Mar-a-Lago Raid, Trump’s Followers and Power Politics in the US

In Blog, Economic Security
September 1, 2022
Asfand Yar Khan
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The investigation against former US President Donald J. Trump is unprecedented in US political history. For decades, the USA has been projecting itself as the beacon of liberal democracy and freedom. The extension of the US’ political ideology beyond its borders and strengthening of its core democratic institutions helped brand it ‘superpower’. For many years,

The investigation against former US President Donald J. Trump is unprecedented in US political history. For decades, the USA has been projecting itself as the beacon of liberal democracy and freedom. The extension of the US’ political ideology beyond its borders and strengthening of its core democratic institutions helped brand it ‘superpower’. For many years, in a strong two-party system based on Republicans and the Democrats, similar kind of geostrategic objectives were pursued by both factions during their turns in power. One major reason for the US’ global dominance has been its homogenous nature of global power projection and continuation of State’s interests by both, the Democrats and the Republicans.

Like other democracies of the world, the US has also had its share of political crises. From civil war in the nineteenth century to the movements for equal rights and universal suffrage from time to time, the US democracy withstood all challenges. However, the advent of populism and right leaning politics has shaken the core pillars of US’ democracy again. Some may argue that all this may be a small part of the wider process of evolution of democracy. Though, it is for sure that politics of the US is not prone to extreme measures, such as, the investigations going on against former President Trump, violent right-wing politics, and attack on the symbolic Capitol Hill.

‘Trumpian’ era has had drastic impacts on the social fabric at large and domestic politics of the US specifically. ‘Make America Great Again’ took its toll on the longstanding democratic values of the American society. This has shaped the overall behavior of politicians on both sides of the ‘two-party system’. The Mar-a-Logo raid by the US’ leading domestic security service, the FBI, is also one such event that may be termed as unprecedented, both legally and politically. No US President has ever been subjected to raids and investigations by the FBI. This episode may also normalize investigations against US Presidents after they exit the White House.

Donald Trump’s political base is a homogenous mixture of far-right associations, white supremacists, islamophobes, and anti-immigrant protagonists. Ever since his coming to the political arena, Trump has been propagating populist narratives. For instance, he was staunchly against President Obama’s immigrant friendly policies and throughout his electoral campaign, blamed immigrants for US’ economic worries. He also blamed the ‘Democrats’ of spoiling social fabric of the US, which according to Trump, should have been more about ‘white’ citizens and less about inclusivity. Also, Trump has also been slow to condemn racial violence and religious hate.

The reality show host cum President Donald Trump knows how to incite his violent supporters. The Mar-a-Lago raid has triggered his online ‘army’ who have already started twitter trends, such as, “civil war 2.0”, and “kinetic civil war”. US based Right-wing activist Steven Crowder also announced his support for Trump via twitter, “tomorrow is war. Sleep well.” Trump apologists have already proven on January 6, 2021 that if the need arises, they could resort to violence and storm state buildings and institutions. Despite losing Presidential Elections, Trump continues to maintain strong grip over the Republican Party. Prominent GOP members came out in Trump’s support as soon as the raid was carried out.

Trump has survived the Mueller Report, followed by two impeachment drives. The two legal battles did not hurt his fan base at all, who hope to get him re-elected someday. It is likely that Trump may also survive this criminal investigation. This will further polarize the already dangerously divided political environment in the USA, where hate crimes and racial bigotry are already on the rise. So far, Trump has not been publically vocal about FBI’s raid on his Mar-a-Lago mansion. He has been responding through his legal team apart from a few interviews to his ‘favourite’ news channels. Nevertheless, Trump knows how to exploit his support in towns and cities.

Like all previous lawsuits against Trump, his political base has unanimously called the raid another ‘witch hunt’ against their leader. The prospects of the ‘Mar-a-Lago raid’ blowing out of proportion as Trump decides to run for president in 2024 are extremely high. Like before, Trump will exploit this situation to gain political advantage ahead of the elections, as Biden Administration struggles to reverse the economic decline of the USA. Whatever Trump’s conduct has been while he was in the White House, nothing has yet been proven against him. From ‘Russiagate’ to the controversy over his telephonic conversation with the Ukrainian President Zalensky, he has managed to come out clean from all the probes.

Populism and far-right narratives have recently disturbed the state of politics in world’s leading democracies. They have created a breed of blind political followers who revolve around personalities instead of policies and ideas. Former US President Harry S. Truman once said that his political opponents operated according to the motto, “If you can’t convince them, then confuse them”. This stands true as far as the current domestic politics of the US is concerned. Trump finds easy targets for his followers to point their fingers at, instead of addressing real matters. Donald Trump may have lost the 2020 Presidential Elections but his role and legacy in US politics is far from over.