Trump and propaganda: the case of mass deportations!

The horrific and degrading images of Brazilians deported from the US this past weekend went viral and became a huge "positive" propaganda tool for US President Trump, aimed at his increasingly sick domestic audience, living in a parallel reality that many attribute to madness. Unfortunately, within this reality there is a method, a way of doing politics that often seems incomprehensible, but there is a logic to it, even if it eludes us. To understand it, we must abstract ourselves from civilizational values, human dignity, or even moralistic sentiments of a religious nature. This political arena is different.

The images of Brazilians handcuffed by their hands and feet, on a flight in an old military plane that took 50 hours to reach Manaus—a journey that should have taken a maximum of 8 hours—reveal that the objective of sending a harsh message of TERROR and FEAR to the world was fully successful, including for the country itself, which has in immigrants an inexhaustible source of cheap, subservient labor, afraid of being denounced and accused of crimes. The so-called American dream has turned into a nightmare, often endured because in their countries of origin, the financial, political, and opportunity situation is the same or worse—a kind of Russian roulette for survival.

However, it is necessary to understand more deeply the various meanings of these deportations. The first is that this is not a decision made by Trump arbitrarily. There is a "stockpile" of potential deportees, many of whom are imprisoned, or unemployed/unemployable, and also because of the tightening of immigration rules over the past decade, these deportations have often been delayed, including due to labor shortages. This allows us to say that the threat of expulsion in any form, with faster and simpler rules promised by Trump, has not yet come into effect.

Obviously, it serves as effective propaganda: it created terror and fear, imposed a series of humiliations on Latin American countries – even if Brazilians think they aren't Latino, they are. The tragedy is complete when you learn that these images were used to raise funds for Trump and the Republicans, even managing to cover up some issues that are more harmful to immigrants, such as the issue of asylum applications.

On Sunday (26), there was a reaction from the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, that he would not receive the US planes with the Colombian deportees, that he would confront Trump, who would send the presidential plane to bring back the citizens of his country. The attitude went viral as an extraordinary feat (and it would be). However, the US government responded harshly, stating that it would tax Colombian products at 25% and that, if it insisted on the attempt, it would raise the tax to 50%. A statement this Monday shows the retreat of the Colombian government, agreeing to the deportation carried out by US military planes.

The episode ended up reinforcing Trump and Rubio's position, imposing a harsh defeat on Colombia and sending a message that only joint actions can restrain Trump's impulses. He and Rubio used an ideological layer in the debate with Petro without any fear of criticism, making it clear to the world that the clash is indeed ideological. In this field, they have hegemony. US newspapers make their positions transparent. This free world does not exist. Any debate will be answered directly by Trump, without any internal restraint, almost a dictatorship of a new plutocracy combined by big tech and Wall Street.

The first stage in imposing a new policy of intolerance towards immigration seems victorious, using the "stock," but will the rules-based policy that Trump proposed during the campaign be implemented?