Trump: Troops against democracy
While he is putting himself forward as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize with his plan for Gaza, Trump is militarizing cities and states governed by Democrats, which he perceives as disaffected by his obsessively personalistic leadership. It is important not to lose sight of this, because as soon as Hamas announced that it accepted the conditions proposed by the US president—in collusion with Netanyahu—the would-be Trumpists appeared, celebrating that the only one capable of advancing the Middle East conflict was not NATO or the European Union, but Sheriff Trump. But it is not true that what is being negotiated is a peace plan per se (the creation of a Palestinian state, for now, is not even foreseen): the implications of Trump's plan have been very well explained, for example, by Cidob researchers Samuele C. Abrami and Moussa Bourekba). And it is less certain that Trump is a leader favorable to the cause of peace.
On the contrary, Trump's attitude and ideological profile are absolutely bellicose and authoritarian. He is a figure fascinated by violence and weapons, who has repeatedly defended torture as a means of imposing order and law, and who does not hesitate to resort to coercion and institutional violence against political adversaries and the media. There will be plenty of time to discuss his plan for Gaza, because one thing is certain: after the genocide that the Israeli government has perpetrated and continues to perpetrate against the Palestinians, the idea of achieving a stable pacification of the region is a pipe dream.
But what is advancing is the militarization of US political life. Under the guise of responding to riots supposedly caused by immigrants, Trump is discrediting Democratic mayors and governors and sending the National Guard to deploy troops in the streets and squares of American cities. This week, he was in Chicago, and the confrontation that ensued between the city's mayor, Brandon Johnson, and the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, and Trump is tense and bitter: more of an orange thug than ever, Trump has even called for Johnson and Pritzker to be imprisoned, while 500 soldiers were deployed throughout the city center. Chicago joins an alarming list of militarized cities that already includes Memphis, Portland, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. New York and New Orleans are under threat of deploying troops.
Trump's message is that of any dictator: you can be with him or against him, and if you're against him, you have to face the consequences. The far right is pro-civil war, and Trumpism's flirtation with the idea of an internal armed confrontation is more than evident. In fact, the 2021 assault on the Capitol, from which he has escaped unpunished, was already a warning in this regard. Beware of this drift: let's not forget that Trump is, today, the benchmark for the world's right (extreme and supposedly not so extreme).