By Dan La Botz.
Su Yibai’s translation
Wuyexiao
President Donald Trump is neither a populist fighter of working-class losers as some of his supporters think, nor a fascist dictator as some people fear. Trump, appointed by the Republican establishment, is a dangerous and autocratic militarist whose plan threatens the American people, world peace and the future of the whole planet.
When Trump took office, most Americans were anxious and worried.
Trump’s inaugural speech did not reassure them. Many people were shocked and intimidated by his short and strong remarks, including "the catastrophe of America" and "the mothers and children living in the inner city are deeply poor, the factories are rusty like tombstones, and the schools are full of power and money transactions, but young students are not getting the knowledge they deserve. Crime, gangs and drugs have claimed too many lives and stolen too many undiscovered talents "[Donald Trump," Inaugural Address, "transcript and notation by Aaron Blake, the Washington Post, January 20, 2017, available here.] (Translator’s note: the above is from the inaugural speech of US President Trump, here is the translation of Sohu. com). He quoted the American right-wing movement in the early 1940s — — Anti-Semitic pilot Charles Lindbergh is its spokesman — — The slogan "America first" shocked hundreds of people. As former US President George W. Bush said, "This is really a strange piece of shit!" [ Brooke Seipel, “Report: Bush called Trump’ s inauguration speech ’some weird s— t’ ,” The Hill, March 29, 2017, available here.]
Trump is only very popular in his basic disc. He was elected president with the worst public support rate in the history of opinion polls. This can be proved by the comparison of the support rate in the first month: Trump: 44%, Ronald Reagan: 51%, George ·W·H· Bush: 57%, Bill Clinton: 58%, Richard Nixon: 59%, Jimmy Carter: 66%, dwight eisenhower: 68%, John F. Kennedy: 78%.
If we consider that Trump only won 19.5% of the votes of all eligible voters, while Hillary Clinton won 19.8%, other candidates won 2.2%, and 29.9% of the voters did not vote, and 28.6% of the unqualified votes (because they were either unregistered or felons who lost the right to vote) [Dave, Wasserman, "How America participated in the election," data from U.S. Election Project, U.S. Census Bureau, available here.], it is not surprising that Trump’s poor support rate. Trump was so unpopular that during his first 12 days in office, there were about 12,000 recorded tweets that read "assassinate Trump!" Must be an idea, suggestion or wish. [ Sasha Lekach, “12,000 assassination tweets: Trump’ s social media presence is a new challenge for the Secret Service,” Mashable, Feb. 2, 2017, Available here.] But no matter how unpopular Trump is — — 53% of voters voted against it — — Trump is still sworn in and entered the White House. Many Americans are frightened to disgrace.
To the extreme panic of many liberals and leftists, Trump may bring an authoritarian and reactionary government, and even his administration may provide a springboard for fascism in reality. Equally or even more worrying is that those Americans who voted for Trump did not share these concerns. A question has arisen among Americans of all political factions: What can we expect from such a demagogue, vitriolic, so fond of resorting to violence, so impetuous and unpredictable American president?
Psychologists speculated on the possible psychological problems of Trump. Among them, "narcissism" is the most common statement, but there are also various other psychological diseases. In Atlantic magazine, psychologist Dan P. McAdams wrote:
Donald Trump’s basic personality characteristics indicate an unstable presidency. One possible benefit is an energetic and proactive president, and his relationship with the truth is not so harmonious. He may be a brave, ruthless and aggressive decision-maker, who desperately wants to create the strongest, tallest, brightest and most amazing result — — At the same time, he is also a person who will not carefully consider the collateral damage he has caused. Tough, aggressive, dangerous and explosive. [ Dan P. McAdams, “The Mind of Donald Trump,” The Atlantic, June 2016, available here.]
What a terrible analysis. Another psychologist who has worked in Johns Hopkins University for twenty years, John Gartner, initiated a petition signed by 25,000 people, which reads as follows:
We, the mental health professionals who signed below, believe in our professional judgment: Donald Trump has shown serious mental illness, which makes him mentally incapable of performing the duties of the President of the United States. According to the stipulation in Article 3 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution that "if the president can’t perform his duties, he should resign", we respectfully request to be relieved of his presidency. [ Emily Willingham, “The Trump Psych Debate: Is It Wrong To Say He’ s Mentally Ill?” , available here.]
Others believe that Trump has a brain tumor, a stroke, or is in the early stage of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, which is a hereditary disease of his father. No matter what basis these analyses and guesses are based on, these remarks show that the public is extremely worried about the new president.
There are also a lot of articles comparing Trump and his followers with the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Intellectuals — — The only kind of Americans who know more about other countries besides immigrants and military personnel — — Compare Trump with Viktor Orban and "For a Better Hungary" or with the French National Front led by Marina Le Pen. But most Americans who are more familiar with Hitler want to know whether Trump is a similar dictator. Readers eagerly browse the library or bookstore, consult books about Hitler and Nazi, and even Facebook is full of discussions about Hitler and Trump. Others turn to dark, futuristic novels, such as George Orwell’s 1984, aldous huxley’s Brave New World, or other novels about the rise of fascism in the United States, such as Sinclair Lewis’s It can’t happen here or Philip Roth’s Plotting against America, all of which are in brick-and-mortar bookstores and Amazon.
