When Trump deploys ICE to blue cities and threatens to cut off funding or prosecute his enemies, the implied statement is, “You don’t like this? I dare you to stop me.”
Andra Watkins has the answer: “The only way to stop this is to stop it. What the regime really did. [in Minneapolis] ... it really was a message to America: 'If you want this to stop, make us stop. We dare you to make us stop.'"
That’s a lot to take on. It seems overwhelming. But what communities are doing to support one another in Minneapolis is inspiring. It’s a blueprint for resistance.
"I try to keep challenging Americans to stop saying, 'Well, that won't work. It's too big. It's too much,'“ Andra says. “Drill down and focus on your smaller community that you have connection to every day."
The gutting of USAID was among the first of the many horrors inflicted on the public by the Trump administration during his first year of his second term. Remember that? The relatively small amount of money that the United States put aside to support at-risk populations in the developing world? USAID not only helped people who needed in the most, it grew American soft power abroad.
Trump is now offering assistance again, but it comes with strings. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to you. Every move Trump makes is transactional. But the strings attached to the new round of humanitarian aid are fundamentally … er … fundamentalist. That is, funds will go to groups that support white Christian nationalist ideals.
And who decides what those ideals are? White Christian nationalists, of course. People like young Jeremy Lewin, the acting Under Secretary of State for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs and Religious Freedom. Lewin effectively oversees tens of billions in U.S. foreign assistance and supervising portfolios like refugees, global health, food security, and religious freedom.
He’s also been accused of threatening a woman with knife and has a history of racist social media posts and statements that make him an odd fit for a job concerning “Humanitarian affairs.”
This isn’t about humanitarianism, as you might have already guessed. It’s about power and coercion and control. The Christian nationalists want you to need them so that they can control you.
Andra Watkins and Sam Osterhout did a deep dive on the ways in which the administration is packing their ranks with Christian “deciders” — people who will decide on your behalf what you can and can’t do, and even what you can and can’t think.
Might sound farfetched. It’s not.
