Sponsored link
Sunday, February 9, 2025

Sponsored link

News + Politics'Manifest destiny?' That's really, really alarming, even by Trump standards

‘Manifest destiny?’ That’s really, really alarming, even by Trump standards

About the most racist thing a president has said in public in a long time.

-

I don’t know what scared me the most this morning: The declaration by the President of the United States that trans people are not people, or the Nazi salute by Elon Musk, or the suggestion that the US would seize the Panama Canal, or the promise of mass deportations and an end to birthright citizenship (which is in the Constitution, but maybe not safe under this Supreme Court).

But the language that startled me—maybe because I didn’t expect it, even from Donald Trump—was “manifest destiny.”

Seriously.

William McKinley was a racist imperialist, someone Trump admires

That’s the term that pretty much defined the displacement and death of tens of thousands of native Americans. It defined settler colonialism and US imperialism. It was used to justify slavery. It’s about the most openly racist thing I’ve heard a president say (publicly) in my lifetime, and I was around for Ronald Reagan’s first presidential campaign.

The news media coverage of the term was relatively subdued.

In this case, Trump was talking about sending astronauts to Mars—something highly unlikely to happen in the next decade or more. He likely won’t be around to see it. (I probably won’t either, and I’m 11 years younger than he is. And I don’t eat a lot of cheeseburgers, and when I play golf I walk.)

Elon Musk, of course, smirked at the line, because his company will likely get the continuing multibillion contracts with NASA. (The good news about Mars is that it will be even harder to get back than to get there, so maybe Musk will go start a new colony somewhere that isn’t on Earth.)

But that’s not the point. The term suggests a return to a very ugly time in US history. Trump underlined it by talking about restoring the name Mount McKinley to a peak in Alaska that’s been known as Denali since 2015. He talked about how wonderful President William McKinley was, celebrating the man who was by many accounts the father of US imperialism.

I don’t know why this was a media footnote to the event; maybe we are all so used to Trump saying horrifying things that nobody pays attention any more.

But we have to. Because it’s not going away; it’s getting worse.

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our FacebookTwitter, and Instagram

Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.
Sponsored link

Featured

Trump’s attacks on trans people, public health escalate into a war on reality itself

Administration moves to purge scientific facts, stifle essential research, and erase entire populations.

Juanita More’s Loads of Love party is a Valentine for heavy times

The drag goddess's huge, free V-Day affair shows off the talents of 'our big, amazing, talented, beautiful, powerful family.'

A project almost nobody wants is going forward in the Mission, thanks to Yimbys

60 low-tenants displaced by fire (one dead); now landlord gets to build luxury condos—only because of Wiener and his allies in Sacramento.

More by this author

A project almost nobody wants is going forward in the Mission, thanks to Yimbys

60 low-tenants displaced by fire (one dead); now landlord gets to build luxury condos—only because of Wiener and his allies in Sacramento.

Full board will hear Lurie’s attempt to fire pro-reform police commissioner

Mandelman calls for Committee of the Whole to consider whether to allow the mayor to oust Max Carter Oberstone

Lurie is trying to fire an independent police commissioner; maybe the chief is next

Mayor wants the supes to let him remove Max Carter-Oberstone, one of the best members of the oversight panel, for no good reason except power
Sponsored link
Sponsored link

You might also likeRELATED