Trump’s America
Ishaan Shah, Print Staff Writer
November 24, 2020
Online Submission
"Proud Boys, stand back and stand by," said the President of the United States to a right wing extremist group. This perfectly sums up four years of President Donald Trump. He came in with the promise of ‘Make America Great Again!’, but he has simply exacerbated existing divides in America again. The picture above, taken in Charlottesville in 2017 during the infamous ‘Unite the Right’ rally epitomises America under Trump - left versus right. Trump came into power as a candidate who was known as someone who is ‘ideologically moderate’, someone who is not as conservative as the Republican party would hope for him to be, but also not someone who can be called a ‘left-wing’ politician. In the following 4 years, we found out what he actually is.
Trump’s political positions have been described as populist, protectionist, isolationist, and nationalist - summed up as what political analysts call ‘Trumpism’. Trumpism is defined as ‘what the president believes on any particular moment on any particular day about any particular subject’. It is an America-first ideology which provides nationalist solutions to political, social and economic problems. The problem is not that it is nationalist, but that he is using and promoting white supremacy, white extremism and police brutality while solving these problems.
After the death of George Floyd, there were nationwide protests, and Trump did nothing to appease those who had taken to the streets to showcase their displacement with the systemic racism in American society and its policing system. He did not acknowledge systemic racism, instead tweeting ‘These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!’ The phrase ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts’ has a racially charged history. It was used in the civil rights era by a white police chief cracking down on protests who had a long history of bigotry against the black community.
Trump then called himself a ‘president of law and order’ in a speech from the Rose Garden and said that he would mobilize every available federal force, both civilian and military to put an end to the violent protests and asked governors and mayors to establish an ‘overwhelming law enforcement presence’ and recommended deploying the National Guard to ‘dominate the streets’. He threatened to deploy the military to ‘solve the problem’ if a mayor or governor refused to take action and quell the violence. While he was giving this speech, law enforcement used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear out peaceful protestors on Pennsylvania Avenue so that the president could have a clear path for a photo-op at St. John’s Episcopal Church, where he went and held up a Bible. He called those protestors 'terrorists’ although they were peacefully protesting and exercising their First Amendment rights, which is a breach of the oath he took to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’ He condemned the work of Antifa and officially labelled it a terrorist organization, but called the Proud Boys a hate group and Michigan Militia, a pro-gun, anti-governemnt paramilitary group, both wielding firearms and marching on the streets of Lansing, Michigan to protest against the lockdown ‘very fine people’. They were waving Trump flags alongside Swastikas and Confederate flags. He called on them to ‘liberate’ the state, after which these people stormed the Michigan State Capitol. He went on to denounce ‘racist violence’ but not white nationalists specifically. On the flip side, he called the Black Lives Matter mural which has been painted outside the Trump Tower in New York a ‘symbol of hate’. Finally, Trump instructed federal agencies to end racial sensitivity training which addressed critical topics such as white privilege and critical race theory, calling them ‘divisive, anti-American propaganda.’ Finally, Trump failed to condemn the 17 year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, suspected to have shot and killed two people during the protests in Kenosha, saying that he would have died had he not shot them. If this does not show how he has stoked violence and white nationalism in the United States, nothing will.
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the true shortcomings of Trump’s policies and governance. He has not only come up short, but also lied about various aspects of the virus multiple times. He even downplayed the virus and admitted to Bob Woodward in an interview that he did so because he wanted to avoid panic in the country. He made statements like ‘it’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle - it will disappear.’ This was clearly misleading, and a few days later, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases warned that community transmission was expected to increase. He made suggestions such as using a powerful light or an injected disinfectant to help combat the virus, which he said were ‘sarcastic’ statements. The American people know that their President has not given the country the right leadership during this time, with 57% of Americans agreeing that President Trump has been delivering the wrong message on COVID-19. The opinion polls for the election also reflect how the American people disapprove of Trump and his policies. A joint poll by ABC News and The Washington Post from October 6th-9th shows that 54% of Americans support Joe Biden while 43% support Trump, compared to 50% for Biden and 46% for Trump in January, a major difference in opinions for both Candidates, especially Trump in these 10 months.
Trump has divided opinion, and America, over these past 4 years. Another 4 years of him would do a lot more harm than good. He undid all the progress that the Obama administration had made with respect to racial equality and to achieve a fair, just country for all. Yes, the stock market hit record highs during Trump’s reign, but at what cost? Is compromising America’s foundational values worth that much? That choice is up to the voters.