On Wednesday, a longtime conservative political commentator warned that while recent moves by President Donald Trump and his allies may seem like “sick jokes,” their efforts have dangerous implications. According to Charlie Sykes – who broke with the Republican Party after it embraced Trump – MAGA is making the United States into a “full-fledged Sanctuary State for a variety of assorted crooks and failed wanna-be strongmen.”
“Part of the difficulty of navigating our fraught era is the constant, chronic sense that our timeline reads like a parody of a satire of stupidity,” writes Sykes. “Other generations faced the challenge of separating the wheat from the chaff; the goats from the sheep. We have to distinguish the surreal from the moronic from the outright fake. ‘Surely this can’t be real,’ will be chiseled on the tombstones of our sanity.” As an example of this, Sykes points to recent reports that the Trump administration is pushing for former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban – known for his anti-democratic leadership – to become Secretary-General of the United Nations. While this may at first seem like some “sick joke,” Sykes warns that it’s a serious threat. As the Wall Street Journal explained, “Why not Mr. Orban? There are plenty of reasons, such as that he would act as an apologist for Vladimir Putin and other dictators.” But as one U.S. official argued, Orban is “the dream MAGA-conservative candidate.”
And as Sykes notes, this news was followed by revelations that in Brazil, “defeated Trump-crony Flavio Bolsonaro and his family fled the country shortly after he conceded defeat in the election and sought asylum in the tender arms of the Donald.” Bolsonaro’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, had previously fled to the US after losing a presidential election to Lula. On Monday, the Trump administration declared that it would grant visas to Flavio Bolsonaro and his family. “Trump’s America,” asserts Sykes, “has become a full-fledged Sanctuary State for a variety of assorted crooks and failed wanna-be strongmen.”
And while the president continues to strengthen ties with his “Axis of Thuggery,” Sykes continues, “he lashed out at his new enemy… (checks notes several times)…. Norway, which he labeled a s——house country’ because it failed to award him the Nobel Peace Prize.” Earlier in the week, Trump had argued that Norwegian immigrants shouldn’t be allowed ‘because I didn’t get the Nobel Prize… So I don’t want anybody from Norway.” The president went on to offer his unvarnished opinion of the longtime U.S. ally, declaring, “Frankly, Norway sucks. Norway has become a s——house country, actually.” At the same time, he’s attacking Somalian immigrants by using outright racism and lies, saying at a recent rally, “Somalia – you know 98 percent of the people that we have here now in Somalia don’t work. They don’t really have to work because they steal so much. They all have a Mercedes-Benz. Can you believe? Low IQ and they live better than you do.”
And that, notes Sykes, was all just a taste of this week’s “bizarrity.” At rallies, Trump keeps praising the bodies of Republican candidates, had rapper Nicki Minaj stand up to show off her posterior, and has made “X-rated” hand gestures. On top of all that, a new report revealed the disturbingly racist and sexist background of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “faith advisor” at the Pentagon, and that Hegseth has held Christian worship services at the Pentagon featuring “a pastor who has said he supports the repeal of women’s right to vote and that homosexuality should be criminalized.” Faced with such an “endless train of sick jokes,” Sykes worries that Americans have “become numbed” to it all.