By Farooq Kperogi Twitter: @farooqkperogi The blowback against Trump's fascistic authoritarianism from some his own appointees is a litt...
By Farooq Kperogi
Twitter: @farooqkperogi
The blowback against Trump's fascistic authoritarianism from some his own appointees is a little reassuring. Trump's Defense Secretary (equivalent to Nigeria's Minister of Defense) by the name of Mark Esper has just addressed the press to condemn Trump's order to deploy troops to quell the civil insurrection going on in the country— and to dissociate himself from it.
He also said he was deceived by Trump into appearing with him for a staged photo opp behind a church (that Trump never attends) with a Bible (that Trump never opens much less reads) after tear-gassing peaceful protesters and worshippers to make a way for him.
A Trump military adviser and former principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy by the name of James Miller has also just resigned. In his letter of resignation, which he addressed to Defense Secretary Esper, Miller said, "Law-abiding protesters just outside the White House were dispersed using tear gas and rubber bullets — not for the sake of safety, but to clear a path for a presidential photo op," pointing out that, "You may not have been able to stop President Trump from directing this appalling use of force, but you could have chosen to oppose it. Instead, you visibly supported it."
Maybe—just maybe—there is hope, after all. Trump’s presidency is eerily redolent of the autocratic excesses some of us ran away from in our original countries. It’s no accident that Trump’s half-witted Nigerian supporters cheer his fascist repression because that’s all they know. That’s the only understanding of leadership they have ever experienced in their lives.
Of course, Nigerian Trumptards are also flyblown hypocrites. They, like I, condemned Buhari’s use of brute force to suppress IPOB. They, like I, condemned Buhari’s declaration of IPOB as a “terrorist” group while ignoring Boko Haram and Fulani marauders. But Nigerian Trumptards cheer Trump’s violence against protesters and his declaration of antifa as a “terrorist group” while he ignores murderous white supremacists and violent rightwing zealots.
Thankfully, Nigerian Trumptards won't vote in America, and their American collaborators are not the majority of the electorate. Ultimately, though, the only way America would redeem itself is to vote out the fetid fraud in the White House by a landslide.
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