On August 29, the United States government offered military funeral honors for Ashli Babbitt, who, believing in Trump’s big lie that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen, rioted at the Capitol in an effort to overturn the will of the American people, threatened the lives of Senators, and was subsequently shot and killed by Capitol police.
This comes after the Trump administration kowtowed to Babbitt’s family, paying about $5 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit. Judicial Watch, an infamous far-right organization, had a role in requesting the the military honors.
A United States Air Force spokesperson vaguely stated that the military honors were offered “after reviewing the circumstances.” Babbitt’s family was invited to the Pentagon.
Perceived martyrs and the worship of martyrdom are very common in authoritarian and totalitarian movements. The murder of Horst Wessel, a young Nazi, would form the basis of the co-national anthem of the Nazi Party, and was used in other propaganda, for instance.
