✍️ A Commentary on Donald Trump, as Spoken by Mehdi Hasan
Donald Trump’s political project is not a conventional Republican administration with a few rough edges. To treat it as such is journalistic malpractice. We are looking at a mainstream political figure who has run an openly fascistic, racist, sexist, and demagogic campaign. He is a man comfortable with the rhetoric of a dictator, who openly talks about using the instruments of the state—the IRS, the SEC, the Justice Department—to go after his political opponents and the media itself. He is a clear, present, and existential threat to American democracy.
The Failure of the Media's "False Balance"
What has been most astonishing, and most horrifying, about the rise and endurance of the Trump phenomenon is not just the man himself, but the lack of resistance, especially from corporate media. So many news organizations were, and often still are, terrified of saying the obvious. They cling to a pathetic notion of "fairness" that dictates you must report on a fascist as if he were simply a quirky politician with a different policy agenda.
We need journalists who are willing to be the kid with the emperor's new clothes, to look at the power on display and point out that the emperor is naked. We cannot allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by his strategy of "Gish Galloping," where he throws a hundred lies at you in rapid succession, hoping to distract you. Our job is to break it down, to pick out just one of those lies, take it apart piece by piece, and let that one lie stand as a symbol for the other ninety-nine.
A Calamity for the World, Especially the Middle East
And let's be clear: the threat is not merely domestic. On the global stage, a Trump administration is a guaranteed disaster. While one can and must criticize the previous administration for its foreign policy failures and its complicity in ongoing bloodshed, to suggest that Trump would be an improvement—especially for the Palestinians—is a dangerous fantasy.
In foreign policy, Trump's playbook is clear: run as a dove, govern as a hawk. He has already surrounded himself with hardliners and war hawks. His so-called "Deal of the Century" for the Middle East was a plan of apartheid and settler colonialism, drafted without any Palestinian input, designed to give Israel sovereignty over all of Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. The sheer financial muscle behind his current political efforts, driven by pro-annexation donors, makes it clear that he views the West Bank as a target for expansion. For those suffering, things can, and absolutely will, always get worse.
The Road Ahead
My greatest hope remains with the American people. The vast majority must recognize the peril that American democracy is in, the danger to the American economy, and the crisis facing the globe. We cannot rely on institutions that have repeatedly failed to hold him accountable. The only way to resist the systematic dismantling of democratic norms and the threat of an openly fascistic political movement is through constant, vigorous public movements and independent, adversarial journalism.
We must not be cowed. We must not be bullied. We must speak freely. That is the fundamental job of the journalist in this perilous age.