectionism for example, is perfectly fair game. At the same time, we shouldn’t take his comment out of context to claim that he or his supporters will massacre Americans if he doesn’t win.

People are already scared enough.

They’re concerned about who is coming across the Southwest border unchecked. Many families are concerned about out-of-control high prices that aren’t coming back down. We see destructive cultural influences preying on our children. Frankly, the list of things to be concerned about only seems to grow.

Those of us in the media shouldn’t add to the list of fears simply because we know Americans will consume our content if we scare them senseless. Just a little context goes a long way.

According to Alex Nowrasteh of the Cato Institute, “the chance of being killed by a foreign‐born terrorist in the U.S. is about 1 in 4.3 million per year, a very low‐probability event.” As a comparison, he notes, “The annual chance of being the victim of a regular criminal homicide in the U.S. is 1 in 20,134, a much higher probability.” That might not give you warm fuzzy feelings, but neither you nor your family are likely to be killed by a terrorist coming across the border.

Inflation is rough, but some prices have indeed come back down. Eggs, for example, are more than 20 percent off their pandemic highs. Gas prices have pulled back this year. No, we’re not seeing all prices retreat to their 2020 levels, but there’s room for optimism.

While it’s true that the Internet and social media are mostly barren hellscapes, I also spend a lot of time outside in my community with neighbors, friends, and family. I see how much better the real world and live people are than their digital avatars.

Many of us who write, speak, or post have forgotten our responsibility to those we humbly ask to read, listen, or comment. Trust is more important than fear. People matter more than clicks.

Most importantly, context is critical. It also rarely fits our preferred political narratives. We’re left to decide whether political outcomes outweigh truth itself. It shouldn’t be a difficult choice.

Smith is a recovering political attorney with four boys, two dogs, a bearded dragon, and an extremely patient wife. He’s a partner in a media company, a business strategy wonk, and a regular on talk radio. Please direct outrage or agreement to [email protected] or @DCameronSmith on X or @davidcameronsmith on Threads.