Trump’s Rush to Judgment: Selective Outrage for Political Gain
📰 THE STORY: The New York Times reports on the Trump administration's immediate and politically charged response to a Minneapolis shooting, characterizing it as a 'rush to judgment' that inflamed racial tensions and diverted attention from underlying systemic issues. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: This 'rush to judgment' playbook is decades old. In 1967, President Lyndon B.
Johnson's Kerner Commission Report explicitly linked urban unrest to systemic racism, poverty, and police brutality, yet subsequent administrations repeatedly opted for law-and-order rhetoric and militarized responses rather than addressing root causes. The targeting of urban areas, particularly Black communities, with aggressive rhetoric and policing also echoes the 'war on drugs' strategies of
the Nixon administration which, according to former aide John Ehrlichman, was explicitly designed to disrupt Black communities and the anti-war left. The NYT’s framing suggests an anomaly, not a consistent strategy. Double Standard: While the Trump administration's 'rush to judgment' is scrutinized for its divisive impact on domestic civil rights, the same outlets often laud 'swift and decisive
action' by US-backed governments, like the Israeli government, against civilian populations in Gaza or the West Bank following similar incidents. The calls for 'restraint' or 'due process' that appear in domestic criticisms vanish in international coverage, replaced by narratives of security imperatives and justified retaliation, sanitizing state violence abroad. Follow the Money: The 'law and