As the end of Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office quickly approaches, many political pundits and columnists, on both the left and the right, have taken stock of all the big campaign promises Trump has been unable to fulfill. Most notably, they say, he has failed to live up to his boastful, wind-bag pledges to repeal Obamacare, to begin constructing a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, implement a blanket travel ban on Muslims entering the country, and pass legislation that would result in a massive tax cut for corporations and the wealthy.
Although many progressive are high-fiving that much of Trump’s agenda has been stymied by Federal Courts, and by his inability to control members of his own party in congress, I am personally sickened by the one area where the president undoubtedly has been a smashing success: the mainstreaming of white nationalism in America.
Although white nationalism has always been lurking in the shadows, Trump has galvanized its supporters and brought it into the sunlight. Trump has been the catalyst and leader of a movement that believes lazy, freeloading, violent, and unpatriotic “outsiders”—primarily blacks, Mexicans, and Muslims—are the biggest threat to western civilization and all its sacred values.
Trumps bigoted views were recently summed up in a tweet by one of his most ardent supporters, Iowa congressman Steve King.
“[Geert] Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny,” said King, referring to the far-right Dutch nationalist. “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.” King’s views line up with those of Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, who often cites as one of his main influences the breathtakingly racist French novel The Camp of the Saints.
“When we first started talking about this a year ago,” Bannon said in April 2016 in reference to immigration to Europe and the United States. “We called it the Camp of the Saints. … I mean, this is Camp of the Saints, isn’t it?”
If you’re unfamiliar with this reprehensible book, here’s all you need to know:
The plot of The Camp of the Saints follows a poor Indian orator, named “the turd-eater” because he literally eats excrement, and the deformed child who sits on his shoulders, who apparently possesses psychic abilities. Together, they lead an “armada” of 800,000 poor Indians sailing to France. Fleckless, inept European politicians and religious leaders endlessly debate whether to let the ships land and accept the Indians, or do what is necessary which, according to the book’s author, is recognize the threat the migrants pose and kill them all.
The evil non-white people of Earth, meanwhile, wait silently for the Indians to reach shore. The landing will be the signal for them to rise-up everywhere and overthrow white Western society. WTF?!!
It bears repeating, the man Donald Trump appointed as HIS CHIEF STRATEGIST cites this book as a major influence!! Should we be surprised, then, that to prevent a Camp of the Saints in America, Donald Trump doggedly pursues banning Muslims from entering the United States, and that he wants to spend upward of $20 Billion dollars to build a wall to keep Mexicans out? Should we be surprised that he appoints Jeff Sessions as his Attorney General, and man who has a racist past and who wants to put the brakes on police reform and reinvigorate the private prison industry—all with the aim of locking up more Latinos and African Americans.
Still unconvinced? Well, Trump sent an unmistakable message to his base a little over a week ago when he hosted Sarah Palin and racist, washed-up rocker Ted Nugent at the White House. Palin, in case you forget, paved the way for Trump’s presidency in 2008 with her dog whistle talk of “real America” and “real Americans,” both of which she claimed only existed in small, (predominantly white) rural towns. These hard working, gun-wielding patriotic folks needed to “take their country back,” Palin claimed. And from whom? Well, apparently, people like former president Barack Obama, who Nugent called a “subhuman mongrel.” The fact that Trump could comfortably host Nugent in the White House, and it barely register a blip with the news media proves how much Trump has normalized bigotry in America.
So, how can we remind ourselves how abnormal these times are? Well, during the presidential primaries last year, CNN had an on-screen clock that counted down the days, hours and minutes to the next debate. We should have a similar digital clock and display that marks the time we’ve suffered under the Trump administration. Tomorrow, it should say “100 Horrible, Racist Days Endured Under Donald Trump.”
