This Week in Democracy – Week 55: Trump's Racism Isn't Distraction. It's Policy
Zeteo's weekly round-up, documenting the growth of authoritarianism in Trump's second term.
Just when you thought the vile, racist rhetoric coming out of the White House couldn’t get any worse, Donald Trump simply outdoes himself.
Just take Thursday: In the morning, Trump, at the National Prayer Breakfast – the National Prayer Breakfast – went on a racist tirade against immigrants. By Thursday night, his racism reached new levels – if that was even possible – when he posted on Truth Social a disgusting AI-generated video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes (of course the White House blamed a “staffer,” despite the fact that, as Zeteo’s politics team pointed out, Trump’s posts often go through levels of approval, including from the president himself).
Trump’s racism, his sexism, his denialism, his utter hate for Americans who are unlike him, isn’t distraction; it’s the point. As ‘This Week in Democracy’ shows every week, especially this week, it seeps through his policy decisions, his attacks, his cronies’ actions.
From suggesting Republicans should “take over” and run elections in states he lost to lashing out at yet another woman journalist, here’s just a taste of the actions Trump and his allies took this week that hurt democracy, undermine the Constitution, and harm free societies worldwide:
Saturday, Jan. 31 – ’Corruption, Plain and Simple’
In a bombshell article, the Wall Street Journal reported that Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan reached a secret $500 million deal with the Trump family just four days before Trump was inaugurated for his second term.
As part of the deal, Tahnoon, also known as a “spy sheikh,” bought a 49% stake in the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial, just two months before the United Arab Emirates secured a deal of its own with the Trump administration to access enough American AI chips to build one of the largest AI data center clusters in the world.
“This is corruption, plain and simple,” Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said, demanding Trump reverse chip deal and administration officials testify before lawmakers. “Congress needs to grow a spine and put a stop to Trump’s crypto corruption.”
Sunday, Feb. 1 – Trump Unilaterally Closes Kennedy Center for 2 Years
On Truth Social, Trump abruptly announced that the Kennedy Center will temporarily close on July 4 for two years to undergo “Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding.”
Coincidentally, the move comes after dozens of performers canceled their appearances following Trump’s takeover of the center and his decision to put his name on the building. The closure still must be approved by the Kennedy Center Board, which, fortunately for Trump, is made up of members he handpicked.
Monday, Feb. 2 – What States’ Rights?
In a stunning escalation of his assault on democracy, Trump encouraged Republicans to “nationalize” elections and “take over” voting in at least 15 “places” that he falsely claims to have won but didn’t.
Trump’s remarks during an interview on former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino’s podcast come less than one week after his FBI raided an election office in Fulton County, Georgia, and seized ballots from the 2020 election.
Asked later about his comments, Trump claimed that “states are an agent of the federal government in elections,” and referred, without evidence, to “horrible corruption” in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta — adding that the “federal government should get involved” and “take over.”
So much for states’ rights.
Tuesday, Feb. 3 – Trump Attacks a Woman Journalist – Again
In yet another disgusting on-camera attack on women journalists, Trump lashed out at CNN’s Kaitlin Collins for asking what he would say to survivors of Jeffrey Epstein “who feel like they haven’t gotten justice.”
“You are the worst reporter,” Trump said. “No wonder CNN has no ratings because of people like you…. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile.”
Disappointingly, none of Collins’s colleagues in the White House Press Corps stood up for her as the president attacked her or repeated her question, which he clearly never answered.
Wednesday, Feb. 4 – Democracy Dies in Darkness…or at the Washington Post
In a move by billionaire Jeff Bezos described as a “murder,” an “absolute bloodbath,” and an effort to “ingratiate himself with Donald Trump,” the owner of the Washington Post took a blowtorch to his outlet and laid off one-third of its workforce.
It’s apparently being described as a “strategic reset” by editor-in-chief Matt Murray, but the decision to effectively gut the Post’s sports, local news, and international coverage threatens to tank one of the country’s most well-known outlets for nearly 150 years.
Thursday, Feb. 5 – ICE at the Polls?
During a briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she couldn’t guarantee that ICE wouldn’t be at voting sites in November during the midterm elections but claimed Trump doesn’t currently have any “formal plans” to send federal immigration agents to polling locations.
Leavitt called the question “very silly,” “hypothetical,” and “disingenuous,” but it followed comments from former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who said on his podcast Tuesday, “You’re damn right we’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November,” and added, “We’re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again.”
Friday, Feb. 6 – Fast-Tracking Deportations
It’s about to get even more difficult for immigrants to receive due process in the US, thanks to a new interim final rule that makes sweeping changes to the procedures of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).
The new rule restricts the amount of time immigrants can file for an appeal after receiving a deportation order from 30 days to just 10 days. Even worse, the rule mandates the dismissal of all cases within 15 days unless the majority of BIA members vote in favor of an appeal.
Craig Relles, an immigration lawyer in the New York City area, told NOTUS that the rule will “flood the federal courts,” and warned that it will result in more immigrants being detained by ICE.
Did you miss previous weeks of ‘This Week in Democracy’? Catch up here. And check out more of Zeteo’s reporting from this week below:
As I once again struggle not to vomit at Trump's latest racist abomination and take a break from praying daily that the gates of hell are moved to rise up in the immediate future to extract him, I'm toying with the idea of calling for a national Trump monument after he dies that celebrates his exit from existence on this earthly plain. Further thinking has led me to imagine a legislated national holiday for workers in celebration of his nothingness to be paid for annually by a special tax levy on oligarch guys and gals who found a home up Trump's ass. Am I wrong? Too harsh?
Trump is openly mentally ill and getting worse by the day. He has never been too sharp to start with but with his dementia growing he is getting more frustrated as he realizes he has lost it.
An embarrassment for our country to show even when the president has gone mad he cannot be checked into a psychiatric ward. Mainly because many in his party and his inner circle are also suffering from a mass psychosis like he is.