Trump may be crazy and reactionary, but he is also very smart. On the fourth day after he took office, Trump met with leaders of construction unions, who praised the new president’s plans for large-scale infrastructure projects: highways, bridges and, of course, the border wall. Sean McGarvey, president of the North American Building Union, called his meeting with Trump "an incredible meeting" and "the best meeting I have ever attended in Washington". "We have a common connection with the President," Garvey said. "We come from the same industry. He understands the value of promoting development and pushing people to the middle class. " [Noam Scheiber, "Union Leaders Meet with Trump, Construction Their Minds," The New York Times, Jan.23, 2017, Available Here.] Trump will also attract the president of the historically liberal Auto Workers’ Union, although public employees and service workers’ unions have been opposed to him. Trump made a call to the historical Democratic Labor Foundation and found some allies there.
The beginning of resistance
But many people launched an active resistance. The shock of Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States in November 2016 triggered a new social and political movement that called itself "resistance". On his first day in office, Trump’s Islamophobia, racism, misogyny and right-wing, dictatorship and populist policies set off protests from millions of Americans. They launched a campaign called "(Trump) is not my president!" The movement. Worried that Trump’s cabinet is made up of billionaires and generals, angered by his plan to end Obama’s health care reform plan, dissatisfied with his kindness to dictator Vladimir Putin, shocked by his unreasonable abuse of foreign leaders and governments and shocking Muslim bans, thousands of people across the United States have begun demonstrations and demonstrations that have never happened in two generations.
On January 21st, the first day after Trump took office, more than 500,000 people gathered to participate in the "Women’s March" in Washington, D.C., to protest Trump’s assumption of the presidency, his rude and discriminatory words and deeds and his anti-women policies. Although Washington, D.C. is the home of the demonstration, there are 700 sister demonstrations — — The number of people ranges from hundreds of thousands to 10 thousand — — Held in the streets of the United States of America. In all, it is estimated that 4 million people took part in the largest national demonstration in American history. [ Erica Chenoweth and Jeremy Pressman, “This is what we learned by counting the women’ Marches, "Washington Post, Feb.7, 2017, available here.] Women’s protests reawakened the long-lost women’s movement.
When Trump’s first week in office ended, on the afternoon of January 27th, he issued an executive order against immigrants and refugees, which was well known by his self-proclaimed "Mu Ban Order". From new york City to Seattle, thousands of people came to the country’s main airport on January 28th to protest the executive order. Demonstrations initiated by immigrant rights groups through social media not only took place at JFK Airport in new york — — Thousands of protesters have gathered here — — And Los Angeles airports, but also in small cities like Portland. On January 28th and 29th, tens of thousands of people took part in a protest against the Muslim ban. Rebellious feelings are spreading in the streets and alleys of the country.
Trump’s first few weeks in power did nothing to ease the panic. He constantly attacks his political opponents in the middle of the night, offends foreign leaders from time to time, and often expresses whimsical and unfounded views. At the same time, he also started his political career in a bold way.
A cabinet of billionaires and generals.
Donald Trump is running for president on the economic platform of nativism and nationalism, and he promises to "make America great again" by encouraging more jobs and preventing foreign capital and foreign workers from taking away these jobs. Trump promised to rebuild the national infrastructure and put pressure on enterprises to keep jobs or withdraw industrial jobs to the United States. He promised to protect these jobs from Mexicans and other "illegal immigrants", and at the same time to protect the United States from the pressure of economic competition and Islamic terrorism from China. When he vowed to guarantee social security and medical insurance, he promised to replace and stop the criticized Obama medical reform with a "bigger and better" medical insurance plan. Finally, Trump vowed to end the American foreign war and the American policy of interfering in foreign regime change and focus on "American priority". It is through this nationalist economic program that Trump won just enough votes for electoral college voting in several key States before winning the presidential election.
In order to realize his plan, Trump promised to "drain the swamp of Washington", that is, to eliminate the corruption caused by corporate lobbyists and congressmen who put their private interests above the American people. During his campaign, Trump accused Wall Street bankers and often targeted Goldman Sachs, a financial company close to Clinton. He vowed to limit the term of office of members of Congress, prohibit former members of Congress from becoming lobbyists within five years, and prohibit foreign lobbyists. ["Campaign 2016 Updates," Los Angeles Times, Oct.16, 2016, Available Here.] Trump declared that once the swamp is drained, his nationalist policy will make America great again. When Trump entered the White House in January 2017, people generally doubted: Who will be the candidate for his ruling team? How will he govern? Can he fulfill his promise? The first clue is the cabinet.
Because he is a maverick rather than a politician — — It is the characteristics of "outsider" that make him in power — — Most presidents usually have no political foundation: no shrewd political advisers, no inner-party supporters, no allies in the legislature, no strong ties with the military, and no reliable friends in the media field. The lack of these political connections forced him to rely on his family and friends, such as his daughter ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, as well as his recently acquired partners — — Steven Bannon, a radical right-wing journalist. Without reliable advisers and political aides, he had to turn to the Republican Party and the establishment when forming his cabinet. They are very happy about it.
