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Trump’s plan for the “Gaza Riviera” encapsulates everything that is so dangerous about his authoritarian approach to politics, but also prompts us to think about what resistance looks like.
The first and most obviously shocking aspect is his view of politics as a real estate deal. Normal people look to Gaza and see horrendous suffering and monstrous injustice; Trump sees a piece of land with a beach and sunshine just crying out for a strip of profitable hotels.
To anyone of sound mind, this vision is almost comedic; but he’s President of the United States and it’s no laughing matter. While governments in the Middle East and around the world have almost all rejected Trump’s “plan” for Gaza, there are signs that some – not least our own – are tempted to deal with the world’s most powerful man on his terms and to lower themselves to his level of amoral transactionalism. This would be a mistake of historic proportions.
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Trump’s view of himself as operating beyond the law was clear on the campaign trail in 2016, when he boasted: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” It was clear in his serial abuse of women, his theft of secret state documents and his refusal to accept the outcome of the 2020 election.
Primary resistance to Trump has to be based in his own jurisdiction, and many are looking to the US legal system to defend the rule of law. Special Counsel Jack Smith was forced to drop his prosecution of Trump, as the US Constitution forbids the prosecution of a sitting president. But both state and federal courts have begun to challenge some of Trump’s autocratic executive orders, including those mandating sweeping powers to Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and have at least partially delayed their full implementation. But the US legal system now appears a much less solid bastion against autocracy than it did a year ago.
We wait to see whether a Supreme Court stuffed with Trump appointees will maintain America’s constitutional commitment to checks and balances, but the omens are not good. In a landmark decision in July, it ruled that presidents should have absolute immunity for acts within their “core constitutional powers” and “presumptive immunity” for “acts within the outer perimeter” of their official responsibility. As far as Trump is concerned, there is no outer perimeter.
Of course, what happens in Gaza – and the West Bank – is about international law. Trump’s peremptory tearing up of trade treaties and the warm welcome he gave to an indicted war criminal in Washington last week show he has no more respect for this than for domestic legal constraints. But we must demand that our politicians stand by the system of international law and human rights that both the UK and the US were instrumental in creating after the Second World War. That system was a direct response to the mayhem and mass murder that blood-and-soil nationalism had unleashed in the 1930s and 40s, and countries that still subscribe to that vision must stand together to defend it. Nothing is more important.
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Hanging onto these clear principles also helps us resist the “flood the zone” strategy – the blitzkrieg of shock-and-awe announcements, designed to disorient and overwhelm any opposition. Trump’s ‘politics as spectacle’ can leave you feeling bewildered and numb, as if you’ve stepped out of the real world and into a dystopian movie.
But we all have our own essential realities, and these too are vital touchstones in times like these. Our local communities, the places we’re rooted in, the people we love. That grounded reality, together with clear commitments to principles of honesty, respect for others and non-violence, are the anchors that can keep us from coming adrift in this breaking storm.
Contemporary fascism trades on our human propensity for laziness and sensation. With so much digital distraction available, from social media memes to Netflix boxsets, millions now take a tl;dr approach to politics. For many, real-world events have become so unrelentingly grim that it seems easier and less painful to simply disengage from them.
But this approach is incompatible with being part of – and defending – a democratic society. Nobody wants to be the prophet of doom who keeps dragging global politics into every social interaction, but unless we resist – and encourage our friends to resist – the retreat into a digital fantasy world, our democracy will not survive.
Most importantly, we need to know that there are things we can do that will make a difference. The impulse to ignore the news is less overwhelming if one has clear ideas about the many actions that can be taken to stop the rise of fascism, whether driven by Trump or his sycophantic fanboys in our own country.
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We’re working on an anti-fascist handbook for citizens to help with this. But, for now, how about you find a way to talk about these issues with your neighbours or friendship group? Maybe you already have a weekly space – a book group or pub meet-up – where this stuff can be discussed, respectfully and in person, and positive actions resolved. If not, maybe you could set one up.
We’re not suggesting you turn every social group into an anti-fascist cell – but simply talking about what’s happening and what it means is a crucial first step in overcoming the sense that you’re powerless.
The celebrated German-born footballer Bert Trautmann, who played for Manchester City in the 1950s, described how he and his friends were unthinkingly swayed by Nazi propaganda in the 1930s: “Although you didn’t know it, your mind was influenced… You listened to the political speeches. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t impressed. People have an affinity towards their own and the Nazis were telling us that German people were suffering apparent atrocities in Poland or wherever. We didn’t realise the power of propaganda.”
Trump, his imitators outside the US and their propagandists who flood our social media feeds rely on drowning the truth in a torrent of weaponised lies. Their aim is to convince us that they can and should override the rules and norms that underpin democracy and basic human decency.
The first line of defence against this is critical thinking – not just as a solitary, on-screen activity, but face-to-face with your friends and neighbours. If enough people are talking with each other about why the rule of law, strong democratic values and human rights are worth defending, and what needs to be done to defend them, fascism will fail.
The US author Rebecca Solnit wrote last week about the many acts of resistance that are taking place across the US right now, and the deep springs of human decency that these are drawing on: “Sometimes we’re surprised to find out who we are and how much we care and how brave that care makes us. That’s our human nature, and it’s beautiful and powerful and makes us dangerous to dictators.”
We all need to start making ourselves dangerous to dictators.