We’re familiar with President Trump’s dystopian vision of an America in chaos, preyed on by foreigners and awash in citizens violated by feral criminals and “illegals.” Through last year’s campaign and into this year, Trump has repeatedly lied about the national crime rate, murder rates and much more. Here though is a case where anti-immigrant policies continue to be justified by at least deliberately misleading statements and what can only be called incitement.
Here’s a statement released today by the Justice Department, justifying a letter sent out to nine so-called “sanctuary cities” threatening loss of federal funds if they don’t collaborate and assist Trump administration immigration policies.
Here’s the second paragraph (emphasis added) …
President Trump explains the impact of his new executive orders: “This is such a privilege for me to sign. It’s the beginning of a whole new way of life that this country hasn’t seen in really many, many years. I want to thank you and I want to god bless America.”
Driven by his embarrassment over having accomplished virtually nothing (at least in terms of legislation) in his first 100 days in office, President Trump will next week try to repeal Obamacare, fund the government and avoid a government shut down and (just announced) introduce his tax reform proposal.
If you clear away all the schadenfreude and chaos around Bill O’Reilly’s defenestration from the heights of the Fox News tower in midtown Manhattan, there’s a fascinating little detail. You’ve no doubt seen O’Reilly’s claims that he’d been forced out because of a liberal smear campaign against him. Everyone with half a sense has responded that O’Reilly got booted because of his years of abusive behavior, because his behavior finally became too public and because his bosses decided that the financial and reputational impact of his behavior was more than they could tolerate. What is notable though is this day after revelation that shows how in a very mendacious, embittered and embattled way he actually thought this was true. Read More
Yesterday I mentioned this week’s episode of The Josh Marshall Show, my discussion with historian Timothy Snyder. We talk about his 2003 book The Reconstruction of Nations, the tumultuous evolution of states and national identity in northeastern Europe, Russian revanchism, radical nationalism and more. I really enjoyed this discussion and I hope you do too. Click here to listen.
President Trump whether he believes a “strong Europe is important for the United States”: “Yes, a strong Europe is very, very important to me as president of the United States and it is also in my opinion, in my very strong opinion, important for the United States. We want to see it. We will help it be strong, and it is very much to everybody’s advantage. I look very much forward to meeting the Pope.”
It’s notable that as normally understood, this sounds like a re-statement of decades-long US policy which President Trump, and especially candidate Trump, had departed from rather dramatically. Yet it is equally notable that this statement doesn’t include any explicit mention of the EU or NATO.
Trump at press conference with Italian Prime Minister: “A responsible approach to refugees is one that seeks the eventual return of refugees to their home countries so that they can help to rebuild their own nations.”
Maryland cops create new hate crime protected class (Trump supporters) to prosecute two black teens.
Let’s stop for a moment and note that President Trump and his skeletal foreign policy team have accomplished the fairly difficult feat of deeply alienating South Koreans (and seemingly many Japanese as well) while notionally protecting them from the threat of a militaristic and aggressive North Korea. Read More
I’m very excited about this week’s podcast. I talk with Timothy Snyder, a historian at Yale. You’ve likely seen him in the news recently talking about his new book on authoritarianism. You may have read his book Bloodlands. But I wanted to talk about an almost 15 year old book called The Reconstruction of Nations. Read More