Just like the Americans for Tax Reform)— — A group that opposes almost all taxes — — The conservative leader Grover Norquist’s comments in 2012:
All we need to do is replace Obama … … We are not looking for a fearless leader. We don’t need a president to tell us where to go. We know where to go. We want Ryan budget)… … We just need a president to sign it. We don’t need anyone to conceive or design it. The leaders of the modern conservative movement in the next 20 years will come out of the House of Representatives and the Senate. [ Hunter, “Grover Norquist on the GOP candidates: All we need is someone who can ’ handle a pen’ ,” Daily Kos, Feb. 13, 2012, available here.]
Now, in 2017, Republicans found that man, whose fingers were short, but they were enough to hold the pen. Trump, a populist, was quickly absorbed by the establishment he had promised to overthrow, and he handed over the country’s heavy weapon to them as soon as he took office.
Trump had vowed to end corruption in Washington, but from the first day he took office and formed his first cabinet, almost all the candidates were easily supported by the Republican majority in Congress. Obviously, he was just refilling the swamp in Washington with a new swamp thing. Many members of Trump’s cabinet are financial tycoons on Wall Street, and even several are billionaires — — The total worth of his cabinet members is estimated at $14 billion — — There are also several appointed officials who are generals. This made his critics comment that his government looks more like a military government than a civilian government.
Like all countries, the four most critical cabinet positions are the Ministry of Finance, the Secretary of State, the Ministry of National Defense and the Minister of Justice, and three of these positions were selected by Trump from those who represent the continuation of past policies in the establishment, while the last position he chose a right-wing racist who represents a retrogression to the narrow past of this country. This kind of person will definitely advocate restricting the voting rights of blacks and the poor in the past. For less important positions, he chose rich conservatives and people who made great contributions to the Republican Party and his election campaign. They are all enemies of the welfare state and supporters of the free market.
Although when he was a candidate, he lashed out at Wall Street, especially against Goldman Sachs Group, after he became president, he appointed many Goldman Sachs Group personnel in his cabinet and consultant positions. As Matt Taibbi wrote about Goldman Sachs Group, "… … It is everywhere. The most powerful investment bank in the world is a huge vampire squid wrapped around human beings. It ruthlessly inserts its vampire funnel into everything that smells like money. " [Matt Taibbi, "The Great American Bubble Machine," Rolling Stone, April 5, 2010, available here.] Trump put the giant vampire squid at the top of his government so that its tentacles could grasp the whole country.
Goldman Sachs is a legion. Trump chose Steven • Steven Mnuchin, a veteran of Goldman Sachs with 17 years’ experience, is his finance minister, which is one of the highest positions. Steven Bannon, also a former banker of Goldman Sachs Group, was elected as his chief adviser by Trump, which is a new title. Gary &bull, the current president of Goldman Sachs Group; Gary Cohn was appointed by Trump as the director of the National Economic Council, which provides guidance to the president on economic issues. Trump chose an external lawyer of Goldman Sachs — — Jay Clayton from Sullivan & Cromwell Law Firm & mdash; — To serve as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the government agency responsible for supervising Wall Street. Clayton’s wife is also a vice president of Goldman Sachs. In addition, several Goldman Sachs bankers also work in senior positions in the government. [ Pam Martens and Russ Martens, “Here’ s How Goldman Sachs Become the Overlord of the Trump Adinistration,” Wall Street on Parade: A Citizen Guide to Wall Street, Jan.9, 2017, Available Here.] (Trump) Just as former presidents Bill Clinton and barack obama did, putting Goldman Sachs Group at the center of the government shows that at the most basic level, the relationship between capitalist financiers and government agencies remains unchanged. [ On Bill Clinton and Sachs, see: William D. Cohan, Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World (New York: Random House, 2012), p. 309-311; and on Obama and Sachs, see: Greg Gordon, “Goldman’ s White House connections raise eyebrows,” McClatchy Newspapers, Sept. 18, 2013, available here.
In three other key cabinet positions, Trump chose a corporate CEO, a retired general and a right-wing politician. Rex Tillerson, the CEO of ExxonMobil, one of the largest companies in the United States, became Secretary of State. Trump chose James “Mad Dog” Mattis to take charge of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He was the head of the Central Command and was responsible for the US military operations in the Middle East, Northeast Africa and Central Asia. The choice of Mattis is controversial, because people’s control over the military has long been regarded as the foundation of American democracy.
Steve Benen, “Why Trump’ The choice of Matisse shows the continuity of foreign policy with Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations. The first three key cabinet positions — — Ministry of Finance, Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense — — Both represent the choice of the establishment. In the fourth key position of attorney general, Trump really broke the policy of 50 consecutive years since the civil rights movement. He chose extremely conservative, atavistic nativist and racist Jeff Sessions, who also opposed abortion, homosexuals and hate crime laws. [ Matt Apuzzo, “Specter of Race Shadows Jeff Sessions, Potential Trump Nominee for Cabinet,” The New York Times, Nov. 16, 2016, available here and Erich Lichtbau and Matt Apuzzo, “Jeff Sessions Says He Would Be Independent and Stand Up to Trump,”The New York Times, Jan. 20, 2017, available here.]
