Thugocracy

With Trump starting so many fights with so many different parties, how do we make sense of it all, and how do we proceed?

Image courtesy of VICE

Migrants. Trans people. Trading partners. Law firms. The media. Academia. Trump has attacked all of these and spread fear and uncertainty quite literally across the world.

With so much vying for the headlines these days, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by his assaults. But there’s a common denominator at work that can help us cut through the noise.

We already know that every accusation by Trump is a confession. That’s why he yammers on about the MS-13 gang in El Salvador. Kilmar Abrego García, now deported to a prison in that country due to “administrative error,” originally fled that country precisely because gangs were exploiting a lawless situation to extort his family’s business there. They threatened to harm or kill Abrego García if his family didn’t pay up.

And when you think about it, that’s exactly what Trump is doing here in the U.S. Whether it’s imposing punishing tariffs, stripping security clearances, or withholding billions in federal funds, Trump is extorting his way through his second term. Only here, it’s big countries, big firms and big schools. He’s saying “Pay up or else.” Classic mob boss behavior.

Once we frame Trump as a common thug, many things crystallize and lock into place. This is important not only to predict what he will do but also to demonstrate how we should respond.

It’s helpful to ascend to 30,000 feet, above all the stormy weather, to get a clearer picture of what’s actually happening. So come aboard Fight Back airlines today and get the lay of Trumpland below.

Punching down

Every playground bully looks around to determine who are the weakest and most vulnerable. In the U.S. that would be migrants and trans people. Both groups are now on the “outs” with voters, in large measure due to hateful and false propaganda put out by the Trump campaign itself.

The targeting of these groups serves at least three key purposes.

First, it demonstrates Trump’s willingness to deploy his power against actual people, stripping them of their rights and dehumanizing them in the eyes of the public.

Second, and relatedly, it conditions the public. Supporters of Trump feed off the hate and cruelty, while others who might oppose him grow fearful and silent, hoping that if they just keep their heads down and say nothing, the Trump storm will pass over them.

Third, the people he targets become scapegoats and a distraction whenever anything else is going badly. Sky high prices from the tariffs? Look at this migrant killer! Social security checks not arriving? Run another story on trans athletes! If you don’t believe me, spend a few hours watching Fox News lately.

Picking off

Another favorite practice of thugs and bullies is to isolate victims and then make them submit one by one. “Give me your lunch money!” demands the playground bully. “Pay for my protection,” warns the gang leader. “Accept my terms or else,” blusters the thug in the White House.

The bully, mob boss and autocrat know the game well. Each child, merchant or institution, alone, can’t, and very likely won’t, stand up to them. They get their way because their victims are frequently disorganized, leaderless and downtrodden.

Moreover, Trump shrouds his attacks on entirely bogus grounds in order to justify them. With migrants, they are all “criminals and rapists”—again, a bold accusation/confession. With Canada, it was non-existent fentanyl coming across the border. With the universities, it’s his claim they permitted antisemitism to flourish on campus. That’s an ironic and once again quite telling position coming from an administration where top aides and officials have given public Nazi salutes and supported neo-Nazi ideology and political parties.

Still, by separating out victims from the herd and painting them with broad, unfounded strokes, Trump was able to get his way, at least initially. He forced huge settlements with media companies whose mergers he could hold up. He extorted big law firms into “agreements” to work for free for his causes or lose their security clearance. And he bent Columbia University to his will after he threatened withholding $400 million in federal funding.

Each new capitulation only confirmed to the public that our “guardrails” no longer exist and that Trump’s threats are working because, in the end, our institutions had no spine.

Too cocky

If Trump had any wits about him, he would know there are limits to what a bully can achieve and some important yet unspoken rules to live by: Keep weaker parties down, reward those who comply with your demands, and don’t take on anyone who might expose you for what you really are.

Trump broke all of these rules in short order, in part because he’s an idiot, and in part because there’s no one around him to tell him honestly that he has overreached or blundered.

It was one thing to go after Canada and Mexico on trade and tariffs. Both economies are highly dependent on the U.S. market and so integrated with our own that a hike in tariffs would throw both into a deep recession. They tried for months to appease Trump, and he very much relished their pleas for relief, but ultimately they did not move him off his mindset.

