The Self-Harming Behavior of the US Is a Tragedy for Us All

As the old Russian saying goes, “A fish rots from the head down.” If the U.S. is going to get a chance to heal, President Donald Trump must be removed from the White House.

The American dream is increasingly like a nightmare. By now, the coronavirus pandemic has cost 100,000 American lives. As if that weren’t enough, the U.S. is being shaken by violent protests after a brutal police intervention that led to the death of African American George Floyd.

The two tragedies have plenty in common. The pandemic has hit the poor, urban minorities of the U.S. the hardest. Even the financial crisis is mostly being felt by these groups as unemployment is approaching its highest level since the 1930s.

African Americans were therefore already suffering when police violence claimed yet another black victim. By no means does this excuse the attacks and looting taking place, which should be condemned. However, it does explain the anger and feeling of helplessness many black people are expressing.

The sad thing is that none of these tragedies appear to bring Americans together. Instead, they seem to have added more fuel to the fire that is creating irreversible damage to American society. A big part of the explanation for this is the man sitting in the White House. Donald Trump is both the result of the increased polarization in the U.S. and the one fueling it more than anyone else.

The mistrust in American society is his lifeblood. Without it, he would not stand a chance in the fall presidential election. Trump must continuously feed his loyal voter base with new attacks, lies and conspiracy theories. It works both as a dividing tactic to hide his own failures and to create new conflicts.

The question is, what effect will they have on the U.S.? On Saturday, the Expressen journalist sent to the location, Nina Svanberg, was hit in the thigh by a rubber bullet in connection with the Minneapolis protests. It was obvious that she was there as a journalist and moved around in a larger group from different media. The shot was still fired.

Other journalists have also become targets during the protests and this week, a reporter from CNN was arrested. These are not events you usually associate with Western democracies. Is this a coincidence? Many indications suggest otherwise.

Trump has very consciously painted the media as the people’s enemy. This is a message that speaks to his own voter base; among Republican voters only 15% trust the media and journalists.

Trump’s hostile rhetoric breeds hatred and loathing for the media. With this in mind, it is no longer an inconceivable idea to aim rubber bullets at representatives of the free press.

These are signs of the shifts in the U.S. that have happened during Trump’s leadership. Things that seemed impossible to imagine before have become normal; for example, a president cheering on armed men entering a statehouse to protest the closure during the coronavirus.

The U.S. is too important for this type of self-harming behavior. The American people and the rest of the world are in desperate need of a new president.