In six months in the presidency, Trump’s already established a pattern: When his agenda is floundering, he returns to the theme that first made him a popular figure. In Trump’s rhetoric, America was no longer great not because it was in some graceful decline, but because it was under siege from the forces of disorder: unlawful immigrants and lawless protesters. The vision of America promulgated in his most important speeches - his more-Nixonian-than-Nixon speech accepting the Republican nomination, his “American carnage” inauguration address - is unusually dark for a successful politician in this country. He won early political allies in Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona and the “Angel Moms” whose children were killed by unauthorized immigrants. Trump’s concern with immigration has always primarily been with crime. I said, you can take the hand away, okay?ĭonald Trump's drive for "law and order" undermines the rule of law Under Trump, rank-and-file law enforcement will have more power than ever Trump's administration is a horrifying success Like, don't hit their head and they've just killed somebody. Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over. When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in, rough, I said, please don't be too nice. I saw some photos where Tom ’s guys, rough guys, they're rough, I don't want to be - I don't want to be, you know, say it because they'll say that's not politically correct, you're not allowed to have rough people doing this kind of work.Īt one point, Trump literally instructed the assembled police officers not to protect the heads of suspects who were under arrest and were being loaded into police cars: Just like it’s important to have “a rich guy at the head of commerce,” he said, it’s important to have “rough guys” as ICE agents: Of course, Trump claims that thanks to his administration - one of whose first priorities was to “unshackle” immigration field agents to give them more latitude in going after unauthorized immigrants - the rule of law is being restored.īut Trump’s idea of the “rule of law” is mostly about looking and acting, in his own words, mean. Failure to enforce our immigration laws had predictable results. You say what happened to the old days where people came into this country, they worked and they worked and they worked and they had families and they paid taxes and they did all sorts of things, and their families got stronger and they were closely knit. The lurid details of MS-13 crimes ended up underpinning a theme Trump has used before - that the US is “besieged” by migration (largely, in reality, of children and families) out of Central America: Trump described MS-13 members as “animals” who “have transformed peaceful parks and beautiful, quiet neighborhoods into bloodstained killing fields.”īut the president has never been particularly scrupulous about differentiating “good” and “bad” immigrants. ![]() The ostensible villains of Trump’s speech: the transnational criminal gang MS-13, which started in California but has taken root in El Salvador and whose members have been fingered in a string of high-profile killings in Long Island. In a speech to law enforcement officials in Long Island on Friday, the president of the United States delivered a clear and chilling message: He thinks that unauthorized immigrants are subhuman, and that law enforcement should treat them accordingly.
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