The Whitewashing Of Trump
It Is Never His Fault When It Always Is: A Case Study
Hi All,
It is worth watching closely how much of the media bends over backwards to whitewash the president’s actions, even when they know that they are dangerous and destructive. They are so beholden to the president for the rage that provides their income, that they contort themselves intellectually and morally to let him off the hook. The Trump/ICE executions in Minnesota are the latest example of this and are so egregious that it is worth taking a look at how the whitewashing happens.
First, the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti were not accidents. From the moment that Trump built up, lavishly funded and had ICE staffed with hundreds of entirely ill-suited, heavily armed Rambo-wannabe’s, these kind of executions were inevitable. This by the way was something that Adam Kinzinger and I discussed in our Substack Live last week. Here is an excerpt from the transcript, which has both of us talking. It might be a little confusing, but the points are clear I hope.
These cosplay Rambo warriors, hyped up military police were exceeding their authority, threatening citizens and non-citizens and deliberately inflaming a situation that cried out for calm heads—and they were doing it on the orders of the president. They were also often poorly trained and physically and mentally unsuited for their jobs. Putting these kinds of people, in masks with powerful weaponry, on the streets of US cities was an invitation to disaster.
Trump had created and fed this machine. Since becoming President again, Trump has not only spent massive funds building up this paramilitary ICE force, he has portrayed them as the great defenders of American values against subversive and dangerous forces. On the day of his second inauguration, Trump provided ICE with massive authority to go anywhere in the country it wanted.
From then on, he had ICE inserted into Democratic run cities and used the force deliberately to provoke locals, even using opposition to ICE to send in the National Guard when he wanted as with Los Angeles this June. Here was the White House statement at the time.
“In recent days, violent mobs have attacked ICE Officers and Federal Law Enforcement Agents carrying out basic deportation operations in Los Angeles, California. These operations are essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States. In the wake of this violence, California’s feckless Democrat leaders have completely abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens. That is why President Trump has signed a Presidential Memorandum deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester. The Trump Administration has a zero tolerance policy for criminal behavior and violence, especially when that violence is aimed at law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs. These criminals will be arrested and swiftly brought to justice. The Commander-in-Chief will ensure the laws of the United States are executed fully and completely.”
-Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary
In other words, opposition to ICE was used as a excuse to escalate by Trump. And this is what he did in Minnesota and why the shootings we have just seen were no accident. This was Trump only two weeks ago, after the shooting of Renee Good. The President was saying after this killing that “THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING”. And, btw, the reckoning and retribution was not directed against immigrants in the country illegally. It was directed against “Minnesota Democrats” and “professional agitators”, in other words his civilian opposition within the USA itself.
Well that day of retribution called for and encouraged by the Trump came for Alex Pretti on January 24.
That is what I mean by saying this was no surprise, it was entirely predictable.
So what we have seen is ALL Trump’s fault. He created the force, he supported the force, he lionized the force and he used them as his tool to cause retribution. You would think that this would at least be acknowledged, but oh no. Now that ICE did exactly what it was always going to do under Trump’s encouragement, now the responsibility is down to anyone but Trump. The greatest example of this might be The Free Press run by Bari Weiss, the new head of CBS news who has been suppressing stories critical of Trump.
Now Weiss has made The Free Press a vehicle to lavishly praise and flatter Trump. Just the other day, after Trump’s threatening behaviour over Greenland ended up in push-back for Europe, it published a truly notable piece of propaganda by Niall Ferguson. No, Ferguson said, Trump had not made a mistake (the idea of Trump making a mistake is entirely alien to him it seems) but quite the opposite. Trump’s Greenland foray was a sign of strategic brilliance of the highest order.
Btw, Weiss just named Ferguson as one of CBS news newest contributors, so we can expect such over the top praise for Trump even more often on the Tiffany Network. I look forward to the fearless interrogation of power that will come from this.
Returning to ICE and the execution of US citizens, it was clear to the Free Press that this was a problem for the president; not at first mind you, but only after the videos clearly showed an ICE agent about to fire a head-shot at a disarmed and defenseless Pretti. Once the Wall Street Journal came out and showed that the ICE description of the Pretti killing was BS, only then did the Free Press pivot hard.
On the surface the Free Press seemed hyper critical of what happened. However what it did was make sure that as little criticism as possible was directed towards Trump in its headlines. The FP’s anger all ended up focussed on Kirsti Noem, Gregrory Bovino, Stephen Miller or ICE itself. Here is a overall view of the Free Press’s present section on the Trump-inspired situation.
It is “ICE action” that they are reporting, and the real villain is “Kristi Noem’s Reckless Lies”. In its most aggressive statement it is the “Trump administration” (not Trump of course) that is playing the American people for fools.
This earlier article about the lies that were spread about the shooting immediately from the White House makes it clear to whom the Free Press was sending the blame. It is Trump “Officials” but not Trump himself who are the star villains. Here Stephen Miller as well as Noem gets to take the blame.
This is all part of a giant con, one that btw eerily recreates what we have seen about Trump and Ukraine. In the latter case, we have been regularly assured by charlatans that Trump might actually eventually support Ukraine, but it has been his evil advisers such as Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner or Elbridge Colby who are leading him astray. At this point it would be tedious of me to go back and show how regularly we have had to deal with this Good Tsar/Bad Boyar bullshit.
And here it is again.
As long as people find these ways to defend Trump personally and exonerate him from the results of his own action, the US is in real trouble. What we are living though is the result of Trump’s actions. He and no one else is ultimately responsible.
That must be said loud and clear, and only then can the fightback be truly effective.
Spot on.
To add to that, especially egregious has been the coverage of the so-called "demotion" of Bovino.
For some reason, this has been accepted on its face, and reported as Bovino facing some consequence. But all that really seemed to have happened is he's no longer the spokesperson. No professional consequences, no charges - the media has just the word of a dishonest, bad faith administration with a history of lying, which its taken on face value and swallowed whole without question.
Harry Truman willingly took responsibility for what happened in his presidency saying “The buck stops here”. TrumpNEVER takes responsibility for anything that goes wrong. Your remarks that the press mostly ignores his responsibility is absolutely correct and that position must be changed.