Sometimes you have to go to the source material to really understand what is being said. This is a post by Donald Trump on this Truth social media platform. It was published yesterday:
Over the weekend, politicians in Minnesota were assassinated. The evidence is fairly strong that the person accused of being responsible for the act was MAGA-influenced, at least. But here we have Trump talking about threats from 'Radical Democrat Politicians' and then demanding that his policies be 'executed'. The choice of words could not be more unfortunate.
Nor could the message of hate for all migrants be more vile.
And the deliberate association of migrants with crime, the Democrats, supposed political corruption, LGBTQ+ issues, and more could not be more cynical. The aim is to divide, to fuel hatred, and to create such a hostile environment that violence is apparently justified.
The idea of remigration is at the core of Trump's plan, as he makes clear. Once a word used to describe a migrant who returned to their country of origin, now the word 'remigration' is used by far-right political movements as a euphemism for mass deportations, usually of ethnic or religious minorities, even if those to whom the policy is to be applied are citizens of the country from which those using this language would wish to expel them.
Five things stand out in this policy.
First, this so-called remigration is not about choice: as Trump makes clear, this is enforced.
Second, this is deeply racially motivated: it is part of a broader agenda that is very obviously promoting supposed cultural purity, from which it is claimed peace and harmony will follow, which is glaringly obviously untrue.
Third, the idea necessarily challenges almost every established legal, social and ethical norm concerning citizenship, integration, and human rights.
Fourth, this is a challenge not just to the supposed illegal migrant, but to all people from the ethnic and religious minorities with which those supposedly illegal immigrants might be most closely associated. In other words, second, third and even more remote generations of those descended from from supposed minority groups are at threat from this policy, even though the only country in which they have the right to live is the one that those pursuing this policy would wish to expel them from.
Fifth, unsurprisingly, such a policy is an affront to almost every cause associated with the respect of the person, their rights and the rule of law precisely because it uses hatred, division, coercion (whether social or actual) and the power of the state to displace those, many of whom have thought they had an established right to live in a country.
This is what Trump is promoting.
This is, as I have often said, fascism in action.
And we need to have that openly acknowledged and condemned, not least by the leading politicians in this country of ours, where many already feel vulnerable as a result of the rise of beliefs of this sort. Unless they do this, those politicians, by implication, side with the likes of Farage, who openly shares Trump's approach and believes on remigration.
We are living in very dangerous times.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
If Farage believes in “remigration” does that mean he wants all the posh land-owning families to go back to France? He could call it the “1066 movement” 🙂
Thank you, Matthew.
A friend stayed with us over the week-end. She works for the Foreign Office and oversees, amongst other things, development projects. We went hiking in the Chilterns and got talking about land ownership. We dined opposite the Chequers estate and at a pub formerly owned by the Dukes of Bedford, but still named after the Russell family. My friend explained how, if one includes land ownership distribution and size of property per capita compared to land mass, the UK is even more unequal.
I’m very interested in such matters and have books and antique maps on the subject going back to the 18th century. I note that, in recent years, online references, often municipal, to land owners have been deleted.
The BBC and CBS are filming a series to mark the thousandth anniversary of William’s birth in 2027. One wonders if the issue of dispossession and ownership will feature. Two decades ago, a BBC series on the conquest briefly mentioned. That was at the conclusion and by a French historian.
Land has always been used to exclude
“got talking about land ownership”
Is it true that 5% of the Scottish population owns 50%+ of the land in Scotland?
I heard this statistic on a YouTube video last night.
The first percentage is smaller. The seocnd percentage is higher.
Piketty is good on this because the French historical data is so good.
Two books set out very clearly the sorry tale of the appalling inequality in the UK: ‘Who Owns England’ by Guy Shrubsole; and The Book of Trespasses by Nick Hayes. Nick Hayes writes about his own experiences in attempting to access some of huge estates and the acres of land to which there is not public access plus his occasional meetings with some of these ‘great’ landowners. The former is more historical and statistical.
Thanks. Both are good.
Chilling stuff isn’t it, Richard. Yet note that despite Trump’s failures to deliver peace anywhere in the world – as he promised he’d do – and his subservience – and that of his whole administration – to Putin (see the Russian flag appeared next to the Stars and Stripes of a Flag Day poster put out by the Defence Department – I kid not), Western leaders continue to say nothing. Such is cowardise in our hour of need.
That aside, I can now see how the mid terms are going to be controlled next year such that they not only keep Trump in power but also bolster MAGA Republicans in the Senate and House.
All the cities and urban areas – including those in Red states – will be placed under federal control (whether through marial law, or whatever), under the pretence that they are as Trump says in the post you have here. As such, elections will be postponed/cancelled until such time as the Federal government (i.e. Trump and his minions – particularly Stephen Miller, who no doubt wrote most of Trumps post on this subject) says they can go ahead. In the meantime, elections will go ahead in all other areas – which are of course largely Republican controlled. It won’t matter if there are some blue areas – that will simply be used by Trump to claim that “fair” elections are going ahead. But what it will do is ensure a majority in the House and Senate for Trump and his lapdog Republicans.
In short, he’s taken Putin’s advice (which it’s plain to see is why he speaks to him every week) and transformed the Republican Party in Putin’s United Russia, has allowed some alternative voices – thus able to claim the US is still a democracy – exactly as Putin does in Russia – but then over the next couple of years will gradually “disappear” that dissent, whether through violence or other means – again, exactly as Putin has done is Russia.
But interestingly, Putin has obviously advised that unlike in Russia – where Putin felt he had to take things fairly slowly (over three terms) – there’s no need to go slowly, jsut get on with it.