As for the Minister of Commerce — — Considering Trump’s campaign promise on foreign trade, this is a crucial top position — — He appointed Wilbur Ross, a banker and "vulture" investor worth $2.5 billion, who was known as the "king of bankruptcy". Ross specializes in streamlining industrial enterprises, often reducing the number of employees by half, leaving the issue of workers’ pensions to others and leaving profits to himself and other investors. Over the years, Ross has done business in dozens of countries and has always appeared as a free trade advocate. But now, he must honor Trump’s promise, put the United States first and expand employment at home. [ Max Abelson, “Wilbur Ross and the Era of Billionaire Rule,” Bloomberg, Jan. 26, 2017, available here.]
National security — — External and internal security — — Of course, the position is also very important. As far as American history is concerned, it is usually led by civilians. But unlike his predecessor, Trump filled these positions with soldiers. As for his national security adviser, retired Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn became Trump’s first choice. He is a capricious, militant and Islamophobic person. But when Flynn lied to Vice President Mike Pence about contact with Russian government officials, he was forced to resign. He only took office for a few weeks. To fill Flynn’s vacancy, Trump chose another army general, General H. R. McMaster, who was a military strategist and was famous for his actions in the first Gulf War. To lead the Department of Homeland Security, Trump chose another veteran, John F. Kelley, a retired four-star marine general who had commanded multinational forces in Iraq. In order to take charge of the CIA, Trump chose a civilian, a Republican politician Mike Pompeo, but he also had military qualifications. He graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1986 and served in the first Gulf War. All in all, Trump has appointed many armed men.It shows a major change in the militarization of civilian government.
Stephen Bannon, Trump’s chief adviser, said that several other cabinet members were chosen to "deconstruct state administration", that is, to destroy the regulatory agencies or social service agencies led by them. [ David Z. Morris, “Steve Bannon Says Trump’ s Cabinet Picks Are Intended to ‘ Deconstruct’ Regulation and agencies, "Fortune, Feb.25, 2017, available here.] Rich Perry, the largest oil producer in the United States and the former Republican governor of Texas, was elected as the US Secretary of Energy, and in the last presidential campaign, he promised to completely abolish this institution. Perry has no academic qualifications and little experience to help him manage 17 national laboratories, supervise the country’s nuclear reserves, eliminate weapons and facilities during the Cold War, and further promote the nuclear non-proliferation movement. In order to lead the National Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Trump chose Scott Pruitt, a Republican politician from Oklahoma (also a big oil state), who sued the EPA many times in an attempt to limit and weaken the agency.The appointment of Perry and Prut is undoubtedly beneficial to oil and coal companies, but it is a great misfortune to deal with all efforts to deal with the environmental crisis.
Trump’s cabinet appointments to social welfare agencies are equally scary. As far as the Minister of Urban Development is concerned, Trump appointed an extremely conservative African-American Dr. Ben Carson, who has no experience in urban and housing issues and is an opponent of the agency’s anti-discrimination laws. Perhaps among these regulators and social service agencies, Trump’s most surprising appointment may be the Minister of Education. He chose Betsy DeVos, a billionaire and former member of the Republican National Committee. He is a famous sworn enemy of the public education and teachers’ union. [ Kristina Rizga, “The Senate Just Confirmed Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary. Every Single Democrat Voted Against Her,”Mother Jones, Feb. 7, 2013, Available here.] As far as the Secretary of Labor is concerned, Trump initially chose Andrew Pudzer, the CEO of CKE Restaurant, which is Hardee’ S) and Carl’s restaurant (Carl’ S Jr), and he himself is an opponent of the labor law and the minimum wage standard.He despises workers in his own company. Puze was forced to withdraw his nomination because he was found to have employed undocumented workers and was accused of abuse by his ex-wife. In order to take his place, Trump chose a Latino, Alexander Akst, a Republican conservative who once served in the National Labor Relations Committee and served as a lawyer in the administration of George W. Bush.
To take charge of the Office of Management and Budget, Trump chose Mick Mulvaney, a man who failed to pay his domestic nanny a salary of $15,500 including tax. He will prove to be an extremely reactionary and despicable person. To justify Trump’s budget cuts for after-school food programs — — This is an important part of the diet of millions of poor children — — He said that there is no evidence that children who get these foods do better in school.
Nepotism in Trump’s leadership team has given his administration a quasi-monarchy color. Trump appointed his 36-year-old son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as a senior White House adviser. He is a real estate tycoon with no experience in political and government activities, and assigned him various tasks: managing the American Innovation Office, participating in the Middle East peace talks as a special envoy, and serving as the main liaison for diplomacy with more than 20 countries. [Alana Abramson, "Here is all the jobs Jared Kushner is doing at the White House," Fortune, Mar 27, 2017, available here.] Trump’s daughter and kushner’s wife ivanka have also become full-time unpaid White House consultants for their father. [Maggie Haberman and Rachel Abrams, "Ivanka Trump, Shifting Plans, Will Become a Federal Employee," New York Times, March 29, 2017, Available Here.] Promoting his children to these positions also laid the foundation for Trump’s political dynasty.
