If the next four years are anything like last week, it’s going to be hell.
I woke up the morning after Trump’s inauguration. The thought of what this country is becoming – and how it is certainly now represented in the rest of the world – has overcome me. After all, days like Mondays don’t come around very often; It’s not every day that a felon in rebellion, a sex offender, a white nationalist inspector, a demagogue, a man his own aides have called “fascist to his core” returns to the White House with broad immunity thanks to the US Supreme Court.
But sobbing we are not very far. As much as I wish I could stay in bed grieving all that was about to happen, I know now more than ever it’s important to keep my eyes open. We need to have a clear understanding of what is happening and how the vast powers of the US federal government will be rolled back under Trump’s monstrous agenda. We need to know first so we can move the witness, second so we have a road map for how to reverse the damage when his regime is over, as it surely is one day. Remember, the premise of this column is “hidden in plain sight.” It is about examining the things that Trump 1.0 did, at least somewhat covertly, but now, in a regime freed from any political or moral constraints, is doing before our eyes. Fascist rituals. Corruption and brutality. Godfathers. Ignoring federal rules and regulations. A general attack on basic democratic norms.
What was the 47th president’s first days in office? Well, the most shocking act, perhaps the biggest Foo in American political history, was issued Pardons for over 1,500 violent rebels From their participation in the attempt to overthrow the constitutional system of government in 2021. All these paramilitaries and thugs are free again and the commander in chief has reframed them as “hostages” and with the full force of the justice department in magafids now turned About investigating and potentially prosecuting, the career professionals who were building cases against these thugs for trying to decapitate the American democracy.
For most leaders, this would be enough of a massacre, within a week. Not for Trump. He signed the executive order for citizenship at birthdenying status to US-born children, undocumented immigrants, and those living in the country on visas. By signing the executive order, Trump claims he has the authority to unilaterally repeal a Civil War amendment to the Constitution to ensure America can never return to the vile principles of slavery that defined its early history. (Read Ellie Mistall gap along the line Find out from the order how unconstitutional it really is. In fact, they’ve been telegraphing this exact move for years, giving attorneys general from the Democratic Bar, the ACLU, and a host of other civil rights groups plenty of time to prepare legal arguments.
Not surprisingly, by Thursday, a judge had temporarily stayed the executive order — and issued a scathing declaration that it was clearly unconstitutional. But Trump and his minions don’t care about the Nicetes of the law. They’re itching to pick a fight on this one, and it’s entirely possible that whatever the courts decide, they’ll just order workers in the magified government to continue denying social security numbers and passports to these kids.
It’s hard to see any silver lining here, but I guess if there is one, what’s good for the goose is presumably also good for the gander. In other words, if the GOP can now decide that some parts of the Constitution are sacrosanct and others can be tossed aside for political whim, well, then when the Democrats are in control, I hope they bring a damn sledgehammer to all the Second Amendment Second the “Rights” amendment inflicts the killing delivery vehicles that are so valuable to heavily armed Trump supporters.
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What else? The newly minted president immediately closed the southern border and sent Thousands of active service troops To patrol the region, a reimagined image of the Third Reich being remade, with heavily armed soldiers patrolling the barbed wire line to protect the purity of the Motherland and its people from desperate migrants and their children. He accompanied this action with closure US Refugee Resettlement Programleaving tens of thousands of military fugitives hanging in the balance for longer than there are “resources” to help them. Trump pulled this same trick during his first presidency; It was a no-brainer then, and it’s still a no-brainer today.
If you’re already exhausted, you’re not alone. But we are not even close to this terrible week. Other executive orders Trump signed just hours after taking office, pulling the U.S. out of Paris Climate Agreements (for the second time) and World Health Organization. Given Trump’s antipathy to anything climate-related, and given his immense suspicion of public health organizations, these actions are about as unsurprising as farting after eating. But just because they aren’t amazing doesn’t mean they aren’t stunningly devastating. While La Fires We have been shown to be going from one climate-changed disaster to the next, and as the avian flu threat shows, we are just a few viral mutations away from the next global pandemic. Henceforth, it appears that official policy in the US is either to bury our collective heads in the sand regarding climate and societal catastrophes, or worse, to ensure that such catastrophes become more frequent and larger. I doubt the US government has ever put its Imprimatur on a more Looney Tunes pack of ideas than those advocating for Trump 47.
And then there are his constant threats to overturn the world economic order by imposing a huge Tariffs for the nearest trading partners in Americaand to disrupt the supply chains painstakingly built over the past century in an effort “enrich” Americans at the expense of the rest of the world. Something tells me the rest of the world will not take kindly to being treated solely as American vassals from here to eternity. Something also tells me that, in the end, these policies will be about as destructive as the trade wars and tariff barriers that the great powers adopted after the 1929 banking crash.
The list of offensive political actions and gestures this week goes on and on. Trump accepted a Federal government hiring freeze and almost A fetish attack on DEI programs, devitalized by the CDCpassed to the end protections for transgender Americansand, as if his other pardons were not sufficient, a full pardon was granted Founder of Silk Road Dark-Web Marketa gift of staggering proportions to the world of organized crime. Oh, and there’s the small matter of Elon Musk twice inspiration Führer, to give the Nazi salute During Trump’s inauguration.
Now, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, giving one Nazi salute is embarrassing, but giving two, well, that’s just political imprudence. After all, probably even in its unhappy, post-literate, post-moral, pro-Trump state, America in 2025 has a residual memory that the Nazis were very, very, very bad people. Still, Musk’s itchy arm, so similar to Dr. Strange in Stanley Kubrick’s classic nuclear apocalypse satire, apparently just couldn’t take the bait Sieg Heil a gesture
And that, I think, is an apt metaphor for this first week of the dishonest Trump presidency. Trump, the party he so thoroughly conquered, and his gangster minions riding triumphantly into the citadel of power, none of them can resist this Sieg Heilthis public rite of the fascist hierarchy. No one can resist the allure of an iron fist and the seductive cracking sound of kicking ribs.
All this in mind. With America in a new colonial war and with every policy aimed at “enriching” this country at the expense of all remaining or reserve and already vulnerable and marginalized Americans, the country and the world are paying the price. It will be hell.
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