An Immigrant’s View of Power, Violence and the Unraveling of a Rules-Based World Order

Trump Travesty, Part 2

This is the sequel no one wanted. You may think I’m referring to the Trump presidency, but I also mean this article. I didn’t want to write this piece.

As an immigrant who chose the United States because it stood for rules, order and human dignity, and has built a 20+ year career advising businesses on building trust, reputation and global relations, I find it impossible to remain silent as those principles unravel.

Initially, I felt a follow-up to Trump’s Travesty on the American Brand was needed because, despite the rosier-than-expected third-quarter GDP and December jobs growth (if you even trust the economic data issued by this administration), the Trump effect is still negatively impacting the industries we serve in visible, frustrating ways. New travel bans. Continued tariff tomfoolery. The K-shaped economy sapping the prospects and spending power of the average American consumer. I could go on.

Then we arrested the Venezuelan head of state in an oil-drunk spasm of regime change adventurism, something that never backfires in Latin America.

And then America’s version of the Gestapo murdered a U.S. citizen on the streets of Minneapolis and immediately gaslit the public to the horror we all witnessed.

These atrocities put the cost of tariffs and the adverse effects of individual policies on travel, retail technology and fintech businesses in perspective. And while those impacts are real, they pale in comparison to the active dismantling of the rules-based world order and the flouting of not only societal norms but truth and human decency.

I didn’t want to write this article. But I had to do something. We all do.

Thuggery By Any Other Name

I have to start with the inescapable images coming out of Minneapolis.

Just as last month’s attack on National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C., was a predictable outcome of placing military personnel in close proximity to a domestic population resentful of their presence, ICE’s execution of Renee Nicole Good was as unsurprising as it was tragic, horrifying and enraging. The Trump administration's approach to immigration enforcement is, to me, the most infuriating aspect of this regime, and Wednesday’s shooting immediately became the most emblematic and egregious example of why.

This unconscionable incident showcases the deep-rooted violence intrinsic to ICE’s ill-defined mission and extra-constitutional powers. It lays bare the agency’s dismissal of (and outright antagonism to) legitimate protest. It demonstrates the risk of recruiting and deploying minimally trained, ideologically driven, trigger-happy masked thugs for a job that would demand sensitivity and capacity for nuance if it were warranted at all. It shows a complete disregard for public safety and human life that should be unimaginable in a first-world democracy.

It also illustrates the administration's prioritization of its own power over everything else, including the lives of its own citizens. Trump’s official response was not to call for an investigation or admit an error on the part of a single actor, but to spin the blame around to the victim, gaslight the public and double down on his regime’s unassailable right to do whatever it deems fit. It smells like sowing the seeds of Martial Law. 

Swapping One Corrupt Leader for Another

 A similar dynamic animates Trump’s Venezuela adventure. Let me first stipulate that Nicolas Maduro was an illegitimate, criminal thug disguised as the President of Venezuela. Why do I use this seemingly harsh language? Because he was not elected. Because he lost that country’s most recent election by a landslide but refused to accept the results. Because he has continuously violated the human and civil rights of Venezuelans for the last 12 years. 

The further away we get from the made-for-TV midnight raid to abduct Nicolas Maduro, the closer we get to the real reasons behind the action. This had little to do with law enforcement or narcotics or restoring democracy to a once-prosperous nation languishing under a despotic strongman. It wasn’t even about striking a blow against socialist ideology, though I’m sure Trump relishes handing the other “team” a loss.

It was about seizing oilfields and reviving a centuries-old approach to exerting influence in our hemisphere. Those are dangerous, destabilizing motivations for the exercise of American military strength. They have also left the Venezuelan people to subsist under Maduro’s leftover autocratic apparatus, simply because it is a more malleable puppet government (under threat of having the same fate as Maduro’s) that greased Trump’s palm with 70 million barrels of heavy crude.

However you feel about rebooting the Monroe Doctrine with lesser statesmen, think of the commercial considerations.

How do you run a global business under Steven Miller’s “might makes right” world order? How can you operate an international airline when the incredibly important LatAm market is in disarray, or your US-to-[”shithole” country] routes can be banned on a whim? How should you structure a multilateral supply contract when those resources might be unlawfully seized, or at best saddled with capricious, margin-scarfing tariffs?

Under Trump, America is pursuing regional hegemony at the expense of rules-based stability, a chilling proposition for commercial enterprises built for a globalized world.

Fool Me Once

ICE in Minneapolis and oil in Venezuela are two sides of the same fascist coin. Intimidation and repression at home, garish displays of force abroad.

Underpinning it all is the messianic belief that Trump’s government is not just more powerful than its citizens and global neighbors, but that that power makes it right. We’re strong, so that justifies us taking your oil, your families, your president, your life.

Marco Rubio may call it the “Donroe” doctrine. Stephen Miller would call it realpolitik if he could spell it. Trump says, “mine, mine, mine!” and clutches like a toddler with tiny, bruised hands.

But it’s all bullying, the reflexive action of a petty tyrant. And it makes for an unwelcoming country, a weaker American brand, a hesitant and wary travel sector, and a tenuous business environment overall.

We saw this in the first term, and we were fooled once. Now that the sequel is much worse than the original, we have to say F#@! You twice.

If you are interested in the unfolding situation in Venezuela, consider exploring Caracas Chronicles, an independent English-language news and analysis site focused on Venezuelan political and economic developments. Their coverage helps international readers understand local dynamics, context and events as they happen. Go to www.caracaschronicles.com to learn more or donate to their efforts.