So, as I’ve said on this blog before, and other blogs, often to much mocking – by the end of Trumps term we’ll see the US as a pretty direct copy of Putin’s Russia, with the judiciary cowed, laws changed to lock in permanent power with Trump and whoever he chooses to succeed him, and to punish any dissent, etc, etc.
As an aside, I wonder if Fiona Hill’s advised Starmer of this? She’s a Russia expert after all, and knows plenty about the US, so if I can see what’s coming it ought to be even more obvious to experts.
Ps. Not sure if you caught it, but Trump was caught on an open mic at the weekend (after the abysmal military parade) saying that he wanted people in the US to behave to him like they do to the dictator of North Korea. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NqPqdi3orzQ
Thanks Ivan
See another post on Hill, this morning.
Andf if they mock you do not worry, they always do at first….eventually they agree with you. It just takes time.
Andf if they mock you do not worry, they always do at first….eventually they agree with you. It just takes time.
Regrettably, by that time it’ll be too late.
If youy think that you’ll never try to change anything.
Putin can advise Trump all he wants, but the circumstances are very different for the two men. Putin was just taking Russia back to a state they were already used to. Democracy was a blip. Opposition to Trump is enormous. The “No Kings” demonstrations aren’t getting the coverage they deserve, and Trump’s military parade was a joke. No plan survives contact with the enemy, and the authors of Project 2025 are arrogant to think they can change the course of a society. The silicon valley nerds have long since lost understanding of the country and think they can push pieces around to achieve their desired outcome, and the politicians have no idea how the regular people live now. Change always comes from the bottom up, and millions of people marching against Trump is as powerful as the handful of miserly, mentally warped priests of the golden bull that think they control the country.
The language of that post is far more correct and sophisticated than most Trump posts. I wonder who actually wrote it.
You are right, not Trump. Far too loing for him, for a start. Project 2025…?
It’ll be Stephen Miller, I strongly suspect (as mentioned in an earlier comment). He’s an absolute nutjob when if comes to immigrantion – despite only being second generation himself, as far as I know (and his surname wasn’t Miller originally, either).
🙂
Too many capitals, or not enough, can’t work out which, for Trump to have written it.
Anyone seen Melania lately?
She was at the military bore event
The Donald actually did say that America’s enemies’ demise will be final.
Thank goodness because any other kind of demise is a bit iffy.
Almost certainly Stephen Miller. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/15/trump-immigration-stephen-miller-influence
He understands that his core base of voters can be controlled through the identification of a normative threat to their perceived normal order.
DJT is using an established evidence base regarding those who have an authoritarian disposition (around 30%) to grab totalitarian power.
The evidence base could be used much more to strengthen democracy and equity but it’s not.
Trump also wanted Palestinians in Gaza to emigrate ( he did not specify to where) so the US could build a new riviera on the eastern Mediterranean out of the rubble.
My fellow sociologist, Professor Heba Gowayed, currently at City University of New York (CUNY) – who studied at Columbia and Princeton Universities-is a leading academic on immigration . She turned her PhD into her first book, the compelling “Refuge: how the State shapes human potential(2022, Princeton Press), which is a social anthropological examination of how Syrians seeking refuge from Assad’s Syria integrated into US, Canadian and German societies respectively. She herself is second generation Egyptian, her father a retired professor of chemical engineering in the US. She has written two recent (2025) opinion pieces in the Guardian on contemporary immigration controversies in the US. Her insights as an academic sociologist from a Muslim immigrant family are really challenging. She shows how even though the US had a welcome program for Syrians seeking refuge, the multiple institutional, cultural, financial language barriers have made integration really difficult in the US, compared to more amenable arrangements in Trudeau’s Canada and Merkel’s Germany. She is writing a following book on the politics of borders in Trump’s America. It could be dynamite!
Thanks
We’re very fond of MeidasTouch in this house. You might be interested in watching this broadcast from them. (Its about 14 minutes long)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAurK-qfHd0&t=348s
Having said that, to cheer us all up a bit, here’s Tom Petty singing “It’s Good To Be King”. (you only have to watch the first 4 mins or so to hear the song, after that it’s long instrumental break to the end!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aogOR8c8Q4
one line resonates – “A sweet little queen, who can’t run away”. Melania anyone?
PS Richard, I can’t put smilies up any more as I can’t seem to use my semi-colon on your site for some reason. Either from separate keyboard or laptop keyboard.
I have no explanation for that, sorry.
@Bay TampaBay on Scottish land ownership
Andy Wightman is the expert:
‘ Private rural landownership has become more concentrated over the past 12 years with 433 landowners owning 50% of the privately-owned rural land in 2024 compared to 440 in 2012 ‘ Detailed breakdown is here
https://andywightman.scot/2024/03/who-owns-scotland-2024-a-preliminary-analysis/
Given that the Scottish population is some 5.4 million people, those rural landowners comprise 0.008% of the Scottish population. But note that many landlowners are not Scottish, and take corporate form.
Thanks
In answer to BayTampaBay re ownership of Scotland’s land.
433 people own half of Scotland. Some owning it from 100 years ago.
If you fill in ‘The Big Land Question ‘ set by the Revive Coalition ( they fight for our land and wildlife) and fronted by David Hayman you will see the unequal patterns of land ownership in Scotland. Land ownership in Scotland is one of the worst in the developed world. Another warrior who fights to find out who actually owns Scotland’s land is Andy Wightman. Worth a look at his blog.
https://diffleypartnership.co.uk/the-big-land-question/
Thanks
I agree with Trump. Get all the immigrants out of the US of A.
Europe, prepare to take back all your huddled masses – the Donald is going to return American lands to the original native nations. The buffalo will roam again.
We can dream, I suppose.
OK
Sarcasm wins.