It had to happen sooner or later. President Trump sent National Guards into several US cities, on the grounds that crime in them was out of hand.What he really had in mind, of course, was to frighten the bejasus out of (to use a popular phrase) the people living in these cities and people throughout the US. It’d make them realise that President Trump had his own army which he could despatch whereveer he wanted.So the nation would see how big and tough Trump was, certainly compared to Joe Biden, and to impress on ordinary citizens that he could bring his military power right to their front door.
And so the inevitable happened, Two National Guards were seriously wounded in a gun attack. in Washington DC, not terribly far from the White House. The gunman who wounded them and was in turn wounded was from Afghanistan and entered the US in 2021 – during Joe Biden’s term of office, Trump pointed out. Trump described Afghanistan as “a hell-hole on earth” and blamed Biden for lettiing this man into the US. “We must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden”. Nobody can accuse Trump of not grabbing an opportunity to get one up on his political predecessor. Or of de-humanizing people – note that ‘alien’. Or of insulting another country: if Afghanistan is “a hell-hole”, hands up which Western power made it that way? Right.
Trump claims that sending in the National Guard to Washington stopped crime.Eh, no. Violent crimes were already decreasing before he sent in the National Guard. The fact that a decrease in crime continued showed the irrelevance of the National Guard ‘s presence.At the same time,the more Trump can get Americans to think their country is crime-ridden,especially in big cities, the more excuse he’ll have for exercising more power.
I suspect Trump secretly welcomes these shootings – it gives him an excuse to flex his military muscle. I just hope people like Mark Kelly will call out this charade of justice. If the people of the US don’t act soon, Trump will have embedded his power and what once would have seemed impossible will be everyday reality.
That said, there are a lot of principled, straight-talking Americans that Trump will have to get past before he can feel secure on his throne.
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