Donald Trump and the strategy of chaos
In less than two weeks, federal agents, wearing balaclavas and equipped with paramilitary gear, have unjustifiably murdered two American citizens in broad daylight for peacefully opposing the arbitrary detention of immigrants. The deaths of activist Renee Good and nurse Alex Pretti, labeled "local terrorists" by the Trump administration's propaganda machine, have shocked the state of Minnesota and mobilized protests across the United States.
Border and immigration agents, known as ICE, have become the enforcers of a masked institutional violence in service of an increasingly autocratic exercise of power: arbitrary detentions based on skin color; the imprisonment without charge of activists and observers from civil rights groups; mistreatment of local politicians; and the use of tear gas against students and bystanders who resisted arrest. More than 600,000 deportations, and hundreds of thousands more who have decided to leave the United States for fear of persecution or stigmatization.
A recent Ipsos poll confirms that a majority of Americans consider the ICE shooting in Minneapolis to be an "excessive use of force," and three out of five respondents say that efforts to address unauthorized immigration have gone too far.
Trump exercises a performative but, above all, vindictive presidency. The president uses ICE as a bodyguard deployed to impose force on states that defy him. A spectacle of staged cruelty, to sow fear and demobilize the population that dares to reject Trump's America. And while Democratic authorities in Minnesota acknowledge their powerlessness to expel ICE agents from their cities, Attorney General Pam Bondi dares to demand voter information in the state in exchange for restoring some semblance of normalcy. It reeks of extortion, in a year when the United States is set to hold its midterm elections. The November elections are becoming increasingly uncertain.
Since returning to the White House, the Trump administration has been characterized by a constant erosion of the separation of powers, democratic processes, and civil rights. Neither Congress nor the Supreme Court dares to place limits on it. But a Democratic victory in the midterm The end of the year could pose an obstacle to the agenda of an unhinged Trump.
The impunity that now reigns in the streets of some major American cities fuels this sense of orchestrated chaos that could even justify the invalidation of the ballot boxes by a president whose popularity is plummeting. As in any account of the White House's communication strategy, reality and fiction seem to form part of a whole. But nothing is accidental.
Behind Trump's unpredictability and the inconsistency of his arguments lies a well-defined agenda and strategy. Curtis Yarvin, one of the ideologues of Trumpism, openly advocates ending democracy. And, for the moment, ICE violence is on its way, creating an atmosphere of insecurity and fear; criminalizing resistance.
The message is clear: challenging Trump is not allowed. The monopoly of power is not willing to submit to civil oversight. Cell phones in the hands of citizens overwhelmed by the violence and impunity of arbitrary raids in the streets of major cities like Minneapolis are dangerous weapons that justify murder. Afterward, the propaganda machine will take care of demonizing the victims.
But chaos is merely the means. The noise that muddies everything, as do the lies and manipulation, which target those who dare to challenge the presidential will. Criticism is an unacceptable obstacle. That is why they seek to silence the press with multimillion-dollar lawsuits and imposed censorship, and attack critical voices like that of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, of Somali origin—one of Trump's many obsessions—with xenophobia.
There is no possibility of resistance. Trumpism seeks capitulation. And his administration governs with contempt for the rule of law. Trump is the insurgent who is dismantling the democratic system of the United States.
