The beginning of Trump's second term has accelerated the questioning of a world order that we believed to be immovable: the increase in economic protectionism, the criminalization of immigration and attacks on those initiatives that seek to promote diversity and equality, and that Unfortunately we have also experienced this in BarcelonaThe US government's agenda is unfolding at its worst.
One of Trump's scapegoats are cities because they represent everything he hates. A few weeks ago, he summoned the mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver, and New York to the House of Representatives to address the immigration crisis, in a clear attempt to criminalize the integration of immigrants into so-called sanctuary cities. This is nothing new: in 2019, he called Baltimore a "chaotic, rat-infested place." The self-serving association between cities, immigration, crime, and insecurity is part of his polarization strategy.
The reality is that Trump doesn't fear cities because they're unsafe or chaotic; he fears them because they represent openness, diversity, and democratic values that can challenge him. Richard Sennett says that living in a city is living in a world full of strangers, and that a city should be a place of encounter, a place of difference, not just a space where people live side by side. Cities enrich us because they make us experience difference not as a threat, but as an opportunity. And this is precisely what Trump is fighting against.
Cities represent everything Trump rejects, and that's why it's in cities that we must build a world that will survive his onslaught. In a time of global darkness and uncertainty, local governments must provide effective solutions to issues that affect the daily lives of our cities, such as the housing crisis, the climate crisis, and inequality.
We must do so by defending the openness and tolerance that characterize us, explaining why cities are worth living in. The transitions we must make are not about winners and losers or sacrifices, as the far right would have us believe, but about everyone living better.
Cities are the first to identify problems and implement policies to address them. Access to housing is a good example of this. Cities around the world are implementing decisive measures such as rent caps, accelerating the production of public housing, and controlling or banning tourist apartments, among others. Responding to urban problems is the best way to counter a wave of reaction that feeds on the discredit of democratic institutions.
In Barcelona, we are clear: we cannot take a step back. Cities must confront our values against Trump's regression and deploy our social, climate, and economic agenda to curb the rise of the far right and its allies.
Cities are the first line of contact and the environment in which to confront governments with authoritarian tendencies. We've seen this in Budapest, in the protests against the Orbán government and its laws targeting the LGBTI+ community, and also these days in Istanbul with the demonstrations following the arrest of the mayor of the Turkish capital. Confronting Trump's retrenchment agenda is also our responsibility.
