First signs of extremism in a second term for Donald Trump

Photo: Jim Watson Agence France-Presse Donald Trump is revealing these days the allies he intends to have at his side for his return to the White House.

Fabien Deglise

Published at 14:11 Updated at 16:03 Analysis

• United States

Donald Trump will have to wait a few more weeks before sitting in the Oval Office again, but he is already preparing his big comeback at the head of the American executive branch, meticulously building his next team.

Barely having digested the results of the ballot boxes, the populist announced this week his first appointments to his future government, bringing in predictable figures of Trumpism who already hint at the radical tone of the billionaire's second term.

Moderation is certainly not to the taste of the future 47th president of the United States, who on Tuesday named South Dakota Governor Kristi L. Noem as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. The staunch supporter of her MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement finds herself in a crucial seat since Donald Trump campaigned on promises to strengthen border security and threatened to unleash the country’s military and National Guard against his political opponents, whom he called “enemies within.”

Kristi L. Noem is also very good at this kind of attack. In 2021, in the wake of the insurrection of Donald Trump supporters against the Capitol, she tried to divert attention from the worrying crowd movement by leading them to another source of concern, more serious, according to her: the arrival in Washington of the two new Democratic senators from Georgia, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, and this, because of their connections with the American Communist Party. The accusations were of course unfounded, revealed a simple fact-check conducted by the Associated Press at the time.

The future head of homeland security therefore also has an ambiguous relationship with the truth. But not only that. In 2022, the governor defended on CNN her uncompromising position on abortion, which is banned in her state, including in cases of rape or incest. In these cases, an abortion would add “a tragedy to an already tragic situation,” she explained, thus believing that pregnancies should be carried to term, including by minor victims. She even threatened to imprison doctors and pharmacists who provide abortion medication.

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Elise Stefanik, a Strong Figure of Trumpism

Elsewhere, Donald Trump has just unveiled some of the measures of the score he wants to play on the diplomatic scene by appointing the representative of upstate New York, Elise Stefanik, to the post of American ambassador to the United Nations. The position was held by Nikki Haley during her first term.

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“She is an ambitious woman who, since 2014, has registered domain names like 'stefanikforpresident', which indicates what her political objective is,” summarizes in an interview Ken Tingley, political columnist and former director of the Post Star in Glens Falls, southern Quebec. He has worked closely with the politician. “I've never talked to her about foreign policy, but I suspect she's going to do what Trump asks her to do and that's going to be a problem for Ukraine and the Palestinians.”

Having entered politics as a moderate Republican, Elise Stefanik quickly succumbed to the sirens of Trumpism, of which she has become a strong figure. As proof, in 2022, she severely condemned the Russian war of invasion launched against Ukraine by calling Vladimir Putin an “authoritarian, bloodthirsty and gutless dictator” and calling on the United States to “stand with the democracies under attack”. But, two years later, the rifle changed shoulders. As number 3 of the Republican camp in the House of Representatives, she voted against US military and security aid to the former Soviet republic.

The 40-year-old politician also stood out for voting against Donald Trump’s first impeachment attempt and has affirmed her unconditional support for Israel in its war against Hamas, which has caused an unprecedented health crisis in the Gaza Strip for more than a year. In a speech in Jerusalem last May, she said: “As long as I serve the American people, I will uphold George Washington’s vision of religious pluralism and freedom. Today, that means crushing anti-Semitism at home and providing the State of Israel with what it needs, when it needs it, without conditions, to achieve total victory over evil.” »

The high bar on immigration

Ironically, Donald Trump was brought back to power by Americans by strengthening his support in Michigan, including in the city of Dearborn, whose largest Muslim community in the country turned to him in part, disappointed by the Biden administration's position on the conflict in the Middle East.

On immigration, the populist set the bar very high during his campaign by promising a mass deportation campaign of 20 million illegals. The figure is higher than estimated. And on Sunday he entrusted this mission to his former director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service, Tom Homan.

During the Republican convention in Milwaukee, the man had also set the table by launching a blunt message to the “millions of illegal immigrants that Joe Biden has authorized to enter the country: start packing your bags, because you are going home,” he said.

Tom Homan has the skirt of extremism showing. Last year, in front of a conservative rally, he said he “didn’t care” about the separation of migrant families at the border, after having largely contributed to these separations between 2017 and 2018. To justify himself, he said he had only “applied the law”.

The man is also a member of the Heritage Foundation and one of the authors of the 2025 Project, a 900-page document that details the content of a future Republican government. Since the beginning of the year, Democrats have sought to portray this document as the manual for implementing an authoritarian government, likely to “destroy American democracy.” Their message has not had the hoped-for impact.

Donald Trump will continue his nominations in the coming days, preparing on Tuesday to make Marco Rubio, the senator from Florida, the head of American diplomacy. The man has never hidden his animosity towards China and his desire to end the war in Ukraine, no matter the cost and the unfavorable conditions for Ukrainians.

The populist is currently shaping his next government by bypassing the approval process for several of his nominations by the US Senate, which the country's Constitution allows him to do when the upper house is not in session. A move that also sets the tone for the upcoming second Trump presidency, he who has never hidden his intention to reduce the influence of the US legislative branch.