Donald J. Trump — Blog

On inauguration day, I wrote the following Facebook post:

“It's interesting, but aside from my leftist friends, my foreign friends seem equally put off by today. The experience of living in another country, one in which politics isn't all just superficial pageantry atop grotesque policies, really opens your eyes to how insane this country is. When celebratory liberals discuss inauguration day in terms of the fashion choices of our political officials and the celebrities brought out to regale them, how could any of us be surprised that a former reality TV star became president? Call him a fascist if you will, but he's as American as apple pie and cruise missiles. I wonder how much this country would change if every American was forced to live elsewhere (not just tourist elsewhere) if only for a short while. Heck, I'd be happy if we could get them to only imagine living elsewhere.”

Jamie AroosiJanuary 25, 2021Donald J. Trump, COVID-19, The West Wing, The Apprentice, Bernie Sanders, American Politics, HollywoodComment

Liberal Mythology

One of the more annoying takes that I've seen lately is that we need to wait and see before we criticize the new administration. Underlying this claim is the assertion that we can't yet make judgments because we lack the evidence on which to make them, and that this evidence will only be available after the administration takes power and starts acting. That is, until the Biden administration actually does "things," we can't judge those things. This claim therefore seems to be based on the very reasonable assertion that we shouldn't make judgments until we have evidence on which to make them. But as with many liberal myths, it’s disingenuous.

Jamie AroosiDecember 21, 2020Donald J. Trump, Liberalism, Socialism, Mythology, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Seymour Hersch, Joseph R. Biden, PlatoComment

Canada is a State of Mind

I was born in Canada but I’ve lived in the United States for most of my adult life, and I became an American citizen a few years back. Over the years, it’s been interesting to note the changing role that Canada has played in my imagination. For instance, during the Trump years, Canada served as an imaginative escape. If things here ever got really bad, I knew that my Canadian citizenship would provide my wife and I a means of escape. However, over the past few days, as the reality of the Biden administration becomes clearer, I find myself imagining Canada in a new way: Canada is where I’ll go when I finally give up on America.

Jamie AroosiDecember 4, 2020Canada, United States, Joe Biden, Donald J. Trump, COVID-19Comment

There’s no such thing as the “appearance” of conflict of interest

Since the 2016 election, media outlets have been reporting on the problem of conflict of interest, and there’s no surprise why: this president is riddled with them. However, almost without fail, the media misinterprets their nature. Worse yet, it’s as if they’re intentionally misinterpreting them in order to diminish their significance.

One prominent example is the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C.

Jamie AroosiJune 24, 2020conflict of interest, corruption, Donald J. Trump, Trump International Hotel, Media, ComplicityComment

The Poets of the Future and the Nightmares of our Children

Over the past several years, one of the better novels I've read was Roberto Bolaño's 2666. It’s also perhaps the only book that has ever given me nightmares. But it did, night in and night out, for weeks on end. And I was recently reminded of this experience. And the reason I was reminded of it was because Bolaño understood something of the difficulty that we will all face in trying to convey a sense of this political moment to future generations.

Jamie AroosiMay 6, 2020Roberto Bolaño, 2666, Donald J. Trump, Poet, Poetry, Nightmares, Ciudad JuárezComment

Legal Liability and COVID-19: John Grisham Edition

The United States is often seen (and often sees itself) as a highly litigious society, ready to launch frivolous lawsuits for any and every reason. And there is some truth to this. However, having lived most of my life in another country, I've come to a different conclusion. The United States is not litigious by its nature, but its litigiousness is the consequence of the complete and long-standing failure of its government.

Jamie AroosiApril 26, 2020COVID-19, coronavirus, Donald J. Trump, Brian Kemp, Georgia, Liability, LawComment

American (State Of) Exceptionalism

With their decision to keep the Wisconsin polls open, we can now add the Supreme Court to the list of politicians and government officials who have literally killed people during this crisis. It's a long and bipartisan list, including NYC's mayor who acted much too late, New York's Governor, who also acted much too late, and who has taken this moment to make massive healthcare cuts and to repeal bail reforms (the latter of which will help transform New York's prisons into death camps). And to this list we could also add Joe Biden, who encouraged voters to go the polls in Wisconsin, just as he similarly encouraged them a few weeks ago in Florida, Illinois, and Arizona.

These days, it would be hard to find a politician who didn't have blood on their hands. And while they’ll each claim that these are days when difficult decisions have to be made, and when there are no good decisions, this is a lie.

The Real Trump Brand

Some very smart people have written some very smart things about Trump's national emergency, and I'm sure more will be forthcoming. But I think that the most insightful thing I have to say is this: who cares?

Jamie AroosiFebruary 14, 2019Donald J. Trump, Fascism, Karl Marx, National EmergencyComment

The Emperor Is Fully Clothed

I've been thinking a little about the Kavanaugh nomination, and about Kavanaugh's decision to let loose at the hearing. Everyone was quick to jump to the conclusion that Trump was the audience, and that Kavanaugh was worried about the possibility that Trump might pull the nomination. But this always seemed odd. At that point in time, you would think that the "swing" senators were the audience, and Kavanaugh's display didn't seem well calibrated to win over "moderates." But then it came out that the White House itself counselled Kavanaugh's approach, which superficially seemed to confirm that Trump was the audience. But I don't think that this is the case. Instead, I think we're getting a peak behind the curtain. Trump wasn't the audience, his deplorables were. And Trump knows this.

Jamie AroosiOctober 9, 2018Brett Kavanaugh, Donald J. Trump, United Nations, DeplorablesComment

Complicity and Responsibility

One of the questions that's always interested me is the question of complicity. For the past few hundred years, ever since the rise of democracy gave individuals a stake in political life, our social and political reality has in some ways depended on us. For example, in an obviously extreme case, phenomena like Nazism don't merely involve a leader imposing their rule on others, as might have been the case for feudal Kings. Instead, these regimes require that a significant part of the population buys into it, thereby becoming complicit. And this is a fundamental dynamic of democracy—we are, at some level, responsible for our reality.

I was reminded of all of this when reading a New York Times article about the low voter turnout in this country. For many Americans, voting for either candidate seems worse than not voting at all. And I think the explanation for this lies in the question of complicity.

Jamie AroosiOctober 4, 2018Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Donald J. Trump, Complicity, Responsibility, VotingComment