4 current examples The absolute brutalization of US politics

A different wind has been blowing in the USA since Donald Trump moved back into the White House. Four incidents from the weekend show that the policies of the current administration are becoming increasingly brutal.

You have to hand it to Donald Trump: He's always good for a headline. The US president often floods the media landscape with calculated news, curious plans or controversial opinion pieces.

The problem is that the one or other wave that the US President makes sometimes gets lost in this media background noise. This weekend alone, there were four incidents and decisions that should make people talk, as the current administration's policies are becoming increasingly brutal.

It is a Thanksgiving message, of all things, that triggers the first controversy: "Happy Thanksgiving to all," begins Donald Trump's post on Truth Social on November 28. What follows, however, is anything but unifying: the 79-year-old rails against "politically correct" and "sheer stupidity" when it comes to immigration.

Trump then goes on to talk about the US state of Minnesota, which has been overrun by "hundreds of thousands" of Somalis: "Somali gangs roam the streets looking for 'prey' while our wonderful people remain locked in their apartments and homes, hoping against hope that they will be left alone."

Blame it on the Democratic governor: Trump calls Tim Walz "seriously retarded" - and also attacks Muslim US congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who is "always wrapped in her diaper hijab" and "probably came to the US illegally".

This behavior is now meeting with determined resistance - from a Republican senator: Mike Bohacek from the US state of Indiana no longer wants to play along with Trump's political games. The background: Bohacek has a daughter with Down syndrome.

The senator cannot accept Trump's choice of words at Walz, he wrote on Friday: "This is not the first time our president has used these insulting and derogatory references and his choice of words has consequences."

Bohacek is therefore taking a stand against the president: He wants to torpedo his gerrymandering - i.e. the manipulation of constituencies. "I will vote NO on redistricting. Maybe [Trump] can use the next 10 months to convince voters that his policies and behavior deserve a majority in Congress."

The USA is exerting enormous pressure on Venezuela - ostensibly because of drugs. At the same time, the armed forces have sunk at least 24 boats in the Caribbean, killing at least 83 people. More on this under point 4.

On Friday, Donald Trump then surprised everyone by announcing his intention to pardon Juan Orlando Hernández. The former president of Honduras was sentenced to 45 years in prison in the USA in 2024 for cocaine smuggling. The 57-year-old was "treated very harshly and unfairly, according to many people that I respect very much", writes Trump.

Trump links this amnesty to calling on the people of Honduras to vote for Nasry "Tito" Asfura, who, like Hernández, belongs to the National Party of Honduras.

Hernández was president from 2014 to 2022 and ruled in an authoritarian manner. During this period, he is said to have brought 400 tons of cocaine to the USA and also made money from human trafficking.

Anyone who now gets the impression that drug smuggling is perhaps not so high on the White House's list of priorities after all will be encouraged by Republican MP Maria Salazar, who reveals on "Fox News" what Washington is really concerned about.

"American oil companies are going to have a field day in Venezuela because there's going to be a trillion dollars worth of economic activity," the 64-year-old openly states as a reason why the US should attack the South American country.

"American companies can go in and repair all the oil pipelines, the drilling platforms and everything that has to do with the Venezuelan oil companies," Salazar continues happily, although the population will gain very little from this economic and military adventure.

Donald Trump repeatedly presents himself as the prince of peace who wants to have settled x number of wars. Sometimes he claims to have extinguished six flashpoints, sometimes he claims to have ended eight conflicts. There is only one thing he has not yet settled: the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.

The New Yorker wants to change that - by putting a gun to the chest of Volodymyr Zelensky: If Ukraine does not give up Donetsk, he will withdraw military support from the country. The fact that Kiev cannot vacate this area for various reasons is apparently of no interest to the US President.

What the "Wall Street Journal" (WSJ) reported on Friday, however, casts this attitude in a completely different light: Trump's motto is "Make Money Not War". When US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Russia's negotiator Kirill Dmitriyev in Miami, Florida, they are also said to have discussed hard-nosed economic interests.

According to this, Trump wants to greatly expand economic relations with the Kremlin: Washington is not even ruling out the reopening of the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline. Together with Russia, Arctic raw materials are to be further exploited - and 300 billion US dollars in frozen Russian assets are to be used for American investments in Russia.

In addition to oil, gas and other commodities deals, Witkoff and Dimitrijew are also said to have discussed rebuilding Ukraine together after the war. The real estate mogul tells the WSJ that he believes that peace will come with trade: "If we achieve this and everyone benefits from it, a bulwark against future conflicts will automatically be created. Because everyone benefits from it."

For Kiev, this is - once again - a slap in the face: even when the USA forced the raw materials agreement on Ukraine, it was said that signing it would increase the chances of peace. An old wives' tale, as is now clear. The fact that the aggressor should now also benefit from the reconstruction after Putin has bombed and destroyed the neighboring country is adventurous.

As promised in point 2, the attacks on suspected smuggling boats must be addressed once again: The "Washington Post" drops the bombshell on Friday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is ordering his people to take radical action.

At least 32 deadHow legal is Trump's Caribbean crusade against drug cartels?

"The order was to kill everyone," two soldiers, who remain anonymous, tell the US newspaper. It was about an attack on September 2 off the coast of Trinidad, in which a drone destroyed the ship but left two survivors in the water. The commanding officer then allegedly orders a second attack - in accordance with Hegseth's instructions.

However, killing defenceless shipwrecked people is murder - or a war crime if attacks are deemed to be attacks on terrorists. According to the Guardian, Hegseth himself speaks of "fake news": these are "fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory reports to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland".

The attacks were "lawful under US and international law," the Secretary of Defense continued. Nevertheless, the Senate Armed Services Committee now intends to investigate the matter, as the Republican chairman and his Democratic deputy announced in unison.

"The Committee has made inquiries of the Department, and we will conduct a rigorous review to determine the facts surrounding the circumstances," the committee said. The deployment could therefore have consequences for Hegseth if the suspicions are confirmed.

Criticism has also come from Mark Kelly: the senator and five Democratic colleagues had previously caused a stir with a video in which they advised the US security forces not to follow illegal orders. A second strike like the one in the Caribbean would be such an order, the Navy and NASA veteran tells CNN.

"Going after survivors in the water is clearly not lawful," Kelly emphasizes. "If the reports are true, I have serious concerns." Time Kaine, Democratic senator from Virginia, blows the same horn on CBS: "If true, this is tantamount to a war crime."