As Donald Trump's influence wanes, his rhetoric has grown increasingly hostile, targeting female journalists and ethnic communities with a series of defamatory lies. His recent focus on Somali Americans is part of a broader pattern of animosity, where the power behind the insult matters more than its accuracy.
The Cruelty of Immigration Enforcement
The administration's immigration crackdown, executed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is notably indiscriminate. The target is not individuals with criminal records, but anyone perceived as 'brown'. This has led to US citizens, Native Americans with tribal ID, military veterans, college students, and small children being swept up in raids.
New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani condemns these actions, stating "ICE raids are cruel, inhumane, and do nothing to serve public safety." The scenes of masked officers smashing car windows and separating parents from children terrorise entire communities and disrupt schools and businesses.
This targeted hatred relies on defamation, from attacks on Haitians during the 2024 campaign, to Venezuelans in spring and summer 2024, and now Somalis. The factual contributions of these groups are ignored in favour of racist vitriol.
A Historical Fantasy of a White America
The underlying goal appears to be the recreation of a white America that is a historical fiction. While the US was demographically whiter in the mid-20th century, it was never exclusively a white nation.
In 1776, the thirteen colonies included significant Black and Indigenous populations. The annexation of Texas in 1844 and the seizure of Mexico's northern half in 1848 incorporated a large Spanish-speaking population. Notably, the first African Muslim arrived in a Spanish expedition nearly a century before the Mayflower landed in 1620.
Persecution and mass deportation cannot erase this history or alter the current reality. Los Angeles, a city nearly 50% Latino, retains its Spanish name and cultural fabric despite years of aggressive immigration enforcement. The cruelty seems a panicked attempt by racists to forestall an inevitable future where the country is no longer majority white.
Pronatalism and a Coherent Agenda of Control
This anti-immigrant fervour is coupled with a pronounced attack on reproductive rights, often framed as a bid to increase white birth rates. The US faces a below-replacement birth rate, a situation mitigated by a young, immigrant workforce.
Rather than offering support to make parenthood easier, the approach is punitive. As Margaret Talbot of the New Yorker notes, figures like JD Vance promote a pronatalism that combines falling birth rate concerns with anti-immigration and anti-feminist ideas.
CNN reports that reproductive rights groups see this 'pro-family' focus as a weaponised conservative agenda that threatens women's health, reproductive rights, and labour participation, while simultaneously cutting vital programmes like Medicaid.
Together, the anti-immigration and pronatalist policies form a coherent, if dim-witted, strategy to redirect the nation's demographic future through bullying. They inadvertently reveal that claims to superiority must be based on race and gender, having no other foundation.
Policies Divorced from Reality
The administration's justifications frequently collapse under scrutiny. Operations in the southern Caribbean target small boats unconfirmed to be carrying drugs and incapable of reaching the US mainland. Venezuela is wrongly scapegoated for fentanyl trafficking, being far less involved in the cocaine trade than other South American nations.
Domestically, a rejection of climate science and a sentimental commitment to fossil fuels like coal force costly, toxic energy solutions while sabotaging cheaper renewables. Meanwhile, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. undermines public health with anti-scientific dietary schemes.
The core premise—that non-white immigrants are threats—is inverted on the ground. From Los Angeles and Charlotte to Chicago and New York, it is ICE and border patrol agents who are perceived as violent, unwelcome invaders.
The most dramatic rebuke to this agenda is the grassroots mobilisation of thousands who organise, protest, and risk arrest to defend their neighbours. City after city has risen up. All of Trump's insults cannot change that fundamental act of communal protection.
