Donald Trump’s second term as president of the United States will be even more chaotic than the 2016-2020 version. Dr Marty Hirst has some sobering reflections on Trump’s triumph and the grim future it foreshadows.
DONALD TRUMP'S SECOND TERM will be a Devil’s symphony of chaos, violence and organised hate.
There will be no peace under Trump only vitriol and mayhem.
I have no doubt the Proud Boys and the other neo-Nazi gangs will be emboldened. Their currently jailed leaders will get a pardon for their January 6 riot activities.
Trump is a nihilist ruled by narcissism and a glutton’s appetite for power, wealth and revenge. He is in cognitive decline and serious ill health.
JD Vance and a coterie of shadowy billionaires are waiting in the wings to pull Trump’s strings.
Trump will also be guided by a gaggle of crazy rejects from polite society, some of them sociopaths; all of them with scores to settle.
Trump’s inner-inner circle is a circle-jerk. Robert Kennedy Jr, the bear-eating brain-worm guy; Elon Musk, the world’s richest toddler whose own daughter trolls him on Xitter; and a Vice President in JD Vance who cosplays as a hillbilly, who wants to lock up childless cat ladies, who once likened Trump to Hitler, and who is sinister-as-fuck.
Then there’s the outer-inner circle which is a dumpster fire of White Nationalists, avowed Nazis and the shadowy architects of Project 2025, the cunning not-so-secret plan to abolish the Deep State by…the Deep State.
The question is: “How da’fck did we end up here…again?”
How did it happen?
The post mortem of this disaster will be long, bloody and full of recriminations; it will stink like the rotting corpse of American democracy.
It seems that many of us missed something. The razzle-dazzle of Kamala Harris' campaign, the celebrity endorsements and the massive crowds were a stark contrast to the low-energy and poorly patronised Trump rallies.
But in the end, it wasn’t even close; Trump flipped states Joe Biden won in 2020 and increased his popular vote by several million. This was a convincing win for him and it gives his minions and minders ambition to let loose the Kraken of rightward-shifting reforms that they are drooling over.
According to American pundits, Trump won because he captured the hearts and minds of young men across the colour divide.
It seems that Trump’s appeal to followers of a Tate-ian brand of manhood based on misogyny has not been diminished by the years he spent in the wilderness. Is American masculinity really that toxic? Well, maybe so.
Predators like Jordan Peterson and Russell Brand jumped on the Trump train and now they will be swimming in gravy.
The other factor is that the Democrats have been Trump-lite in most respects.
The economy has bubbled along, but that’s not really a policy issue even though both sides will claim it.
On secure borders and most foreign policy issues the Democrats are hawkish and pretty racist.
Biden and Harris have not addressed the crisis on U.S. university campuses and have given tacit support to Zionists who want to shut down anti-genocide protests. However, I do not think that the anti-Harris vote was boosted by progressives choosing Jill Stein on Palestine.
The real issue is that thanks to decades of social media goop, poor education, idiotic patriotism, reality television and neoliberal propaganda — the American psyche is fucked.
Trump II: Organised hate and chaos
Trump has promised chaos and chaos is what he’ll deliver.
He doesn’t care because he is devoid of empathy and other sociable human characteristics. But his close advisors do care. They have set out a plan to turn America’s liberal democracy into an authoritarian fiefdom.
Trump’s role models are Viktor Orban, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin; not Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Trump’s agenda has been set for him by the Project 2025 masterminds.
Trump’s job has been to popularise it by his constant repetition of horror fantasies about brown-skinned monsters raping White women and a no-less horrible vision of America as a giant oil well to “drill, baby, drill”.
Project 2025 is the real danger to American society. It is the dark power behind Trump’s “weave” and over-the-top violent rhetoric.
Health care in general will be cut to shreds, as will public education, environmental protections and a score of other public services.
Trump’s America will be a free-for-all theme park for the grossest outrages of capitalism.
The Right-wing echo chamber and social media channels will be emboldened; the racism and violence of Charlottesville will be front and centre again.
How will Trump govern?
The simple answer is he won’t.
Trump is incapable of governing in any real sense, but doesn’t have to worry about implementation of the far-Right to-do list; the machinery of State will be molded to carry out his whims and dark desires.
There will be a massive purge of career civil servants who will be replaced by basement-dwelling White terrorists in shiny suits and loafers.
How is the new American president going to round up and deport millions of supposedly illegal residents — the pet-eating Haitians in Springfield Ohio, the AK47-toting Venezuelan gangsters in Aurora Colorado and the hordes of Spanish-speaking Hannibal Lecters?
He doesn’t know and he doesn’t care.
One of his henchmen will deal with it. Stephen Miller is tumescent with the anticipation of building some of the largest concentration camps outside of Gaza and he will build a great big wall the length of the Rio Grande.
How will Trump fix the American economy? He wants to impose massive tariffs on imports from countries that he doesn’t like; he wants to cut taxes for the one per cent. He may or may not cut taxes on overtime and tips.
