Donald Trump’s xenophobic and racist 2016 presidential campaign was encapsulated by his grandiose promise that he would build a great wall that would stretch across the entire southern border, and that Mexico would pay for it.
The vow energized Trump’s racist base, but the pathological liar knew damn well that his plan would never come to fruition. His administration built only 52 miles of new border wall, the majority which were replacements of smaller, dilapidated barriers.
Trump’s nativist and jingoistic 2024 presidential campaign was encapsulated by his pledge to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. This guarantee was a complete fantasy, not feasible and fatal to our economy if actually realized.
In the first one hundred days of Trump’s second term, ICE deported less than 65,000 undocumented persons. At this pace, the regime will fall woefully short of its goal of a million deportations this year.
Trump said ICE would start by deporting criminals, but most of the initial deportees aren’t violent criminals or gang members. It’s farm workers, landscapers, nannies, students, and factory workers who have been ripped from their communities and families and deported to countries where they face poverty and violence from criminal elements and repressive regimes.
To distract from the failure of his deportation scheme and from his failing economic and foreign policies, Trump federalized the National Guard in California, and deployed Marines to LA in a cynical effort to provoke and incite violence.
We must stand against this fascist state by protesting, and speaking truth to power, but we shouldn’t damage our mission to restore democracy by giving in to the temptation to resort to acts of violence or vandalism.
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