Donald Trump's "Inoffensive" War on Reality
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/donald-trumps-inoffensive-war-on-reality
Donald Trumps Inoffensive War on Reality
By Masha Gessen
12:32 P.M.
In his Fourth of July speech, Trump promised to strike fear into the hearts of Americas enemies, but for the President, there is no bigger enemy than the figure of the immigrant.
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Trumps American story is the story of struggle, the epic tale of a great nation whose people have risked everything for what they know is right, as he said in the address. Over the course of forty-seven minutes, Trump enumerated American military conquests and the branches of the U.S. armed forces. A quick listing of civilian achievementmedical discoveries, cultural accomplishments, civil-rights advancements, and space explorationwas thrown in at the beginning of the speech, but
the master narrative Trump proposed was one of wars and victories, punctuated by the roar of airplane engines for flyovers and the songs of each armed-forces branch.
The narrative was also one of fear. Trump spoke like the leader of a country under siege. The President and the people who joined him onstage were in a fortress of their own, a clear protective enclosure that, streaked with rain, made for an incongruously melancholy sight, as though we were watching them through a veil of tears.
Trump extolled the strength and battle-readiness of American troops but named no current threat. He promised only to strike fear into the hearts of Americas enemies. But his audience knows who the enemy is. North Korea or China may go from enemy to partner to friend on a whim, but
there is one enemy whom Trump has consistently, obsessively described as an existential threat: the immigrant.
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In less than three years, as our senses were dulled by the crudeness of the tweets, the speed of the news cycle, the blatant quality of the lies, and the brutality of official rhetoric, Trump has reframed America, stripping it of its ideals, dumbing it down, and reducing it to a nation at war against people who want to join it. These days, that is what passes for inoffensive, tame, and standard.