Donald Trump’s election as the President of the United States is historic in more ways than one. For the first time, America has a President who has never had a political or military post – and is the face of American capitalism. And it is possible that Trump doesn’t realize exactly how instrumental he is in disrupting a culture. President Trump had been affecting civil rights in the US even before he had come to power. His presidential promises gave rise to a sea of discontentment and bitterness among the American people. From his racist comments to his sexist behavior and lewd campaign language, Trump has inspired a behavior which no American President ever could – and most importantly never wanted to. But Trump administration’s policies too are a huge blow to the human rights issue.
From the Travel Ban to being a vocal supporter of military torture, Trump’s extremist measures have disrupted a nation that was already culturally shaky. The ban against immigrants, for example, is not just unconstitutional but also ethically unacceptable, and politically as complex a decision as selecting a diamond shape. Trump eventually wants to develop a militaristic regime which does not allow any outsiders, especially of diverse race and ethnicities to come to America. And this might just be the most un-American of Trump’s qualities.
Take the police brutality issue for example. Black people are still relentlessly profiled by officers of the law, and innocent people have even lost their lives over it. But not only did Trump not condemn the issue publically but slammed players like Colin Kaepernick for peacefully protesting against racism by kneeling during the national anthem. The kneeling issue became a widespread movement with names like Stevie Wonder, Beyonce and many other celebrated names supporting Kaepernick in his activism. What Trump failed to understand was that the protest was never against him but against a system – and that’s precisely his flaw lies.
Trump is so out of his depth as a President that he does not realize his own limitations or others. Kaepernick’s protest was not illegal or unconstitutional, but Trump’s response was. And it just proved how deeply Trump is affecting American human rights, just by his everyday behavior. In the first 100 days of his Presidency itself, Trump has left around 46,000 stranded and vulnerable, and also slashed their funds, put Central American children at risk by not allowing them entry, threatened to separate families at borders, threatened world leaders with nuclear wars, and the list goes on. But the one thing which needs the gravest attention is Trump’s administration’s blatant ignorance towards human rights issues.
From enabling extremists to supporting racism, Trump and his government have consistently been normalizing agendas which hurt sentiments and take back rights from the people. Trump’s nomination has done very little good to the lower middle classes – but they were, in fact, the most important fractions in bringing him to the White House. From the student loan issue to the wall along the Mexican border, to the policies against the Dreamers, Trump has affected human rights in America in a pretty solid way. Unlike Obama’s or Clinton’s time, there is no good-with-the-bad, but only the bad, and while American people and the legal body seem to be aware of it, there is very little they can do about it now.
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