Well, it didn’t take long for President Trump and the republican right wing to try to resurrect the immigrant boogeyman in the weird pair of terrorist attacks that took place right on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

First, of course, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who drove his rented Ford pickup about a quarter of a mile down Bourbon Street about three hours after midnight, killing fourteen people and injuring and at least thirty-five others. Jabbar has a very suspicious sounding name and is, in fact, not only a convert to Islam but also a follower of the Islamic State. He is not an immigrant, however. No, he was born in Houston, and is a 10-year veteran of the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of staff sergeant.

As one meme suggested, he “daringly made the cross from the state of Texas to the United States.”

I mean, here were our conservatives, so close to being able to blame another effing immigrant for this hideous behavior, only he turns out, really, to be one of our own.

Then, the other guy turned out to be just another average Trump supporting white guy.  Master Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger, 37, on leave from the U.S. Army, rented a Tesla Cybertruck in Colorado in late December which he then drove to Las Vegas over several days. Livelsberger has decades of experience with the US military, having served in both the Army and National Guard. A decorated Special Forces Intelligence Sergeant, he was stationed in Germany but on approved leave at the time of the incident. There’s a photo of him in a Trump shirt from the 2000 election.

His suicidal explosion of the Tesla truck did much less damage than one might have anticipated. It was mostly limited to the interior of the truck, because the explosion “vented out and up” and didn’t hit the Trump hotel doors just a few feet away.

There were a couple of odd coincidences in the two events, including that both used the “Turo” car service to rent their trucks, and both served for a time at Fort Bragg (now known as Fort Liberty). 

Otherwise, there was no connection, other than that nobody seems to know the motive of either of these guys.

But again, look for the right wing to work feverishly to convince their supporters to prove that at least one of these incidents is the work of immigrants.