Abuse, Smear and Malice

President Donald Trump is the one American leader who has made the use of abusive language about his domestic political adversaries his trade mark since he began his Presidential campaign around 2014. He continued with filthy language during his first Presidential term and in the four years he was out of office. If anything, his language became fouler as he campaigned for his second term.

If anyone had hoped that after his great political accomplishment of winning the 2024 Presidential election, he would abandon abuse, smear and malice towards his political opponents he was obviously mistaken. Indeed, Trump was treated badly by the Democratic Party and made to face criminal charges. That only increased his bitterness and he has not been able to overcome the anger and animosity against the Democrats. His support base has no problems with his language. Indeed, they seem to be happy with it.

Recently, he once again turned his ire against Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Clearly Trump has been politically obsessed with Ilhan Omar who is of Somali origin. She came to the United States at the age of thirteen in 1995. Her father moved to Minnesota where she grew up. She became a US citizen in 2000. In 2019 Omar was elected to the House of Representatives from Minnesota. She is ideologically to the far left and that is an anathema to Trump’s political thinking. She has supported liberal causes both domestically and US foreign policy.

Trump has trashed her political positions in strong language. Going beyond that, he has accused her of ‘marrying her brother’. This is completely untrue. Ilhan was twice married to Somali origin men but divorced both and she is now married to a Caucasian. These are part of her personal life. It is disgraceful that the holder of the world’s most powerful political office should stoop so low as to make charges of the kind he has done. However, such is the temper of the times in US domestic politics that there has not been the kind of wide outrage that there should have been there at Trump’s remarks against Ilhan Omar. It was unthinkable that any US President since the Second World War would have made such remarks against a Congresswoman. But these are the times of Trump!

Recently, after Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the Afghan who belonged to a military unit in Afghanistan closely associated with the CIA, shot at two US national guards (one of whom died), Trump has again indulged in angry rhetoric against liberal US politicians including Ilhan Omar. He called her ‘garbage’ and said that she should return to her own country. Trump obviously overlooked that she is an American citizen and, even more, an elected member of the House of Representatives since 2019. An American President is supposed to set an example of correct political conduct. Trump has done just the reverse.

What is also disconcerting is the language Trump is now using more and more against developing countries. In the wake of Lakanwal’s deplorable violent act Trump ordered that US visas should not be given to nineteen countries. Addressing his cabinet—and these remarks were televised—Trump said that Somalis were ‘garbage’ and went on to add that Ilhan Omar was garbage and her friends were garbage too.

Somalia has been in great turmoil for decades. It has collapsed as a state and has been a source of great instability in the waters surrounding it. Terrorist groups find in its instability an opportunity for setting up bases. However, it is one matter to focus on these factors out and take strong action to restore Somalia to stability and quite another to call the Somali people as ‘garbage’. The US, as all sovereign states, has the right to decide who will be allowed entry into its territory but it does not have the right to insult people of developing countries—even of those going through the troubles that Somalia has been enduring.

In fact, such remarks of Trump indicate a growing tendency among developed countries to show not only less interest in the welfare of the Global South but of reverting to the notion that prevailed in colonial times. This was that the peoples of advanced countries were inherently superior to those of the colonies. This was a racist attitude and contemporary science has completely rejected the notion of some ethnic groups being genetically superior to others. The history of the human development has shown that if any people are given the opportunity for advancement, then they reach the same level of development as the rest. However, the prejudices of the colonial period are resurfacing. And, they may come forth in off-the-cuff remarks of political leaders but these comments are tips of mental icebergs. They mask the immense store of prejudice from which they arise. It is because of this that Trump’s remark on the Somalis being ‘garbage’ cannot be dismissed lightly.

Significantly, in his brief comment on Somali garbage and stopping illegal immigration Trump also mentioned that the US was at a “tipping point”. The context of Trump’s prediction indicates that unless the US gets illegal immigration under control it will be swamped by undesirable people who will impair the US way of life. They will unleash violence. What Trump overlooks is that far greater violence takes place against innocents in the US through the use of freely available guns. No US noteworthy political leader has the strength or the resolve to control the gun lobby. Indeed, that is the true ‘garbage’ that the US should be conscious of.