By Robert Kimball Shinkoskey
Donald J. Trump’s supporters stand firmly behind him because they believe he knows how to make things better. He knows how to get things done and solve problems. However, his actions often make things worse. His supporters will be paying higher prices after he implements tariffs on a host of countries who sell products to the U.S. Remember, lower prices is why they elected him.
The Gaza situation is another example. It is believed Trump is bringing stability to the Middle East by demanding the removal of the Palestinian people in Gaza from their land. He is not. He is bringing stability only to far-right Netanyahu’s job security. The new generations of Hamas that Netanyahu has created by his brutal actions will still be on Israel’s doorstep wherever they go.
Some of Trump’s cabinet members like Secretary of State Marco Rubio are making excuses for the Gaza policy, like saying the mass removal proposal is only a negotiating posture. The boss just wants to make Arab countries more willing to work with Israel and the U.S. He doesn’t want to dump a million people each on Jordan and Egypt. Not really.
Well, consider this. Is Trump’s removal order of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. just a negotiating strategy, or is it a real policy? From the looks of things, it is a real policy. His policy is rather firmly based on a personal dislike of Hispanics and Catholics and a desire to cleanse America of their growing political, social, and economic presence.
Even if Trump doesn’t really hate Hispanics, Catholics, Palestinians and Muslims that much, he still would want lots of power to push people around. That’s what insecure strongarm leaders love to do. If you remember, Trumps’ fondest desire his entire life has been to fire people, meaning to hurt them economically.
Which leads me to his approach in handling the New York City mayor Eric Adams case. Our honorable President recently ordered his chief Department of Justice minion to line up prosecutors in a room and order one after another to drop the criminal case against the mayor. Trump pushed seven of them out the door because they were professional enough to want to uphold the justice process.
Does the purging of 1,260 federal workers in the Center for Disease Control’s Epidemic Intelligence Service show that he knows what he is doing? No, this country’s ability to get a handle on emerging new pandemics has just been sabotaged by the actions of Secretary of HHS Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Trump’s natural desire to punish individuals for lack of loyalty spills over easily to a desire to punish nations for the same thing. That is why he is punishing South Africa right now. Supposedly they are treating whites poorly there. The real reason is that South Africa is bringing a case against Israel in an international court for their treatment of people in Gaza. Trump doesn’t like the process of justice unless it administers his own particular brand of partial justice.
America used to be a paragon of peace domestically and internationally. That is the goal of democracy, to promote peace through education and compromise. Mr. Trump is not all that cool with education since he wants to delete the federal Department of Education. He is also not so cool on compromise. He issues demands and commands instead.
Have you ever heard of the phrase “domestic tranquility” in the writings of our nation’s founders? Today, Trump is aiming for domestic chaos and ultimately domestic terror for immigrants, minorities, Democrats, and his extensive list of domestic and foreign enemies. He says, “I only like people who like me.” Yup, that is a recipe for chaos and anti-Christian terror.
Our 47th President does not have sufficient education aside from business education to ably run any government unit, let alone this nation. And his business education is deeply lacking in ethics as well, as his 34 business felonies attest. Unfortunately, his MAGA base is fine with his lack of education because they don’t have much education either. Like him, they have huge personal grievances over the fact they feel inferior to educated people. They secretly want to hurt their classmates who went on to get a college education. Trump is upping the hurt abroad and at home, in Gaza and in Greensboro, and that makes a lot of people happy.
Robert Kimball Shinkoskey is the author of books on democracy, theology, and the history of the American presidency.
