{"id":1064172,"date":"2023-06-02T04:47:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-02T04:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com\/?p=12996"},"modified":"2023-06-02T04:47:02","modified_gmt":"2023-06-02T04:47:02","slug":"trump-is-bad-because-hes-similar-to-other-us-presidents-not-because-hes-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/06\/02\/trump-is-bad-because-hes-similar-to-other-us-presidents-not-because-hes-different\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Is Bad Because He\u2019s Similar To Other US Presidents, Not Because He\u2019s Different"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):<\/em><\/a><\/p>

<\/iframe><\/p>\u2756<\/p>

We’re already seeing a ton of ridiculous drama queenery about Trump’s second presidential run, claiming he’s grown even more extremist and fascistic than when he was president in what amounts to a repeat of the “Trump is a second Hitler” narrative that dominated US political discourse in his first run.<\/p>

A Washington Post article titled “The deepening radicalization of Donald J. Trump<\/a>” asserts that “Trump is sketching out the contours of a second term potentially more dangerous and chaotic than his first,” citing a New York University professor who says, “When authoritarian leaders lose office, they come back, like, 10 times worse \u2014 they never get less extreme, they always get more extreme.”<\/p>

But when you look at the authors’ evidence that Trump is becoming more dangerous and evil, there’s nothing about\u00a0assassinating foreign leaders, starvation sanctions, cold war brinkmanship, mass bombing campaigns or Trump’s Yemen veto, or any of the other horrors he unleashed upon the world as commander in chief from 2017 through 2020. Instead, the article talks about his attitudes toward the January 6 Capitol Building riot and his “grab them by the pussy” remarks about women.<\/p>

Trump\u00a0ramped up cold war aggressions<\/a>\u00a0against Russia, helped set the US<\/a> on track for war with China,\u00a0killed tens of thousands of Venezuelans<\/a>\u00a0with starvation sanctions,\u00a0vetoed attempts to save Yemen<\/a>\u00a0from U.S.-backed genocide, assassinated<\/a> Iran’s top military commander,\u00a0worked to foment civil war in Iran<\/a>\u00a0using\u00a0starvation sanctions<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0CIA ops<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0the stated goal<\/a>\u00a0of effecting regime change,\u00a0occupied Syrian oil fields<\/a>\u00a0with the goal of preventing Syria\u2019s reconstruction, launched<\/a> repeated airstrikes<\/a> against the Syrian government,\u00a0greatly increased<\/a>\u00a0the number of troops in the Middle East and elsewhere, greatly\u00a0increased<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0number of bombs dropped per day<\/a>\u00a0from the previous administration, killing\u00a0record numbers of civilians<\/a>, and\u00a0reduced military accountability<\/a>\u00a0for those airstrikes. He also imprisoned Julian Assange<\/a> by escalating the empire’s war on journalism for exposing US war crimes.<\/p>

All of which are in perfect alignment with the actions of both Trump’s predecessors and Trump’s successor.<\/p>

https:\/\/twitter.com\/MaxBoot\/status\/1661329451177635842<\/p>

Donald Trump spent four years proving to everyone that he wasn’t bad because he was similar to Hitler, he was bad because he was similar to Obama. He wasn’t terrible because of the ways he differed from other presidents, but because of the ways he was the same.<\/p>

The tiny smattering of violence that occurred in the US because of Trump was microscopic compared to the death and destruction he inflicted upon the world outside the nation’s borders. But the mainstream worldview can’t acknowledge those actions, because the mainstream worldview is designed to support and facilitate<\/a> those actions.<\/p>

Yes, Trump is evil. Yes, you should be alarmed that monsters like him exist. But not because he is a unique aberration and deviation from the US government’s status quo; rather, you should be alarmed because he perfectly exemplifies and bolsters<\/em> the US government’s status quo.<\/p>

The bad things about Trump specifically are dwarfed by the bad things about the US empire generally \u2014 not by a percentage, but by many orders of magnitude. The empire’s malfeasance is exponentially more significant than whatever face happens to be sitting at its front desk.<\/p>

That’s<\/strong><\/em> what people should be freaked out about. Not that the front desk of the imperial office might be occupied by an obnoxious oaf for four years, but by the empire itself. That’s where all the real horrors are. They’re just invisible to the mainstream worldview. By design.<\/p>

The US presidency can only be held<\/a> by imperialist monsters. That’s the only kind of person who ever makes it through the security checkpoints on becoming president of the world’s most powerful and destructive government which serves as the hub of a globe-spanning empire that is fueled by human blood.<\/p>

Sometimes when I tell Australians who’ve been indoctrinated by our nation’s insanely propagandistic imperial media<\/a> what I do for a living, they tell me “Ooh, it would be terrible if Trump wins the election!” I tell them “Yeah, it will be! Also it will be terrible if anyone else does!”<\/p>

______________________<\/p>

My work is\u00a0entirely reader-supported<\/a>, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, throwing some money into my tip jar on\u00a0Patreon<\/a>,\u00a0Paypal<\/a>, or\u00a0Substack<\/a>, buying an issue of my\u00a0monthly zine<\/a>, and following me on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0Soundcloud<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0YouTube<\/a>. If you want to read more you can\u00a0buy my books<\/a>. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at\u00a0my website<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0on Substack<\/a>, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded,\u00a0has my permission<\/a>\u00a0to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I\u2019ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I\u2019m trying to do with this platform,\u00a0click here<\/a>. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.<\/em><\/p>

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Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2<\/p>

Featured image<\/a> via\u00a0Gage Skidmore (Wikimedia Commons)<\/p> \n

This post was originally published on Caitlin Johnstone<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): \u2756 We\u2019re already seeing a ton of ridiculous drama queenery about Trump\u2019s second presidential run, claiming he\u2019s grown even more extremist and fascistic than when he was president in what amounts to a repeat [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1776,1775,1778,4,1058,3591,6155,204],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/557"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1064172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1064173,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064172\/revisions\/1064173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1064172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1064172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1064172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}