'This is Just the Beginning.' It's Donald Trump's World and we're all living in it

Originally published January 29, 2017

Hope the few of you that read this blog haven’t forgotten about me.

I haven’t written anything since about 9 months ago when my favourite player retired and it was mostly because I couldn’t find the inspiration to write. You may say that there have been tons of topics to write about in the news over the last 9 months, including the election coverage and what a great year in sports 2016 was, but I felt that there was already so much out there that discussed these topics. However, over the past couple of weeks, particularly since the US inaugurated its 45th president, I have found new inspiration in tackling, what I believe, some of the most dangerous things Trump has done, and is continuing to accomplish.

Before I continue on though, there’s one thing I should make clear. This is an opinion piece. I’m not a reporter and I’m not trying to report on the news. This is my interpretation of what’s been happening in the US and it’s important to acknowledge that like everyone with an opinion, there’s bias involved. I’m very clearly not a Trump supporter and it’s important to acknowledge that my opinion is based on being raised in a multicultural environment in Canada. There’s understandably a reason why people would support Trump but I just don’t have the same beliefs and background that they do.

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In my opinion, Donald Trump is a dangerous racist and a narcissitic liar.

But one thing I do have to say is that he’s smart and knows exactly what he’s doing.

In my eyes, I believe that Hilary lost the election more than Trump won it, but you do have to give credit where it’s due. Trump got enough people to vote in swing states and although he was nowhere close to getting the majority, it didn’t really matter. He got the vote where it counted.

Now, if you want to have a conversation about how an American citizen in the middle of Ohio or Pennsylvania has a greater impact on the election than an American living in Seattle, that’s a different discussion (if you want to learn about the electoral college, please click here). The issue is probably not going to be fixed for ages, especially when Trump doesn’t care and there is no precedent by his administration to change it, but he won. Plain and simple, he’s the president.

I do think as well that because he was so out there, and clearly didn’t give a crap about the impact of his words, that a large portion of America wanted him in power. If you look at the Obama administration and how much it accomplished in the last couple years of his presidency, he really didn’t get to do a lot because the Republican party controlled the house and the senate. Now, some people would look at that and think that he’s not doing his job, which is totally wrong. He literally couldn’t accomplish what he wanted to, and neither could congress, because they were always at an impasse. When Trump came along and promised that he was going to be different, I do believe a proportion of the US saw that and thought that this guy was going to be good for them (even though his cabinet is a bunch of white billionaires from the business world).

Another clear reason why he won was the media. And wow did he do a good job of playing them. Him and his whole administration basically over the course of the election did whatever they wanted with the media and controlled the opinion better than any other candidate. When the president of one of the biggest networks in America regrets giving Trump so much airtime, that’s more or less a confession that he got played.

Kellyanne Conway, who is now officially ‘counselor to the president’, deserves a ton of credit as well for the job that she did. Even though she knows that the majority of Trump supporters will never watch ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, or CNN, she continued to give those networks access to her and all of those networks continued to buy into her trap. Her goal was clear from the beginning: get on the air as much as possible, and continue to get Trump’s propaganda message out there. Even though she knows that a majority of those viewers don’t support him, she just needed to continue conveying her message, and she succeeded. As much as I don’t like her, I think she conned the media just as well as anyone has ever done.

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‘Another clear reason why he won was the media. And wow did he do a good job of playing them’

Although Trump’s presidency has and will continue to be a scary thing for the American people and the world at large, this is just the beginning.

If you’ve been off social media or haven’t watched the news over the weekend, you may not know about Trump’s so-called ‘Muslim’ ban. Although I can’t really do a good job of totally explaining it, more or less because it’s so unfathomable that it seems impossible, Trump has banned citizens from seven countries, including Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia (Read this to totally get it) from entering the US. This also includes students, green-card holders, those with visas and dual citizens from entering the country for at least 90 days. People who were in the air when it was signed were detained at the airport, and mothers, fathers, husbands, daughters and sisters were not allowed into the country because of this. Just as an example, Mo Farah, the Olympic legend who was just recently knighted, may not be able to reunite with his kids at home, and an Oscar-nominated director, who is up for an award this year for best foreign-language film, may not be able to attend the ceremony because of Trump’s action. Now these are just some of the cases that I have read about over the last few days, and I’m sure there are countless others that deserve to be spoken about as well.