Trump’s cabinet, composed of billionaires and generals, dirty millionaires and far right, family and friends, has undoubtedly become the most conservative in modern American history. People will be able to foresee corruption scandals comparable to those of President Grant or President Warren Harding when he was in office. But what makes many Americans feel uneasy and scared most is that Trump chose his former campaign manager Steven Bannon as his chief adviser. Bannon, a former US Navy officer and former Goldman Sachs banker, is the founder of Brett Pat News, a radical alternative right-wing publication like European extreme right-wing organizations and American white rights organizations. Brett Pat not only stood on the position of white nationalism and nativism, but also promoted white supremacy people like Richard Spencer. There are hysterical anti-Muslim, anti-LGBT movements and misogyny news reports every day. [Elizabeth Sherman, "10 Most Despicable Stories Breitbart Published Under Bannon" Rolling Stone, Nov.23, 2016, Available Here.] Some people describe Bannon as a "secret fascist". [ Jim Naureckas, “A Guided Tour of the Racist, Crypto-Fascist “Alt-Right” By Breitbart News,” In These Times, Aug. 31, 2016, available here.]
For weeks, Bannon’s membership of the National Security Council has made many Americans very scared. Bannon’s appearance in the White House and standing on the president’s right hand have caused great anxiety not only for the left and liberals, but also for the conservatives and the establishment. However, when the establishment faction mastered Trump, things returned to a fairly conservative normal. Bannon was removed from the National Security Council, and Congress also defeated Trump’s populist platform. [ Kyle Cheney, “Freedom Caucus thwarts Boehner, Ryan — and now Trump,” Politico, March 26, 2017, available here and Daniel Stid, “Why the GOP Congress Will Stop Trump from Going Too Far, "Washington monthly, Jan.-Feb. 2017, available here.] Although Trump has adapted to the Republican establishment, his late-night tweets and several sports rallies after the election continue to offer a populist platform to his basic disc. Conservative and alternative right-wing radio hosts and writers have also begun to suggest that Trump has betrayed himself.
Entanglement with Russia
During his election campaign, Trump shocked many Americans with his excessive praise of Russian dictator Putin, because the latter captured Crimea from Ukraine by imprisoning or murdering his political opponent and ignoring international law, and made an armed intervention in eastern Ukraine and became famous. Trump even said that the United States and Russia may overcome their differences and even become allies.
This is also full of doubts. Later, the US security agencies confirmed that the Russian government interfered in the US election. Many of Trump’s aides, such as Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, have a long-standing relationship with Russia and have met with senior Russian officials. [ Michael S. Schmidt, Mark Mazzetti, and Matt Apuzzo, “ Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence,” The New York Times, Feb. 14, 2017, available here.] Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, also had a meeting with Sergey N. Gorkov, a banker close to Putin. Roger J. Si Tong, Jr. is a senior Republican agent who once had contact with Gucci Fair 2.0 (hacking organization), and some people think that this organization is related to Russian intelligence. Carter Page was a foreign policy adviser to Trump’s campaign, and he conducted extensive business activities in Russia. [ Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti, “Trump Adviser’s Visit to Moscow Got the F.B.I.’ Attention, "April 19, 2017, available here.] Michael T. Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser, had talks with Russian officials and lied twice, which led to an investigation into him for leaking state secrets and accepting bribes from Russia. [EmmMarie Huetteman and Mathew Rosenberg, "Penguin Inquiry Searches to Learn If Flynn Hid Foreign Payment," New York Times, April 27, 2017, Available Here.] The question then arises. Have Trump’s colleagues ever cooperated with Russia and interfered in the US election? The US Department of Justice has authorized the FBI to investigate the Trump team’s contact with Russia before the US election. The Senate and the House of Representatives even set up a committee to investigate Trump’s relationship with Russia.
Influenced by this, some Democrats want to prove that Trump and Republicans cooperated with the Russians and stole Hillary Clinton’s vote, but members of both parties and many ordinary Americans are worried that this matter may be interpreted as treason to undermine US sovereignty. In any case, the entanglement with Russia will not disappear.
Trump’s Strategy and Agenda
Since the first presidential term of Democrat Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, the "first hundred days" of the new president has become an important measure of the new government. This may be even more important for a new politician who used to rely on the populist agenda to campaign. From January 20 to April 29, Trump will finish his first 100 days in office. During this period, he will act quickly and adopt a strategy aimed at fulfilling his campaign promise to his white-dominated voters to keep out Mexicans who threaten their employment and stop Muslims who threaten their lives. Therefore, five days after taking office, Trump issued an order to immediately build a wall on the US-Mexico border, and more actively sought and expelled undocumented immigrants by expanding the definition of criminal immigrants. [Alicia Parla Piano and Karen Yourish, "Where Neil Gorsuch Would Fit on the Supreme Court," The New York Times, Feb.1, 2017, Available Here.] Only two days later, Trump issued an order when Syrian war refugees were transferred on a large scale — — Immigrants from seven Muslim countries were temporarily banned and refugees were suspended for 120 days.His order also included a religious test to allow Christian refugees from Muslim countries to enter the United States.
This "Muslim ban", first claimed by Trump and widely known, led to large-scale protests at airports all over the country. The U.S. Federal Court of Appeals overturned the ban. As reported in the new york Times, "the three-judge jury believes that the ban has not improved national security, and claims that the administrative agency ‘ There is no evidence that ’ Anyone in these seven countries — — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — — He has committed terrorist crimes in the United States "[Jeffrey Toobin," The Conservation Pipeline to the Supreme Court, "The New Yorkers, March 17, 2017, available here.]. Trump’s first major motion was a complete failure due to poor planning and poor implementation. Trump then issued a second executive order, but the court also overturned it.
