The Emperor’s Crazy Clothes

Almost exactly ten years ago, on January 23, 2016, Donald Trump said at a campaign rally in Sioux Center, Iowa, that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue in New York and shoot somebody and he wouldn’t lose a single voter. Whether that is actually true we, thank God, do not yet know. Although, when it comes to criminal liability for acts committed literally in full view of everyone, he has several times come very close to a standard of automatic unpunishability. Incidentally, according to the Slovenian dictionary I have evidently invented this last word, but I am sticking with it. It is not only about impunity or immunity, but about a state in which you can do whatever comes into your head and not answer for it.

And this does not apply only to Trump.

What is permitted to Jupiter is evidently, in the brave new America, also permitted to his oxen. Jonathan Ross, the ICE immigration agent who weeks ago in Minneapolis shot Nicole Good, a mother of three, three times, swore at her body and calmly walked away as if nothing had happened, has so far had nothing happen to him. Nor is there an investigation—or rather there is, but it focuses only on the victim and those close to her.

It is not impossible that Ross’s colleagues who went after 37-year-old Alex Pretti on Saturday were also counting on unpunishability. Because he was carrying a pistol for which he had a permit, they shot him ten times. So much for the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, by which American conservatives otherwise swear. Whether there will be a serious investigation this time is not yet clear, although the first reactions of the US administration, and of course Ross’s precedent, do not inspire much confidence.

Both tragic events took place in Minneapolis, in the US state of Minnesota, where an intensive hunt for illegal immigrants has been under way for several weeks, with incidents occurring regularly. In recent days, two children aged five and two were arrested and sent to Texas.

The astonishing brutality and violence in the operations of Trump’s immigration officers are no accident, nor is the fact that this is happening in a city with a Democratic mayor. Violence and intimidation are not a side effect of the policy but its purpose. Trump has never hidden that these are punitive expeditions against cities and states where the Democrats are in power.

And here is the main message. Trump is completely open in his rampage and demolition of all norms, whether it is barging around America or around international relations. In his own words, he is limited only by his own mind and his own morality. God help us.

And until now European politicians have responded mainly by sticking their heads in the sand and convincing themselves that everything is fine. The emperor isn’t naked, just extravagantly dressed. But even Andersen’s fairy tale about the emperor’s new clothes misses the essence of the grotesque we are witnessing. Andersen’s emperor believed he was dressed because the court flatterers convinced him he was. Trump, on the other hand, knows very well that he is naked—and he revels in it. Obscene as the Michelin mascot with an OnlyFans profile, he guffaws and humiliates the frightened flatterers who, out of fear and a sense of powerlessness, still convince themselves and behave as if he were wearing the presidential garb of his predecessors. Who, in the opinion of many, were not all that great either, but were far from deserving to be simplistically lumped in the same basket.

As far as Trump’s rampaging around the world is concerned, it seems that among many European and Western leaders there has at last been a turnaround. After he attacked Venezuela and threatened Greenland because he didn’t get the Nobel Peace Prize, insulted the military dead among allies who fought alongside the US in Iraq and Afghanistan, founded a Mar-a-Lago alternative to the United Nations, gathered a colorful bunch of authoritarians in it and, on top of that, proclaimed himself its chief for life, it finally dawned on many that things cannot go on like this.

We heard Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech in Davos and the statements of other politicians that followed. That’s enough now, they said. We’ll go our own way.

Well, let’s see.

Far be it from me to underestimate the importance of this break. But it is much too early to assess the sincerity, durability and determination of this newly emerged European and Western self-confidence.

I hope our political leaders will keep the following facts in mind as things unfold.

First: the emperor is still naked and still revels in it. He still believes he is limited only by his own mind and his own morality. Those who, after the Greenland shock, would seek a return to “the good old days” should remember this. Nostalgia is not a strategy, said Carney.

Second: it is not enough to grumble and say “dammit, that’s enough now.” This must also be backed by investment in the material basis of this newly emerged self-confidence and determination: in economic, energy, technological and military emancipation from the rampaging big brother.

Third: the strengthening of military self-sufficiency, which Europe urgently needs because of Ukraine and more broadly because of the danger from Russia, cannot and must not be achieved by diverting funds from a socially cohesive, economically successful and open society. A socially just democracy that gives citizens material proof that it is willing and able to recognize and take into account their legitimate expectations is a security imperative. Otherwise Russia will bring us down without drones, tanks and guns. Bots will be enough, and our own peddlers of Russian (and American) Truths.

To preserve our ability to decide our own fate in Europe, beating our chests outwardly will not be enough; we will also—and above all—need the morality and the mind we are able to show inwardly. It will not be enough to stand up only to the Trump of Davos, but also to the Trump of Minneapolis. We must consistently reject the ideas and discourses of hatred and division that are the driving force of both Trump’s and Putin’s authoritarianism. Even when we itch to grab an extra scrap of attention with a populist tweet or statement before an election.

We live in risky and unpredictable times. In the end, what may decide things is our determination and consistency in defending the paramount importance of our fundamental values.