America in Flames

America is on fire. At the start of the week, George Floyd, a black man in his 40s, died while being arrested in Minneapolis, reopening wounds which have never healed, and sparking protests and violence in several large cities. Even though the situation has improved for African Americans in the United States over the past 20 years, the issue of race remains a deep source of tension and division across the Atlantic. This latest blunder happened within the context of these social tensions. The health crisis and resulting unemployment have hit the poorest minorities hard. More than ever, this is the clash of two Americas. One is open and progressive, embodied by Barack Obama. The other is ultraconservative, symbolized by Obama’s successor in the White House. The former reacted with dignity and solemnity to the death of George Floyd through a press release. The latter fired off an incendiary tweet promising that, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” another verbal assault from the mouth of Donald Trump whose provocations and racial slurs are too numerous to count. The sitting president is no stranger to this kind of escalating rhetoric, but a number of observers are interpreting this as a thought out, deliberate strategy. Five months before the presidential election, the billionaire president is fanning the flames, playing to the most radical fringe of his electorate. Recent surveys that show him losing to Democrat Joe Biden have fueled his anger further. The Minneapolis riots present him with the opportunity to whip up fear in America’s heartland and mobilize his supporters. No one should rely on Trump to piece back together a country that is fractured and traumatized by the coronavirus epidemic, the surge in unemployment, and social tensions. America is on fire and has a pyromaniac at the helm.