Trumpification (uncountable)
- (US, neologism, originally pejorative) Implementation of Donald Trump‘s political ideas.
Dear America: A dangerous rise in racist confrontations and attacks should scare everyone into the stark realization that Trumpification has spread across the country like the plague.
Racism
Throughout his presidential run, Donald Trump spent a great deal of time conditioning his followers to buy into a “US versus THEM” mentality. He purposely made Muslims out to be the scary boogeyman America needed to keep out in order to avoid certain death. He made Mexicans out to be rapists, thieves, and murderers who needed to be kept on their own side of the border in order for Americans to sleep comfortably at night. He made African-Americans and other minority groups out to be dark figures who were almost always up to no good, couldn’t be trusted, and needed to be monitored at all times. For anyone who dared to disagree with or challenge Trump, he encouraged violence by boasting “I’d like to punch them in the face,” and told tales of how in “The old days” those people “would be carried out on a stretcher.”
As far as “The Donald” was concerned, if they weren’t on the Trump Train then they couldn’t be trusted.
Well, all that violent vitriol Trump planted has since come to fruition. Thanks to Trumpification, Americans are turning on each other, attacking each other, and accusing each other of being “The Enemy” Trump warned to keep an eye on.
Let’s examine:
In Illinois, Mia Irizarry was trying to celebrate her 24th birthday inside the Caldwell Woods Park when a white male approached and repeatedly harassed her for daring to wear a Puerto Rico T-shirt. Irizarry recorded the entire encounter on her cell phone and even approached a park police officer to complain that she felt threatened by the man. The police officer completely ignored her requests to intercede and allowed the man to continue to harass her by claiming (erroneously) that Puerto Rico is not part of America.
“You should not be wearing that in the United States of America,” he barked. “Are you a citizen? Are you a United States citizen?”
Once the video when viral on social media, law enforcement stepped in. Cook County Forest Preserve District Police Officer Patrick Connor has since resigned, while Timothy G. Trybus has been arrested and charged with dual Class 3 felony hate crimes.
TRUMPIFICATION!
When 4th-graders from the Pleasant Run Elementary School in Indianapolis, IN won a robotics challenge, it should have been a triumph of glory and celebration. Instead, the victory turned into a racial attack against the 2 African-American and 3 Latino students.
After the 9- and 10-year-olds collected their trophy and headed toward the parking lot, they were met with a series of verbal attacks from the losers.
“Go back to Mexico!” several children and adults shouted at the brown-skin students and their parents. “Oh my God, they are champions of the city all because they are Mexican. They are Mexican, and they are ruining our country,” the group continued.
TRUMPIFICATION!
In West Hollywood, CA, a black woman who was sitting outside of a local grocery store was attacked with a metal rod by a white male for simply #ReadingWhileBlack.
A North Carolina white man was charged with a hate crime after he ripped off a Muslim woman’s hijab and screamed “This is America!” during a Southwest Airlines flight.
In Winston-Salem, NC, a white man repeatedly demanded to see the resident ID of a black woman who was swimming at the apartment complex pool where she lived. According to the man, the black woman didn’t appear “wealthy enough” to be a resident of his complex.
In Maple Heights, OH, a white woman called police on a 12-year-old African-American boy because she saw him mowing grass to earn a few bucks.
In San Francisco, CA, a white woman called police on an 8-year-old black girl for selling bottles of cold water during a heat wave.
In New York City, a white lawyer threatened to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a group of restaurant workers who were speaking Spanish to each other.
TRUMPIFICATION!
Racism
In other examples, a white woman called police on a black man who was reading a book about Christianity while gazing at the ocean. Blacks also had the authorities called on them while going to the gym, shopping for underwear, and couponing.
THIS is the America Donald Trump has created. THIS is what Donald Trump meant when he said he wanted to go back to the good old days and “Make America Great Again.” THIS is Trumpification. Now, the question remains: WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT IT?
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I certainly recognize the challenge of trying to define “Trumpification” in a way that truly captures its core meaning but Wiktionary’s definition, IMO, falls embarrassingly short of meeting that challenge by a country mile. Anyone who has paid even the slightest attention to Trump’s rise in America knows that “Trumpfication” is about way more than “Implementation of Donald Trump‘s political ideas.” And shame on Wiktionary for that barest of definitions. Nonetheless, DJ is absolutely correct. “THIS” {White supremacists trying to impose their will on America today} “is what Donald Trump meant when he said he wanted to go back to the good old days and “Make America Great Again.” Now here is where I differ slightly with DJ’s point: “THIS is the America Donald Trump has created.” Trump has certainly given voice to -and emboldened- today’s White supremacists to publicly act a fool> But I’d post that Trump didn’t create… Read more »