Although this was one of Trump’s most controversial statements during his election campaign, Holy fuck is this scary! By suspending the refugee program and stopping people who are fleeing from persecution and war for a chance at a better life, he is effectively worsening the problem. I believe history will look back on this moment as a period where the US had a chance to help alleviate and solve the problem, but instead turned it’s back on the world, and just made it worse. For example, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour in WWII, the American government turned its back on its citizens and put a large number of Japanese Americans in internment camps as retaliation to the attack. Although these American citizens had nothing to do with what had happened, they suffered gravely as a result of gross negligence by their government. The scary thing is that this happened over 70 years ago and you’d think that the US government would have learned from history. Apparently not…

The other thing I believe that is important to mention is that because of the perception that Trump can’t comprehend complex issues, he is legitimately worsening the terrorist problem around the world. This is a legitimate fact: not one single person in the last 40 years has been killed by a refugee from any of the countries that Trump included in his ban. Not one fucking person! Trump referenced the 9/11 attacks as one of the motives for doing this and every single one of those members came from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Lebanon, but he’s got business ties in those countries so of course he wouldn’t do anything to hurt that (this graphic does a good job of explaining it visually). I mean more people die as a result of washing their hands and sleeping in their bed compared to those that get killed from terrorist attacks from refugees; that’s a fact.

However, in Trump’s eyes, he believes that by doing this, he is somehow solving the problem. Instead, was what he fails to understand, is that he’s literally playing into the hands of ISIS and all the other terrorist organizations. They will use this statement from Trump as a part of their propaganda machine to recruit more people. He may have thought that it would have made the US safer, but he may have effectively made the world far more dangerous.

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I think Trump is a disaster. That’s already been stated.

But if you ask anyone from his team, he’s probably the nicest, most honest guy you’ll ever meet. They’re just presenting a set of ‘alternative facts‘.

Since the President has been inaugurated, he and his press team have continued to state their opinions as fact, as demonstrated by Sean Spicer’s first press conference. In his first briefing to the press, Trump’s press secretary unequivocally stated that the inauguration was ‘the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.’ Although this was disproven by photos, videos and Washington Metro ridership statistics, he came out the next day, and doubled down on his inauguration claim by stating ‘sometimes we can disagree with facts.’

This statement really got my attention because all throughout my life, I’ve been taught that you can’t disagree with facts. They are the truth. The sun will rise tomorrow morning. 2+2=4. The earth’s global temperature is continuing to rise.

But if you were to ask Trump and his team, I suspect they would say that the sun only rises when it’s sunny, and when it’s cloudy, the sun doesn’t rise because we can’t see the sun and if you can’t see the sun, it therefore didn’t rise (tried to do my best using Trump’s elementary language). They also continuously state that global warming is a myth, which is a proven falsehood. I’m sure Trump probably also thinks that Brian Scalabrine is the greatest basketball player of all time (if you have time, check out the parody account and the #SpicerFacts on twitter, they’re very well done.)

This week, Trump’s administration tried to freeze the Environmental Protection Agency’s social media account and Buzzfeed reported that USDA scientists could not share any information with the public including summaries and scientific data. This is in addition to the continuous lies that Trump and his team have told since the inauguration, including the inauguration statistics and the illegal voter fraud in multiple states, which Buzzfeed has kindly spoken about and is worth checking out.

