If the US president threatens to take away freedoms, are we no longer free? | Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s retribution threats are hardly a novelty, but even according to his standards, the warnings of the American President of Courroucence in recent days have represented a dramatic escalation.

During last week, Trump threatened the deportation, the loss of American citizenship or the arrest against, respectively, the richest person in the world, the future potential mayor of New York and the former interior security of Joe Biden.

The head of head warnings may have aimed to distract growing unpopularity, according to opinion surveys, Trump’s agenda, according to some analysts. But they also served as an additional alarm for the state of American democracy five and a half months after a presidency which experienced an incessant attack on constitutional standards, institutions and freedom of expression.

Trump turned no on Tuesday other than Elon Musk, the technological billionaire who, before a recent spectacular fallout, had been his nearest ally to cover a radical program of upheaval and overhaul of the American government.

But when the founder of Tesla and SpaceX promised to form a new party if the congress adopted the signing of Trump “a big bill”, Trump has shot in the method of remuneration which is now familiar to his democratic opponents.

“Without subsidies, Elon should probably close his shop and return home to South Africa,” Trump posted on his social platform Truth, threatening both the billions of dollars with federal subsidies received by Musk companies, and – he seemed – his American citizenship, which the entrepreneur received in 2002 but that supporters like Steve Bannon questioned.

“More rocket launches, satellites or electric cars’ production, and our country would allow a fortune.”

Trump paid the knife more the next morning to speak to journalists before boarding a flight to Florida.

“We may have to put Doge on Elon,” he said, referring to the “Ministry of Effectiveness of the Government” unofficial which emptied several government agencies and which Musk directed before retreating from its ad hoc role in late May. “Doge is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. It would not be terrible.”

The many Musk’s criticisms may have found the sympathy difficult to find given his previous efforts for erasing jobs on behalf of Trump and the $ 275 million he spent last year to help it.

But the wider political implications are worrying, say the American militants of democracy.

“Trump clearly shows that if he can do this to the richest man in the world, he could certainly do it to you,” said Ian Bassin, co-founder and executive director of Protect Democracy. “It is important, if we believe in the rule of law, whether we believe in it, whether it is armed against someone for whom we have sympathy or someone for whom we have lost sympathy.”

Musk was not the only target of Trump’s capricious revenge.

He also threatened to investigate the American citizenship of Zohran Mamdani, the potential candidate of the Democrats for the mayor of New York who triumphed in a primary multicandate election, and publicly called on civil servants to explore the possibility of arresting Alejandro Mayorkas, the former head of internal security in the administration of Biden.

The two scenarios were noted during a visit highly managed by scene to “Alligator Alcatraz”, a new prohibited installation built to shelter undocumented people gathered as part of the flagship of Trump mass deportation policy.

After happily managed the images of imprisoned immigrants who were forced to flee alleged alligators and snakes to reside in the neighboring marshes, Trump seized the questions of obligation of friendly journalists working for right -of -law points that have been accredited by the administration for news events from the White House, often at the expense of the established media.

“Why has he not yet been arrested?” Asked Julio Rosas de Blaze Media, referring to Mayorkas, which was largely vilified – and subsequently dismissed – by Republicans who blamed him for a record number of immigrant passages to the southern United States.

“Did we forgive, Mayorkas?” Trump replied. After being informed no, he continued: “I will take a look at that one because what he did is beyond the incompetence … Someone told Mayorkas to do so and he followed the orders, but that does not necessarily retain him harmless.”

Questioned by Benny Johnson, an influencer on the right on social networks, for his message to “communist” Mamdani – a self -proclaimed democratic socialist – on his commitment not to cooperate with immigration and the application of customs (ICE) of the undocumented without documents if he is elected mayor, “said Trump:” Then, we will need himself. We don’t need a communist in this country. of the nation. “”

He also falsely suggested that Mamdani, 33 years old – who became a naturalized American citizen in 2018 after having emigrated from Uganda with his Indian ethnic parents when he was a child – was in the country “illegally”, an assertion resulting from a request by a republican representative for an investigation by the Ministry of Justice on his application of citizenship. The representative, Andy Ogles of Tennessee, allegedly alleged that Mamdani, who campaigned vocally for Palestinian rights, acquired it by a “deliberate false declaration or concealment of material support for terrorism”.

