Trump's Power Play with Language
- Michelle Wei
- Feb 18, 2019
- 3 min read
This past Friday, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the Mexican Border. In doing so, the President is able to tap into emergency executive powers that essentially allow him to bypass Congress. The idea is to allow the government to respond quickly to a crisis. Many presidents in the past have utilized the emergency powers; however, none have ever used it to allocate funding for a policy goal that has been stalled (NBC, NY Times).
After the month long government shutdown over the border wall earlier this year, Trump has been looking for other ways and workarounds to fund his wall. Thus, his assertion that “flow of drugs, criminals and illegal immigrants from Mexico constituted a profound threat to national security that justified unilateral action” (NY Times). As expected, democrats are angry, but a number of Republican lawmakers have also expressed their concern over the precedent Trump’s declaration would cause.
In an interview with the NY Times, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a veteran member of the Appropriations Committee, said “he is usurping congressional authority. If the president can reallocate for his purposes billions of dollars in federal funding that Congress has approved for specific purposes and have been signed into law, that has the potential to render the appropriations process meaningless” (NY Times).
Utilizing the emergency powers to reallocate funding is a clear misuse of presidential powers. However, many republican policy-makers are still standing by the president despite the implications this power move could have with future presidents. This is because of the president’s grip over republican voters, “many of whom consider the wall a national necessity. Mr. Trump exerts a powerful hold on his party, and lawmakers are cowed by the belief that opposing him will end in their political destruction” (NY Times).
It is fascinating to see so many people still in support of President Trump whenever he makes another misinformed or offensive remark. He uses language to persuade and rally American voters of the necessity of his causes. In spreading misogynistic, anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigrant messages, he has created an empire of red hats and hate speech. According to Professor Lewis, “language (both written and spoken) is a partner of empire.” Donald Trump uses language to gain more supporters and cement his foundation as the leader of the right.
Language gives Trump power. Through language, he obtains the power to define who the enemy is (the drugs, criminals, and illegal immigrants from Mexico) and the power to command people to his side (his fake news repertoire, continuous hate speech, and instigation of fear). Language is what makes Trump dangerous because it becomes difficult to filter through his words and figure out what is true and what isn’t.
Which news outlet is giving the most accurate information? Which reporter is reporting news in the most unbiased manner? Who can judge what is the truth? In the end, it’s up to the individual to research and filter through all the news articles, books, reports themselves and form their own opinion on the matter.
[USC04] 47 USC 230: Protection for Private Blocking and Screening of Offensive Material, uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=%2Fprelim%40title50%2Fchapter34&edition=prelim.
Baker, Peter. “Trump Declares a National Emergency, and Provokes a Constitutional Clash.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 Feb. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/02/15/us/politics/national-emergency-trump.html?fallback=0&recId=1HHc3fZsVZqYEiDcE12C9swBvdR&locked=0&geoContinent=NA&geoRegion=CA&recAlloc=top_conversion&geoCountry=US&blockId=most-popular&imp_id=565293217&action=click&module=Most%2BPopular&pgtype=Homepage.
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Gregorian, Dareh. “What Is a National Emergency? Here Are 8 Things to Know.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 15 Feb. 2019, www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/what-national-emergency-n957711.
Hulse, Carl, and Glenn Thrush. “Trump's Attempt to Circumvent Congress Leaves Uneasy Senate Republicans With Hard Choice.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 16 Feb. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/02/16/us/politics/trump-republican-party.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Politics.
Hulse, Carl. “In Wielding Emergency Powers, Trump Paves a Dangerous Path Forward.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 Feb. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/02/15/us/politics/trump-national-emergency-congress.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article.
“Presidential Proclamation on Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States.” The White House, The United States Government, 15 Feb. 2019, www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-declaring-national-emergency-concerning-southern-border-united-states/.
Savage, Charlie. “National Emergency Powers and Trump's Border Wall, Explained.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Jan. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/01/07/us/politics/trump-national-emergency.html.
Trimble, Megan. “Donald Trump's Presidential Proclamation Declaring National Emergency at Southern Border.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 15 Feb. 2019, www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2019-02-15/read-donald-trumps-executive-action-declaring-national-emergency-at-border.
President Trump is a prime example of how language is used as a partner of empire. He has repeatedly used language to portray immigrants, particularly Mexican immigrants, as dangerous people who are here to "steal our jobs" when all they want is to have a chance at a better life than they would have had back in Mexico. It truly is fascinating how many people still support him despite all the things he has said and done and you wrote a great post connecting what we learned in class to society today.