A Horrifying Glance Back: A Post from October 30, 2024

Before Trump 2.0 to Now

A foul image of Trump.

To try and cover even a semblance of what has happened since October 30, 2024, in one piece is impossible, and I’m sure you have neither the time nor the patience to read what’s happened since Trump 2.0 has taken place in this essay. However, since Substack suggested I share this short essay with you (link below), it has gotten me thinking about how much has happened since that date, and what a horrifying glance back it is. It also made me think about my recent conversation with Dr. Alexander Laban Hinton. One thing stuck out to me during that call. I’ll get to that in just a moment.

But first, my essay. On October 30, 2024, I wrote a piece titled “Is it Election Day or Doomsday?” Back then, although I was preoccupied with politics, like I’ve always been, I didn’t write much about them here. I didn’t write much about anything here on Substack, aside from scant posts about the time I had been spending in the little cottage I used to own in Ellsworth, Maine. (Here’s a picture of my previous cottage. I figured I’d share it with you, since this essay is going to be dark, and this image is uplifting, a little piece of the sublime in Downeast Maine.)

However, given that we were on the cusp of such a pivotal national election, I felt compelled to write about the events unfolding around the country. As many of you might recall, there was an uptick in threats of violence at polling places on and around November 2. In fact, a total of “227 threats against polling locations and other election sites across the country were made on Election Day and the days immediately after.” Far-right extremists were also blowing up ballot boxes. In short, a variety of disturbing events were occurring in the lead-up to Election Day. As anthropologist and genocide expert Dr. Alexander Laban Hinton told me during my interview with him about that period of time, he and others with whom he spoke were very concerned about violence breaking out if Trump lost. (Incidentally, Hinton is the first anthropologist to have studied the MAGA movement, and he continues to do so.)

In the early evening of November 2, that is, before heading to my own polling station in Baltimore, I felt confident that Harris would win. Still, I was nervous. Really nervous—I didn’t think it was a for sure thing that she’d take the presidency, although my post I mentioned above seems to suggest otherwise. As the night progressed, I knew she was going to lose, of course. (She actually didn’t lose by much in the popular vote.) The next day didn’t even compare to one of those all-time worst hangovers people like to describe in great detail, after which they swear off drinking entirely. It wasn’t even close. I was paralyzed with fear, anxiety, sadness, and rage, and knew exactly what things to expect next with Trump 2.0. I’d read Project 2025. I’d seen his rallies. I was on Truth Social and saw his posts, along with what his sychophantic followers were saying. Nothing would be a shock to me, but that didn’t make it any more emotionally digestible. I spiraled into a depression that took me weeks to recover from.

The fear factor for others—what he had in store for them—was the worst part of it. It made me sick to my stomach. I’m still sick to my stomach. And here we are. ICE is terrorizing immigrant communities of color across the country. They are tearing families apart. They are ruining lives. People are being incarcerated at alarming rates, disappearing, and being deported. ICE is also recruiting the worst of the worst.

On top of that, Trump 2.0 is also blowing up little speedboats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, claiming that they are “narcotraffickers.” Even if they are, which I doubt, the U.S. military is now acting as judge, jury, and executioner. That said, Hinton made this point, it’s part of the spectacle of Trump. The raids of ICE might also be that, too.

Again, that isn’t to diminish the seriousness of these situations, the violence he’s meting out, and the killings that are occurring in both these cases (people were shot, shot and killed, and hit by vehicles and killed during ICE raids; individuals are also dying in their custody).

But there are two other essential pieces to Trump 2.0, something that few people are talking about: it’s the cronyism and the hoarding of money by him and his oligarchic friends.¹ While the cronyism and the hoarding of money—outright theft of funds from the lower- and middle-classes—occurred during Trump 1.0, it’s far worse and brazen now. The stories of how Trump is doing these things are too numerous to count, but the mainstream media's framing of them is odd, off-kilter, or entirely non-existent. Meanwhile, he pulls wild stunts, like blowing up little speedboats in the Caribbean with warships, or carries out horrifying raids in poor communities, to “flood the zone with shit,” as Bannon famously called it, to distract the media from what his main aim is: lining his pockets with as much money as he can. Hinton doesn’t believe Trump is an ideologue. I don’t think that I agree. I’m on the fence on that one. After all, Trump has a long history of going after and discriminating against Black people that dates back to the 1970s, when he and his father, Fred Trump, were sued for racial discrimination. Then there was the infamous “Central Park Five,” who were five teenagers of Black and Hispanic heritage wrongfully convicted of beating and raping a female jogger; she was in a coma for several weeks after she was attacked. When she came to, she had no memory of the event. Trump took out entire pages in the ads sections in the New York Times and in other major newspapers to blame the young teens.

The boys made false confessions after being coerced into doing so and spent years in prison as young men. They lost their formative years wasting away in the carceral system. All of them were eventually exonerated. Not surprisingly, Trump has never apologized to them. They are suing him for defamation.

Image from Newsweek that Donald Trump took out against the “Central Park 5.”

Then there is the moment when he came down the golden escalator on June 16, 2015, in Trump Tower in New York City, to announce his first run for president. In that speech, he said about Mexicans, “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” These examples are just a few of many that point to his racism, bigotry, and white supremacist ideology. (Ivana Trump also told her attorney in 1990 that Trump kept writings of Hitler near his bed. He also frequently speaks about bloodlines and good genes. I haven’t even gotten into his dinner with an out-and-out Nazi.)

The point is, I think he’s an ideologue, one who has devoted himself to white supremacy, and that matters, especially when examining his “America First” policies relating to the plans to expunge 20 million so-called illegal aliens. But do I think that’s his main aim in the White House? Not necessarily. But it’s certainly Stephen Miller’s. That’s why this part of it matters.

That said, in my view, and I believe Hinton would agree, it’s crucial to follow the money when it comes to Trump 2.0. Whom is he wheeling and dealing with? That’s a key question. If one wants to examine and separate the cronyism and the money piece of things, the focus must be on the language that Trump uses related to that, as well as whom he deals with when it comes to his “deals” for things centered around how he lines his pockets. These factors are also critical when it comes to the level of corruption we’re facing.

I’ll sum things up here. Let’s work on following the money together—all of us. Cryptocurrency is a place to start. The Trump family—all of them—are deeply involved in this scam.

On a personal note, it’s incalculable, in a bad way, what has happened to my life since Trump 2.0 has taken place. I’m not praising Harris. At the same time, I am saying that my life would be so much different right now if Trump weren’t president. It’s worsened and become much more challenging ever since he assumed power. But to me, that doesn’t matter. What matters most is what’s happening to other people now, how their lives are being destroyed, how they’re being torn apart from their family members. That’s what matters. While it might all be “spectacle” for Trump, while he empties coffers to fill his own pockets, we’re talking about human beings who deserve dignity and to be able to live their lives in peace. These things are all intertwined, spectacle or no spectacle. That’s what makes Trump such a monster. His carnival of twisted cruelty has turned real lives for people upside down.

So, let’s stay focused on the money while also remembering the lives that he’s tearing apart.

1. I want to give a shoutout to Qasim Rashid, Esq. who continually talks about the money and the cronyism. If you aren’t familiar with Mr. Rashid’s work, go on over to his Substack and hit that subscribe button now!