The threat to Mamdani echoes a threat to Trump’s “Tsar” to arrest Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, last month in the midst of Trump’s deployment of the National Guard by Trump in Los Angeles to face protests protesting against ICE immigrant arrests.

Omar Noureldin, main vice-president with Common Cause, a pro-democracy watchdog, said the animus against Mamdani, a Muslim, was partly fueled by Islamophobia and racism.

“Part of the rhetoric that we heard around Mamdani, whether from the president or other political leaders, goes to his religion, to his national origin, to his race, to an ethnic origin,” he said.

“Mamdani called himself a democratic socialist. There are others, including Bernie Sanders, who are called thus, but people do not wonder if Bernie Sanders should be a citizen or not. ”

Retribution promised to be a theme of Trump’s second presidency before even returning to the Oval Office in January. On the campaign of the campaign last year, he described certain political opponents – notably Adam Schiff, a Democrat in California, and Nancy Pelosi, the former president of the House of Representatives – as “the enemy inside”.

Since its inauguration in January, he has made small acts of revenge against the Democrats and the Republicans who crossed him. Biden; Kamala Harris, former vice-president and nominated for the democratic presidential election defeated last year; And Hillary Clinton, Trump’s opponent in 2016, all revoked their security authorizations.

The details of the protection of the secret services were withdrawn from Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, who served in the first administration of Trump, although it is the subject of death threats from Iran due to the assassination in 2020 of Qassem Suleimani, a main commander of the Revolutionary Guards.

Similar destinies have struck Anthony Fauci, the specialist in infectious diseases that has angry Trump against his manipulation of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the adult children of Biden, Hunter and Ashley.

Trump has also targeted law firms whose lawyers previously acted against him, which prompted some to conclude agreements that will see them do pro bono services for the administration.

For the moment, acts of reprisals widely awaited against figures such as General Mark Milley, the former president of the chiefs of the joint staff of the armed forces – who, according to Trump, deserved to be executed for “betrayal” and who expressed fears of being recalled in active service and then martified by the Court – were not materialized.

“I [and] People in my world expected Trump to find investigations on a certain number of people, whether they were involved in the survey in Russia back, or the electoral investigation, or the insurrection of January 6, but overall, he did not do this, “said a Washington Insider veteran, who asked for anonymity, citing his proximity to people who are Trump.

“There are all kinds of lists floating … with names of people who could be investigated, but you will never know that you are under investigation until the police get up at your door – and these people continue to continue their lives.”

However, pro -democracy activists say that Trump’s latest threats should be taken seriously – in particular after several recent detentions from several democrats during demonstrations near immigration prisons or courts. In the most notorious episode, Alex Padilla, a Senator from California, was forced to the ground and handcuffed after trying to question Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Internal Security, during a press conference.

“When the President of the United States, the most powerful person in the world, threatens to stop you, is as serious as possible,” said Basin, a former White House lawyer in the administration of Barack Obama.

“That the Doj [Department of Justice] Opens an investigation or is looking for an indictment, tomorrow, next year or is never. The threat itself is the attack on our freedoms, because it is designed to make us fear that if one of us is opposed or even criticizes the president, we risk being prosecuted. »»

While some doubt the legal basis of Trump threats against musk, Mayorkas and Mamdani, Noureldin warned that they were to be literally taken.

“Trump is verbose and grand, but I think he also supports his promises with action,” he said. “When the President of the United States says something, we have to take him so serious and literal. [open prosecutions]. “”

But the biggest danger was for the American concept of secular freedom, warned Basin.

“A definition of freedom is that you can say your mind, to associate with anyone you want, to lead the life you choose to lead, and that as long as you lead yourself in accordance with the law, the government will not run up against you or will not punish you for doing these things,” he said. “When the President of the United States clearly indicates that this is not the case, that if you say things he does not like, you will be distinguished and that all the strength of the state could be brought back to your head, then you are no longer free.

“And if he clearly shows that this is true for the people who have the resources of Elon Musk or the political capital of a Mayorkas or a Mamdani, imagine what it means for people who do not have these positions or resources.”