Trump’s second major motion is to try to overthrow and replace the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare: private insurance and medical insurance plans coordinated and subsidized by the government. Paul D. Ryan, the speaker of the Republican House of Representatives, began to push for the abolition of the health care bill long before Trump took office, and tried to pass the abolition bill in March, but he failed to win a majority in the House of Representatives because more right-leaning conservatives wanted to destroy Obama’s health care reform more thoroughly, while moderates abandoned him because of pressure from voters who were worried about losing their health insurance. The protests at the city hall mobilized a large number of people and put great pressure on moderate Republican lawmakers, some of whom refused to vote for the abolition. For Trump and Republicans, the failure to abolish Obama’s health care reform is a bigger failure. Trump tried a health care bill again, hoping to pass it in his first 100 days, but the bill was also opposed, so it is still stuck in Congress.
One of Trump’s victories in his first few months in office was that the Senate recognized Neil Gorsuch, the supreme judge nominated by him, who is an extremely conservative judge. He may vote for restricting gay rights, insisting on restrictions on abortion, abolishing affirmative action and weakening the power of trade unions [Alicia Parlapiano and Karen Yourish, “Where Neil Gorsuch Would Fit on the Supreme Court,” The New York Times, Feb. 1, 2017, available here.]。 Gersochi was promoted by Leonard Leo, the leader of a very conservative federalist association, which played an extremely important role in the composition of the Supreme Court and also played an important role in the selection of the current three justices. [Jeffrey Toobin, "The Conservative Pipeline to the Supreme Court," The New Yorkers, March 17, 2017, Available Here.] Although Gersochi avoided his views at the Senate hearing,However, in a recent party line vote in the Senate, it was recognized by Republicans and three Democrats with 54 votes to 45 votes.
Budget and tax plan
Another major motion of Trump in the first 100 days was a proposed budget, which should be considered by Congress as a continuing resolution before April 28. Trump’s annual budget proposals total more than $4 trillion: calling for a substantial increase in national defense (up 10%), Department of Homeland Security (7%), and Department of Veterans Affairs (up 6%), while cutting the Environmental Protection Agency (down 31%), the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Labor (both down 21%), and the Ministry of Justice (down 20%)— — It will be achieved by, for example, cutting support for crime victims, but the FBI’s budget will increase — — Adjustment of the Department of Health and Human Services (down 16%) and Education (down 14%). [ Alicia Parlapiano and Gregor Aisch, “Who Wins and Loses in Trump’ S proposed budget, the New York Times, March 16, 2016, available here.] As the Washington Post observed:
If you are poor in America, then President Trump’s budget proposal is not for you. Trump has announced a budget that will cut or abolish those projects that provide assistance to low-income Americans in almost all aspects, including affordable housing, banks, environmentally friendly housing, job training, paying for household fuel, and obtaining legal counsel in civil affairs. [ Tracy Jan and Steven Mufson, “ If you’ re a poor person in America, Trump’ s budget is not for you,” The Washington Post, March 16, 2016, available here.]
The budget also canceled 19 small projects, which cost only 500 million dollars, but many of them were hated by conservatives, including: public broadcasting companies, legal service companies, American Volunteers and the National Arts and Humanities Foundation. [ Sharon LaFraniere and Alan Rappeport, “Popular Domestic Programs Face Ax Under First Trump Budget,” The New York Times, Feb. 17, 2017, available here and Aaron Blake, “The 19 agencies that Trump’ S budget would kill, explained, "The Washington Post, March 16, 2016, available here." At present, Trump’s budget seems to be facing opposition from the Democratic Party and the Republican Liberal Party in Congress, which increases the possibility of a government funding crisis again and may also lead to a government shutdown.
Trump’s tax plan is also to further increase the wealth of the rich. It was put forward in April, and according to the new york Times, the plan "transfers trillions of dollars from the federal treasury to the richest families and their heirs in the United States". [ Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Patricia Cohen,“Trump Tax Plan Would Shift Trillions From U.S. Coffers to the Richest,” The New York Times, April 27, 2017 available here.] The plan will abolish state taxes, cut corporate taxes from 35% to 15%, and end the additional taxes that fund the Affordable Care Act. Like former President Ronald Reagan and George Bush before him, Trump believes that tax cuts will lead to economic expansion, thus making up for lost taxes, so the deficit will not increase. Voodoo economics has reappeared, and few people believe it. At present, the budget is still in Congress.
Trump turned everything upside down.
During the general election, candidate Trump once told his followers that he opposed the foreign policy of American military intervention and trying to subvert foreign regimes, and he specifically promised not to get involved in Syrian affairs. However, when he received the news that a chemical weapon attack killed 72 people (including men, women, children and babies) and dozens of others were sick, he immediately ordered a missile attack on the air base that was said to have carried out the chemical attack. According to the Pentagon, the US military fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Al Shayrat airport in Syria, although there were no reports of casualties. In April this year, the other three air strikes launched by the United States against Syria only attracted a small amount of media attention, and it was reported that dozens of civilians were killed in these air strikes.
