Lin Min

linmin67@hotmail.com

DURING the more than three years of Donald Trump’s presidency, there has grown a long list of words that news media uses to describe the U.S. president: dishonest, fickle, narcissistic, egotistical, arrogant, vulgar, unhinged, reckless, misogynic, protectionist, xenophobic, racist, divisive, etc. Now his handling of the protests over the death of George Floyd has led to another word, autocratic, being added to the list.

Fresh from his clamorous support of rioters in Hong Kong, Trump threatened to send active-duty troops into the streets of U.S. cities to quell the worst unrest since the civil-rights era. To those who regard the United States as a beacon of freedom, liberty and human rights, his threat is so un-American.

Last Monday evening, Trump sent law enforcement personnel equipped with rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse peaceful citizen protesters in Washington, so that he could walk to St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House for a photo-op; he stiffly held up a Bible, announcing “It’s a Bible.” The narcissistic president badly wanted his tough image to be broadcast and published after media reports said he was whisked by secret service to an emergency bunker under the White House on the evening of May 29 as hundreds of protesters gathered outside his residence.

Several retired military officials, including former Defense Secretary James Mattis, have come forward to blast Trump for his handling of the protests.

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try,” said Mattis, who had kept silent since resigning in 2018.

Retired Gen. John Allen, the former commander of American forces in Afghanistan, took his own turn at attacking Trump’s response. “It wasn’t enough that peaceful protesters had just been deprived of their first-amendment rights — this photo-op sought to legitimize that abuse with a layer of religion,” wrote Allen in a commentary published by Foreign Policy.

Showing no repentance, Trump on Friday retweeted a post saying the peaceful protesters who were forcibly dispersed to make way for his photo-op were “terrorists.”

As Mattis rightly pointed out, Trump has never tried to unite the country. In fact, Trump’s long-time tactic is to divide and rule. In handling any divisive issue, Trump would always appeal to his base without reaching out to other sectors of society, and would end up adding fuel to an already inflammatory issue.

In August 2017, two days after the death of a young woman protesting against a massive white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump told reporters that “I think there is blame on both sides.”

His another tactic is to point an accusing finger at others to cover his own failings. He unabashedly blamed China and the World Health Organization for the heavy toll COVID-19 inflicted on his country, in an apparent attempt to deflect criticism over his administration’s fumbled and chaotic response to the pandemic. Now he is blaming “terrorists” for the protests triggered by Floyd’s death.

America is now torn apart by a deep racial divide. Such a crisis calls for a competent leader to narrow the divide and heal the wounds. But a divisive Trump is the last thing the country needs. Allen winds up his article hoping the Floyd incident will lead to a more enlightened America. “It will have to come from the bottom up. For at the White House, there is no one home,” Allen wrote.

Trump is a typical rabble-rouser who came to power by exploiting the fractures of American society. The fact that so many unflattering words can be used to describe the president of the world’s number one superpower somehow explains the tumultuous changes that have rocked the world in recent years. With the November election approaching, the demagogue may well up the ante by whipping up xenophobia and racial divide, as well as continue his blame game. The way Trump is behaving has made some people ponder the chances of the United States becoming a failed state.