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In in the present day’s episode of Donald Trump Retains Saying The Fascist Half Out Loud, the president who pardoned or commuted the sentences of greater than 1500 Jan 6 Capitol rioters is now threatening faculty college students who interact in “unlawful protests” with arrest and/or expulsion, which solely proves (not that we wanted extra proof) that Trump doesn’t care in regards to the U.S. Structure and he believes the POTUS is omnipotent (a minimum of when he’s within the Oval Workplace).
“All Federal Funding will STOP for any School, Faculty, or College that enables unlawful protests,” Trump wrote on Fact Social. “Agitators might be imprisoned/or completely despatched again to the nation from which they got here. American college students might be completely expelled or, relying on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS!”
Now, Trump didn’t particularly point out pro-Palestinian protests, however, as Axios famous, he “has beforehand mentioned his administration will deport scholar “aliens” who joined ‘pro-jihadist’ demonstrations and revoke visas for ‘Hamas sympathizers.’”
Anyway, there are some things occurring in Trump’s newest unhinged publish. First, what’s an “unlawful protest?” The proper to free speech and peaceable meeting is granted to us by the First Modification, which conservatives fake to swear by — virtually as a lot as they do the Second Modification — till the protected speech entails the “woke” stuff they only don’t need to hear.
Now, if by “unlawful protests” Trump is referring to rioters, effectively, a riot and a protest aren’t the identical factor. It’s the rioting that will be unlawful, not the protesting. And, once more, that is wealthy coming from somebody who gave get-out-of-jail-free playing cards to the higher a part of 2,000 convicts who engaged in what, by Trump’s definition, can be the “unlawful protest” that he impressed and instigated.
Trump dismissing pro-Palestine protesters as “Hamas sympathizers” can also be wealthy coming from the president who simply obtained by way of staging a shouting match with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy whereas clearly serving as a PR rep for the Russian warlord who remains to be ravaging Zelenskyy’s nation.
Both method, if Trump can designate a pro-Palestine demonstration as an “unlawful protest,” he could make any protest he doesn’t like “unlawful.” As a lot as I usually despise the “slippery slope” logical fallacy, there are already anti-Trump protests bobbing up throughout the nation, and Trump has already confirmed his willingness to outlaw something that bruises his fragile, rust-orangey-white ego, so, on this case, the “slippery slope” is relevant.
Secondly, why is Trump out right here appearing just like the president has any energy to expel a scholar from a privately-owned college? How is that even the federal authorities’s function? Apparently, very similar to their love at no cost speech, all of that “small authorities” discuss goes out the MAGA window as soon as Trump and his social gathering discover a strategy to begin throwing their federal weight round simply to get a leg up on their tradition struggle.
After all, Trump is threatening to implement authority he doesn’t even have by threatening to withhold funding from any faculty (or entity typically) that doesn’t bend to his will. Tariffs and the withholding of federal funds — that’s at all times been his complete playbook, and it’s not a playbook that initiatives energy, simply pettiness and childishness in an “I’m going to take my ball and go dwelling” sort of method.
Lastly, Trump is, as typical, simply slinging round allegations with out presenting a shred of proof. If a riot is what he (hypocritically) considers an “unlawful protest,” he’s claiming, with out proof, that faculty directors are simply permitting violence to occur on their campuses with out involving regulation enforcement and having violent individuals arrested. He’s additionally claiming, with out proof, that undocumented migrants who he can legally have “imprisoned/or completely despatched again to the nation from which they got here” are current at these “unlawful protests.” Both that, or he’s threatening to have migrants deported with out due course of whether or not they’re within the nation legally or not simply because they engaged in activism he doesn’t like.
Trump is doing extra than simply flirting with fascism at this level, y’all; he’s taken it out on a number of dates and now he’s proposing to marry it and make it America’s new stepdad.
And to assume — we’re nonetheless not two months into his second time period. It’s going to be a protracted 4 years.
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Trump’s Bizarre Gait Causes Wild Hypothesis About His Well being
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