The Democrats, although criticizing the action, "either condone or do not oppose military action":
Charles Schumer, the minority leader of the Senate, said on Thursday night: "It is the right thing to make Assad understand that there is a corresponding price to pay for committing such despicable atrocities." Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader of the House of Representatives, said that the US air strikes were a "proportionate response" to the chemical weapons attack. Senator Elizabeth Warren said that "the Syrian regime must be held accountable", while Senator Mark Warne said that Assad "cannot get away with it" and Senator Dick Durbin claimed that this was a "prudent response". [ Aaron Bernstein, “Trump’ s Support From Democrats on Syria,” Reuters, The Atlantic, April 7, 2017, available here.]
Democratic leaders support Trump’s air strikes, although polls show that 61% of Democrats disapprove of the recent US war. [ Jeff Stein, “Few Democratic voters back Syria bombings. So why do so many Democrats in Congress?” , Vox, Apr 14, 2017, available here.]
The air attack on the Syrian air base in retaliation for the chemical weapons attack and its aftermath constitute a series of dramatic changes in Trump’s foreign policy stance. Trump had previously regarded Syria as a de facto ally against the Islamic State (ISIS), but now, not only did Trump order air strikes against Syria, but a few days later, his Secretary of State, Rick Stiehler Sen, also said that Assad’s era was "coming to an end". [ Gardiner Harris, “Tillerson Warns Russia on Syria, Saying Assad Era Is ‘ Coming to an End’ , "The New York Times, April 11, 2017, available here.] Secondly, Trump will no longer be an ally of Russia, which once condemned the US air strikes against Syria as violating international law. Russia also denied that Syria was responsible for the chemical weapons attack and said that the chemical weapons attack was carried out by the opposition of the Assad regime. Russia has also cancelled an agreement to coordinate air operations in Syria (which aims to avoid a potential conflict between the United States and Russia there). Third, Trump used to think that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was outdated, but now it has become a fortress to defend Europe and the United States, and it will definitely "not be outdated." [ Peter Baker, “Trump’ s Previous View of NATO Is Now Obsolete,” The New York Times, April 13, 2017, available here.]
特朗普在其他一系列问题上也改变了自己以往的态度。在与中国国家主席习近平会晤后，他打破了自己的一项竞选承诺，称他不会将中国列为汇率操纵国。他还宣称，进出口银行是“一件非常好的事物”，而他不久前还将其描述为不必要的东西。《纽约时报》记者阿兰·赖泊德(Alan Rappeport)写道：“特朗普先生的转变使许多他的支持者感到困惑，并暗示，他从华尔街带来的温和派金融家，正在遮蔽史蒂芬·K·班农所领导的白宫民粹主义一翼，后者作为政治战略家越来越被总统所冷落”。[ Alan Rappeport, “Trump Reversals Hint at Wall Street Wing’s Sway in White House,” The New York Times, April 12, 2017, available here.]民粹主义的特朗普已经屈服于华尔街和华盛顿建制派。
Trump’s offensive words against North Korea, such as the recent claim that a "great conflict" with "socialist" North Korea is possible, represent the continuation of the consistent hostile policy of the United States towards North Korea, and their attack scope is gradually extended to the United States because of North Korea’s nuclear weapons production and long-range missile development. President Bush once referred to North Korea, Iraq and Iran as "axis of evil", and Obama also warned President-elect Trump that the North Korean issue was "the top priority of national security". Although Trump has adopted a more threatening attitude and sent naval forces to the region, his policy is actually the same as before.
What kind of management is this?
Facts have proved that Trump’s government is neither the populist government that his supporters hope for nor the fascist regime that many liberals and leftists fear — — However, this does not mean that we should not worry about the obvious authoritarian tendency of his government. At least in the first hundred days, it seems that Trump has been absorbed by the establishment because of his inexperience and being overwhelmed by various events. Under the guidance of moderate but still quite conservative Republicans, Trump’s foreign policy is more consistent with that of previous administrations: Bush, Clinton and Obama. More specifically, Trump’s policy ISIS based on — — According to Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State — — The basic view that "America is an indispensable country".
Similarly, Trump’s domestic policy, despite its populist appearance, only continues the Republican-enhanced version of the budget austerity adopted by the two parties in the past few decades. We haven’t faced the iron fist yet, but we can expect that the gloved hands of the country will continue to put pressure on the lower classes. The most worrying thing is the combination of law and order by Attorney General Jeff Hysensner, and the destruction of the voting rights of blacks and the poor, because Trump’s ministers of supervision and social welfare departments ensured their extinction.
Escalating resistance
People realized the danger of the Trump administration. The resistance movement, which began the day after Trump was sworn in, did not stop for the first 100 days, because various groups staged street protests or put political pressure on their representatives.
No Immigration Day — — On February 16th, thousands of immigrants from all over the country stopped working to protest President Trump’s policies on immigration and refugees. Some employers, either because they are immigrants or because they sympathize with the cause of immigrants, have also closed their businesses so that their workers can participate in the protests. In other cases, migrant workers simply don’t go to work, which is actually a strike for migrant workers. In different cities, at least 100 workers were fired for participating in the strike. In some cities, such as Milwaukee, thousands of immigrants and their supporters demonstrated against Trump’s policies during the No Immigrants Day protest movement.