Whether or not you agree with Donald Trump and his administration, these instances of dishonesty and proven lies should be a concerning fact to absolutely everyone. Having a presidential candidate lie leading up to an election should be of some concern, but it’s a totally different thing when a president and his administration are interchanging opinions for facts. Not only that but when you have the government trying to censor information, a country slowly changes from a free democracy to an authoritarian regime. However, I’m very thankful that we live in a social media age where you are able to retrieve information independently of what the government saying, but to have the most powerful man on the planet and his cabinet trying to stop you from getting access to the truth, that’s a very dangerous proposition.

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A couple of weeks before his inauguration, Trump held a press conference in New York specifically detailing how he was handing over his company to his children, which is a total BS scam on him trying not to be corrupt, but it was an exchange with a CNN reporter that was quite perplexing.

You can read most of the details here, but he refused to answer a question from a CNN reporter after they published a report that intelligence agencies were reviewing a document that claimed that Russia had incriminating information on Trump (speaking out of context, I really want to believe the ‘golden shower’ story because if it were true, how crazy would that be!). But he didn’t stop there, as he claimed in front of everyone that they were ‘fake news.’

Now as much I’ve grown to dislike CNN’s coverage of this president throughout the election (already mentioned this, but their president regretted airing so much Trump coverage during the election), he has no right to call a legitimate press organization ‘fake news.’ By trying to silence the press and not allow them to question his authenticity, he is slowly turning into a dictator. Suzanne Nossel, the executive director of PEN American, put it beautifully when she said ‘President-elect Trump’s attempt to punish a major US media outlet for what he considers unfavorable coverage and his denigration of members of the press is the kind of thuggish behavior exhibited by authoritarian regimes.’

The press plays a fundamental role in a democracy by providing unbiased information (which almost never happens) but they are the people who also should hold a leader accountable for his actions. My fear is that if the press continues to legitimize Trump and his deceitfulness, then eventually his string of lies (and there will be more of them) will start to normalize. My hope is that for the next 4 years all the major news companies and journalists will continue to ask the tough questions and hold this villain and his posse accountable for what’s to come. You could argue that journalism is corrupt in it’s own right and all the top executives of all these organizations have their own agenda, but this is what I’m hoping for.

Just as an aside, Keith Olberman, who’s a political commentator, is now doing some good work for GQ and I think he did a great job of also explaining what the press can do when covering Trump. It’s important for them to continue to call him out on his lies and his video is definitely worth checking out.

***

Donald Trump is a liar. This has been proven and is a fact. Although you could make a case that he’s just like any other lying politician, this seems different. The public can’t really change that. Trump will be Trump.

However, the scariest proposition is if Trump doubles down on some of the controversial promises he made during his election campaign, because if this ‘Muslim’ ban is just the beginning, boy are we screwed. And the thing that’s important to mention, is even if you’re not an American, this issue should still concern you because tomorrow, he may just ban you and your family from coming into the country. Imagine living in a world where your parents or siblings just went to visit their family in their home country, and they may never be able to come home because of some ignorant guy who has no idea what it’s like to live in your shoes. That’s what’s happening today and should concern everyone.

The thing that makes me optimistic though is that the people still have a voice. The public can and should continue to pressure Trump and his administration and hold them accountable for all of his actions. It’s already beginning to happen.

When the Woman’s march happened all over the world on the day after the inauguration, and to see more people at that event in Washington that the inauguration itself, was such an uplifting and powerful message. Even to see all of the protests around American airports from JFK in New York to the DIA in Denver, it gives you a sense of hope. The people clearly do have the power to make change and it seems like now more than ever, the American people, and the world, need to unite and make sure that Trump doesn’t use his platform as a reality television show.

P.S. I think it’s also important to mention that I’m very grateful that I live in a free democracy where I’m allowed to express my views without fear of repercussions. For many people living in authoritarian regimes around the world, they can’t truly speak about how they feel without worrying that their government is going to come after them. So thanks Canada for being a dope place to live! Never been more happy in my life to call myself a Canadian.

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