29/03/2025
Frighteningly accurate
The arrest of student Rümeysa Öztürk in broad daylight on the streets of Boston this week is shocking to watch. Security cameras on a nearby building captured the moment when half a dozen masked plainclothes officers from the Department of Homeland Security first handcuffed and then bundled her into an unmarked car. She has since been taken to Louisiana to be detained pending deportation to her home country of Turkey.
Although she has not been charged with any crime, the Department for Homeland Security has terminated Öztürk’s visa, accusing her of engaging in activities in support of Hamas. This appears to be a reference to an opinion piece that she and three other students co-wrote for their student newspaper last year, advocating that the university “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and “divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel”.
Those culture war warriors who have spent the past five years defending the absolute right to free speech have been conspicuously silent about Öztürk’s detention. Can there be a more egregious example of cancel culture than being abducted by the state for simply expressing an opinion?
In the ten weeks since Tяump took office, such infringements of basic civil rights have become common. Commentators, activists and opposition politicians have struggled to understand the nature of what is unfolding before them. Tяump has been called a dictator, an oligarch, and authoritarian and, most regularly, a fascist.
I think that last label is least convincing. ‘Fascist’ is an insult used by radicals in the same way that ‘communist’ is hurled at anyone disliked by reactionaries. More significantly, fascism is an ideology and, as any observer can deduce, Tяump has no ideological sensibilities.
If his programme were ideological, he would have tribunes pushing his policies. As it is, the Republican majority in Congress is supine, nervously waiting to see what Tяump will do next, hoping that it won’t adversely effect their constituents. An ideological Tяumpism would give the Democrats something to get their teeth into, an opportunity to convince the American people of the logical outcome of the fascist administration’s policies.
Instead, Tяump acts on impulse, threatening action one day, lifting the threat another, making it harder for his opponents to make their criticisms stick. While he may claim he’s doing this in order to make America great again, his behaviour appears to be geared towards gaining advantage over competitors and leverage against opponents. And in Tяump’s mind, these two categories are synonymous.
His belligerent targeting of America’s closest allies is unprecedented and threatens economic stability. Why does he focus his ire on Canada, Mexico and the EU? Because they represent a rules based global order that prevents a nation like the US from throwing its considerable weight around. Trade deals are based on negotiation and fairness, two virtues that Tяump has little time for.
Though he is not driven by ideological zeal, it is not true to say that Tяump has no overriding purpose. In the past weeks we’ve witnessed him admonishing judges, lawyers, universities and liberal democracies. Any part of civil society that may hold him to account has come under attack. And where other politicians might secretly bend the rules in order to exact their revenge on opponents, Tяump wants everybody to see his retribution. Sure, it fires up his base, but more importantly, it cows potential opposition.
This rule by intimidation has a name: gangsterism, a term I feel better describes his behaviour than those more commonly deployed by his critics. The aim of gangsterism is to use fear to deprive people of their agency and reward loyalty through the corruption of the system. We can see this happening already in the Republican Party, whose members of Congress privately admit that they fear for their lives and those of their families should they publicly take a stand against against Tяump.
This is the atmosphere that Tяump and his cronies are bent on creating. They seek to scare people by threatening to take Greenland or send anyone who damages one of Tesla’s yank tanks to Guantanamo Bay. Their move fast and break things approach to politics is designed to keep the public on edge, but that is not the only reason for their urgency.
Those enabling Tяump know that their claim to absolute power may be curtailed by the mid-term elections in 2026. If they are able, through intimidation, to successfully undermine the rule of law, pollute the public discourse with lies, chill debate by harassing dissenters and destabilise the democratic world order, then there will be less likelihood of any effective pushback when Tяump announces that the elections have to be cancelled in order to make America great again.