"This is not my president" Day — — Less than a week later, thousands of demonstrators demonstrated in new york, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta and 24 other cities against President Donald Trump and his policies. This day is usually called "President’s Day" (Monday, February 20th), but this year, it is called "This is not my president" by many people. In the midwest and east, it is a beautiful spring — — Thanks to climate change and global warming — — Protesters marched to protest Trump’s environmental and immigration policies and everything the new president stands for.
City hall protests — — In late February, thousands of people showed up at town hall meetings across the United States to challenge Republican congressmen and senators. Angry voters demanded that the basic features of the health care plan be preserved, the rights of immigrants be respected, and the Environmental Protection Agency be funded. Since the right-wing tea party demonstrations in 2009 and 2010, nothing like this has happened at the local town hall rally. These protests provide an example for the current center-left protests.
Many protests were organized through the anti-Trump movement related to the Democratic Party, which was called "Indivisible" and claimed to have 7,000 affiliated organizations nationwide. The name of the organization comes from the recently published handbook Indivisible: A User’s Guide to Resisting Trump’s Agenda, written by former congressional staff members Leah Greenberg and Angel Padilla. In new york, the Working Family Party, which supports the candidate of the Progressive Democratic Party, also participated in the organization of protests. The American Civil Liberties Union also provided resources.
Although these activities overlap with previous protests politically, such as women’s marches, immigration rights protests at the airport and immigration day demonstrations, this demonstration at the city hall represents different people. Old people and middle-aged people often appear in large numbers, but those in their twenties and thirties who make up the majority of street demonstrations still appear in large numbers in many places. Radical town hall protests are often more moderate politically than street protests in recent months, because they are largely led by related organizations of the Democratic Party. However, some people still see the slogans of "single payment for medical care" and "lifting the Muslim ban" in the city hall. In some cities, not only speeches against enterprises can be heard from the podium, but also occasional speeches against capitalism. In February this year, with the emphasis on the town hall meeting, the Democratic Party seemed to be fighting for the leadership of the resistance movement, and all resistance against Trump was called the resistance movement.
Anti-war protests — — After Trump bombed Syria, many anti-war protests broke out in major cities across the country, but there were only a few hundred protesters, and organizers from organizations such as Answer were supporters of Assad, Russia and Iran. Unlike large-scale protests by women, immigrants and town hall gatherings, anti-war demonstrations, like their sectarian leaders, lack a truly popular quality. The anti-war movement we need should be against American imperialism and also against Putin, Hezbollah and Assad regime. Unfortunately, it has not yet appeared.
Science Parade — — On April 22, thousands of people (many of them scientists) took part in the scientific parade in cities in the United States and around the world. In the United States, there are about 400 parades, with an estimated 20,000 people in new york and Los Angeles, about 15,000 people gathered in Washington Square, and 10,000 people in several cities. Other parades were held in hundreds of cities around the world, from London to Tokyo.
The main intention of this demonstration is to oppose the budget proposal put forward by President Donald Trump, which will reduce the funding of many scientific projects, including the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the project has been cut by 31% at present. Demonstrators in Washington held signs that read "Save the Environmental Protection Agency" and "Save the National Institutes of Health", and the National Institutes of Health was also cut by 18.3% or $5.8 billion. Demonstrators in other cities held signs that read "There is no second earth" and "Let science be great again", among other slogans.
The parade was sponsored by many scientific organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, the American Chemical Society and the Paleontology Society. Public health doctors, nurses and other health workers are heavily involved. Many scientists marched with their families in the drizzle on the east coast.
First through Reddit, a social media site, and then through Facebook’s activity site, within a week, the number of supporters increased from 200 to 300,000. There are famous educator "scientific man" Bill Nye, pediatrician and Mona Hannah, the key prosecutor of Flint water crisis — Mona Hanna-Attisha, a cell biologist Lydia Villa-Komaroff, and the first batch of Mexican-American women with doctorates in science in the United States were public figures in the parade.
Although the leadership of the science March was not as centralized as other protests, in some cities, politicians of the Democratic Party made speeches at the rally. In Los Angeles, Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman told the marchers that "since Galileo was judged by the Inquisition, anti-scientists have never had such powerful friends".
However, in San Francisco, all politicians are forbidden to speak. "Science has no party affiliation, which is why we respect it, because its purpose is to reduce prejudice. This is why we have a scientific method. We strongly believe that getting politicians involved will distort this to some extent. " Earlier this month, Caroline Weinberg, a public health researcher and co-organizer of the March, said at the National Press Club.
Need a politically independent movement.
Although the movement against the Trump administration has spread throughout the whole society and many social groups have also participated, this movement has no clear and independent political stance. The Democratic Party, still standing on the standpoint of enterprise and neo-liberalism, is unreliable — — As its failure to support single-payer health care ("universal health insurance") proves — — The leadership of most resistance movements has been achieved, especially in those activities with more political expression. If the movement wants to win in stopping Trump and the Republican Party, even the Democratic Party against enterprises, and more importantly, against the capitalist system, we will need to build a movement to create our own political identity, even if we don’t have our own political party.
April 30, 2017
The author Dan La Botz is the founder of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union. He is the author of Rank-and-File Rebellion: Teamsters for a Democratic Union. He is one of the editors of New Politics and Mexican Labor News and Analysis.
This article is translated from: http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php? article4977