But according to Project 2025, overtime penalty rates should be abolished along with unions and most hard-won workers’ rights.
What will Trump do about women and reproductive rights?
He’ll shop it out to the states and, if Florida is a good example — and it is — women will be barefoot and pregnant, or in gaol for trying to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.
Playing the Trad Wife will be the summer’s hottest look for conservative women. All the Trump-dominated Republican states will now criminalise abortion and make reproductive health almost impossible for working women.
What will Trump do about Ukraine?
Well, we know that he’s publicly said that Putin can have it. Trump hates NATO and he’s prepared to doublefuck Europe to please the Russian oligarchs.
The President’s advisors have foreshadowed some kind of negotiated settlement in Ukraine. You can bet that this means Russia will hang on to the Black Sea ports, Crimea and any other territory they can get their hands on.
What will Trump do about China?
Well, he’s a big admirer of the Chinese leader who is tough and manly. Under every president since Ronald Reagan, the U.S. has been preparing for a shooting war against China, as stupid as that looks from here.
Trump may not want to do it but he may have no choice. Trump says when he is president, Xi will give up threatening Taiwan. Really?
North Korea? He’ll fix that too because he gets along with Kim Jong Un.
AUKUS?
I’m not sure Trump’s ever mentioned it, but given his attitude to paying for stuff and stiffing his contractors — I think the Australian military establishment will be a bit concerned.
Israel and Gaza?
Well, we don’t exactly know but it’s very likely that on this key hot-button issue, Trump will let Benjamin Netanyahu do what he wants and that he will continue to fund Israel to the tune of billions of dollars a year.
Trump’s advisors are suggesting he will slap harsh sanctions on Iran. I’m not sure how this helps to diffuse tensions, but it is a signal to Tel Aviv that Israel can continue to bomb strategic targets.
Trump says he has the support of Arab and Muslim Americans to bring “peace” to the Middle East, but he also wanted to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, so that’s not exactly peaceful.
We are building the biggest and broadest coalition in American Political History. This includes record-breaking numbers of Arab and Muslim Voters in Michigan who want PEACE. They know Kamala and her warmonger Cabinet will invade the Middle East, get millions of Muslims killed,…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2024
There is no red line that the American administration will not let Netanyahu cross. There is no atrocity that a Trump Administration will not green light.
The Zionist State has carte blanche to massacre, bomb, blow up, annihilate and starve Palestinians to oblivion.
It is worth noting that the U.S. is experiencing some pushback and resistance to its full-throated support of Israel.
South Africa, Spain, Turkiye, Malaysia and several other second-tier nations are not cooperating with American wishes to continue arming Israel.
The International Criminal Court continues to pursue its investigations and attempts to have arrest warrants for Netanyahu and others validated.
On the day of the U.S. Election, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan vowed to continue the court’s actions. “Should I wait till everyone is dead?” Khan said to the German weekly, Der Spiegel.
Civil war on the home front?
The Gaza conflict is also the cause of a massive domestic headache for the new U.S. Administration.
Despite a heavy crackdown on campus protests, there is no indication that public outrage over the mounting death toll and Israel’s determination to exterminate even more Palestinians and Lebanese civilians is diminishing.
There was a sizeable rejection of Harris among politically conscious progressives and American Muslims over the Democrats’ active support for Israel.
The longer the conflict continues, the more difficult it will become for the new president to navigate a politically viable path through the domestic disagreements about Palestine.
Project 2025 may help here too — it has a special plan to shut down pro-Palestine protests called “Project Esther”.
However, the initial flashpoint may not be differences over Middle East policy.
A more immediate and pressing concern is the potential for a re-enactment of the Civil War — but with real guns and live ammunition.
If, as I suspect, Trump puts America’s cities under martial law, there will be pushback. Recall the turmoil of the Black Lives Matter movement last time Trump was in office.
The White Nationalist militias are itching to turn their weapons on minority communities. Trump will give them that chance.
Where does that leave us?
The Australian Government is in lock-step with the United States when it comes to global and regional issues.
Foreign Minister, Pentagon Penny Wong, continues to mindlessly mouth “we support a ceasefire in Gaza” while doing precisely 5/7ths of fuck-all about making an actual ceasefire happen.
Military and police cooperation with the Zionist state and with the Israeli military-industrial-complex goes on without any sign of slowing down and it seems that whatever the new U.S. regime wants Australia to do vis-a-vis China and AUKUS. Albo and Marles and Wong will happily go along.
Unfortunately, Blobbit is right. Albo and Wong will go out of their way to sanewash Trump and they will rim the literal shit out of him.
— Marty (@ethicalmartini) November 6, 2024
The ruling class has always been able to pretend that its syphilis-ravaged cousins are perfectly normal. https://t.co/POzAcOpDtH
I want to end this piece on an optimistic note. Perhaps it’s too soon for that.
My final observation is that the chaos of Trump Mark I was partly the result of sustained opposition on the streets. We will see that again. Of this I am certain.
Dr Martin Hirst is a journalist, author and academic. You can follow him on Twitter @ethicalmartini.
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