But it was entirely another thing to go toe-to-toe with an economic superpower, China. After the bond markets forced Trump to back off his “Liberation Day” worldwide tariffs for 90 days, Trump refocused his ire on China alone, raising tariffs on that country to well above 100 percent. But instead of begging for mercy, China retaliated with high tariffs of its own. Chinese analysts and officials declared that not only could their nation weather the storm, China had been around for over 5,000 years (during most of which the U.S. did not even exist), and would not now surrender to Trump in a trade war.

Within a day, and under pressure from high tech executives, Trump caved and exempted many of the most valuable manufactured imports, including chips, electronics and phones.

Remember when Trump kicked the Associated Press out of the White House briefing room because it (checks notes) continued to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its correct, internationally accepted name? The AP, which isn’t owned by a billionaire whose business with the government can be put at risk, decided to fight back. Last week its suit to stop its exclusion was successful, and the White House reinstated its access—at least for a time.

Trump picked the wrong fight with universities this week, too. He went after Harvard, with its $53 billion endowment, threatening to cut off $2 billion in federal research funding unless it acceded to the White House’s numerous overreaching demands. Like China, Harvard decided that surrender was not an option. Yesterday, it gave Trump the middle finger, to the cheers of other universities who now see that fighting back is not only possible but necessary.

Importantly, Harvard had learned from Columbia’s capitulation, where giving in to Trump had only resulted in more demands and more humiliation. As the New York Times reported, Lee C. Bollinger, Columbia’s president for 21 years, recognized that a strategy of “negotiation and conciliation seems to have no acceptable ending point.” And Dr. Steven Pinker, a psychology professor and co-president of the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard, believed that the institution might have tried to negotiate as Columbia had, “if it had assurance that the administration was negotiating in good faith.”

Scorched earth

We’re at the point in the movie when George McFly, after getting knocked around for coming to the rescue of his future wife, has finally gathered enough courage to ball up his fist and punch Biff Tannen in the face, laying him flat.

Trump really doesn’t like it when his victims punch back because he knows how it usually goes for bullies, both in real life and the movies. So he’s trying to destroy any victories before they can take effect.

In Abrego García’s case, the White House has indicated in a filing that even if he is returned to the U.S., he will be deported again because he (allegedly) is a member of MS-13. There’s no credible proof of this other than a mere nonsensical statement from an ICE agent with a highly questionable record. But Trump doesn’t like to “lose,” so he plans to take away the win.

In the AP’s case, the White House has now changed its policy to eliminate the spot in the White House briefing room for the daily press corp rotation altogether. The message is clear: If the courts say the AP cannot be excluded because of its content, then it will be excluded because there will be no wire service coverage at all for anyone. As CNN noted, this would impact newswire customers such as local news outlets that rely on the AP because they don’t have White House correspondents of their own.

Now that Harvard has stood up to Trump, the White House claims it will eliminate Harvard’s tax-exempt status if it does not capitulate, adding to the pain he has threatened to inflict upon the university. He is hoping to make an example of Harvard so that other institutions do not get any wild ideas about defying him. Harvard no doubt expected an escalation, but it is holding firm so far and has already indicated that it will sue to protect its rights and its academic freedom.

By going scorched earth, Trump is hoping to crush the spirit of the opposition. After all, what good is it to resist the federal government under Trump if he just finds another way to come after anyone for anything he wants?

Lifeboats and leaders

This reaction is understandable, but it mistakes the true purpose of resistance to fascism. We don’t resist because we think we will win every fight. We resist because it is the right thing to do. The way to defeat a common thug or bully in the White House is to stand up to him at every turn. He cannot win if all of us are determined to fight.

Perhaps even more importantly, courage is contagious; clear-eyed, determined opposition is what can and will defeat Trumpism.

The late Buddhist master Thíct Nhất Hạnh wrote of the importance of steady leadership and moral clarity in life-threatening circumstances:

In Vietnam, there are many people, called boat people, who leave the country in small boats. Often the boats are caught in rough seas or storms, the people may panic, and boats can sink. But if even one person aboard can remain calm, lucid, knowing what to do and what not to do, he or she can help the boat survive. His or her expression — face, voice — communicates clarity and calmness, and people have trust in that person. They will listen to what he or she says. One such person can save the lives of many.

Though it has taken some time, and our national vessel seemed all but ready to capsize, we now have many strong examples of what it looks like to stand up to Trumpism. We’ve seen how he often folds his hand when we do. So it is now up to everyone else onboard who, despite fearing for their lives and livelihoods, must now trust in this message, remain calm and collected, and help right our ship.