A Week in Trump’s America: Seven Examples of Trump’s Self-Defeating Cruelty, Chaos, and Retribution

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Washington, DC —It’s been another busy week in Trump’s America, with immigration chaos and self-defeating cruelty a through line between an array of announcements and activities.

According to Mario Carrillo, Campaigns Director for America’s Voice:

“This week was yet another window into a presidency that is more interested in stoking outrage, fear, and seeking retribution rather than advancing the interests or upholding the values of America. This week in Trump’s America encapsulates many of the harms and self-defeating chaos all of us are living through, with a through line that involves an ugly and racialized view of immigration and an attempt to remake the nation in Trump’s preferred image, which those of us who live in El Paso, like all communities across America, know very well the dangers of these policies and rhetoric.”

Among the many relevant announcements and activities include the following six storylines emanating from the Trump administration:

• Ramped up ICE arrests at courthouses nationwide … AP reported on the “coordinated dragnet,” noting “government attorneys were given the order to start dismissing cases when they showed up for work Monday, knowing full well that federal agents would then have a free hand to arrest those same individuals as soon as they stepped out of the courtroom.”

• Scaled up the targeting of longtime undocumented residents and trusted workers with deep ties to their communities, including faith leaders, business owners, and parents, all while spreading fears and harms on local economies and key industries.

• Announced the revocation of Harvard’s certification for foreign students’ admission in a DHS announcement that is almost certainly unlawful and definitely is self-defeating to the nation, given the important civic, economic, scientific and academic contributions of international students at Harvard and elsewhere.

• Cheered as the House of Representatives passed a massive tax cut and budget bill that would, among other provisions, turbocharge mass deportations and family separations and escalate the Trump efforts to flout judicial rulings, while slashing essential healthcare, food security, and economic assistance that vulnerable Americans rely on (see AV’s deeper dive take here)

•  Advanced the dangerous white nationalist “invasion” conspiracy and politicize intelligence findings in order to justify their anti-immigrant actions, including administration attempts to attack democratic pillars like due process and habeas corpus protections. Read ProPublica’s new investigative piece, “The ‘Invasion’ Invention: The Far Right’s Long Legal Battle to Make Immigrants the Enemy” and read Gabe Ortiz on the America’s Voice website blog, “Lack of Intelligence: Trump, Miller, and Gabbard Lie About So-Called ‘Invasion’” for more.

•  Celebrated the Supreme Court ruling that gave the administration the green light to rescind Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans. As America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cardenas stated, “The administration’s choice to strip status and protections from Venezuelans here with lawful and legal status is part of their larger effort to make as many individuals as possible deportable … [it] does nothing to fix our immigration system or make Americans safer. Instead, it replaces a functional, legal program with more of the chaos and cruelty that Americans are already recoiling from.”

•  Insulted the South African President in the Oval Office while advancing racist conspiracy theories that underpin the disparate and welcoming treatment of white Afrikaners. President Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and voiced the lie and conspiracy of white genocide – all of which underpins the administration welcoming and resettling of white Afrikaners while they seek to purge or block the entrance of mostly Black and brown immigrants and refugees. As Vanessa Cárdenas told the New York Times, “There’s no subtext and nothing subtle about the way this administration’s immigration and refugee policy has obvious racial and racist overtones … While they seek to single out Afrikaners for special treatment, they simultaneously want us to think mostly Black and brown vetted newcomers are dangerous despite their background checks and all evidence to the contrary.”