A year that will live in infamy

In an otherwise cacophonous presidency, there is some poetic beauty in the anniversary of Donald Trump’s inauguration being marked by an embarrassing government shutdown, brought on by Trump’s unprecedented—but completely unsurprising—incompetence. Indeed, the lead up to this shutdown succinctly encapsulates the three hallmarks which have defined Trump’s life and now his administration: a pathological propensity for lying, a glaring inability to lead, and an unapologetic bent for racial bigotry. 

You can see these three clearly in Trump’s handling of the recently proposed immigration bill, the fate of which was tied to the cooperation required to prevent a government shutdown. A fundamental falsehood, repeated over and over again by Trump during his campaign, was that Mexico would pay for a border wall. But Trump started this year by demanding funding for that wall—from the American government, not Mexico’s—as he laid out in his requirements for an immigration bill on January 9th. Then, Trump turned around and rejected a bipartisan deal fulfilling those requirements just two days later, proving once again that his leadership style models a petulant toddler who cries for a rattle for two hours, only to toss it aside mere seconds after being presented with it. Of course, Trump’s rejection of the bill stemmed from his racist views that black and brown people from “shithole” countries had no place in Trump’s America, especially not in the stead of immigrants from predominantly white countries like Norway. And thus, having exemplified this unholy trinity of mendacity, bigotry, and poor leadership, Trump presumably downed some Big Macs and Diet Coke as the government shut down.

To use a metaphor that he must be familiar with after golfing “at least 88 rounds” in his first year, this is par for the course for Trump. In one year on the job, Trump has made over 2,000 false claims according to the Washington Post. “Definitive lists” of Trump’s lies require constant updates, as do those chronicling his racist behavior and comments. In most cases, such a prolific portfolio of lies or salient history of racism would be alarming in and of itself. But the unique danger of Donald Trump is how his lies and racism so often go hand in hand, creating a shaky foundation upon which Trump bases his policies and polemics. Perhaps no example is more illustrative than the “birther conspiracy.” Trump’s racial animus towards our first African-American president fueled his crusade to delegitimize President Obama’s American identity and consequently, much of Trump’s agenda is the mindless and robotic negation of his predecessor’s. Similarly, his approaches to issues such as immigration and national security often build upon fabricated racist narratives. And thus, Trump’s first year has been marked by various failures, each more shameful than the last. The terrifying reality however is that the unrelenting litany of disgraces that this administration has heaped upon our country has led to a situation where we simply can’t keep up. What follows is but a sampling of such events. How many do you still remember?

Do you remember how the frantic and flawed rollout of the first iteration of the Muslim ban (and yes, that’s exactly what Trump intended it to be) led to green-card holding Americans being detained at airports and multiple Duke researchers having their academic and personal lives thrown into uncertainty? Do you remember how Trump appointed a foreign agent to be National Security Advisor, an opponent of public education to be head of the Department of Education, and a denier of science on the climate change issue to be the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency? Amidst his tweets and tantrums, we’ve likely forgotten how Trump failed to make a statement on the four soldiers killed in Niger for over a week and how he couldn’t be bothered to learn the name of a fallen soldier or refrain from insinuating a Gold Star widow was a liar, all the while proclaiming himself to be a champion for veterans. The images of Neo-Nazis marching in the streets of Charlottesville surely can’t be forgotten and neither can Trump’s half-hearted and delayed condemnation of white supremacy which was followed by a much more passionate defense of the “very fine people” on both sides of the protest. But perhaps we’ve forgotten that Trump was much more keen on attacking the free press, NFL players, the American judicial system, and Mika Brzezinski (among others) than the demonstrators chanting “blood and soil” in Virginia. And though it may have slipped our minds, the distasteful and half-assed level of support that Trump and his administration have provided to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria likely still leaves a bad taste in the mouths of Puerto Ricans. 

In almost all of these incidents, you can see time and again the pattern of lies, racism, and ineptitude that Trump champions. Once you realize the existence of this pattern, it becomes impossible to ignore Trump’s failings as anomalies or hiccups for a political newbie. There is a concerted effort on Trump’s part to weaken the stability of this nation by normalizing xenophobia, irrevocably blurring the line between fact and fiction, and making us accept leadership by an imbecile. By repeating this pattern, he hopes to bludgeon us into a state of numbness and indifference, hopelessness and exhaustion. He does so because this is the only way he can remain in power in the face of historically low approval ratings and a Special Counsel investigation that could lead to impeachment. What I hope to do with this column through this semester is to keep reminding you that this is not normal—none of this is. Politically speaking, 2017 was a horrific blur. 

History will speak of it as either the year the U.S. took an irrevocable turn towards authoritarianism and rabid nationalism by accepting this Trumpian catastrophe as the new normal or the year that ignited the spirit of the American people to protect its democracy by voting, organizing, speaking out, and standing up for the ideals enshrined in the Constitution and the Statue of Liberty. We blew our chance in 2016 and saw the consequences in 2017. May we fight back stronger than ever in 2018.

Shivam Dave is a Trinity senior. His column runs on alternate Tuesdays.