Cruelty has become a defining characteristic of our politics. It’s a shift that was troubling to many in the psychology community and began long before Donald Trump was elected president.
Trump’s public persona is marked by a distinctive meanness. As a New York real estate developer, this largely was hidden. But as he gained notoriety, it surfaced in his behavior. He began using disparaging nicknames to belittle people, a bullying tactic that tragically often stuck.
Michael Chancellor
His reputation as a corrupt businessman also reflects this pattern. He was known for leaving contractors unpaid and using lawsuits to bully those who challenged him. This was a form of small-scale cruelty. As he became more prominent, his actions took on a greater, more public scale.
The cruelty became a central feature of his presidency. His style was so similar to that of mob bosses that James Comey, who served briefly as his FBI director, noted the comparison. While we may never know the full extent of the mob’s cruelty, it is clear Trump shares this trait.
The crackdown on immigrants is a prime example of this cruelty. The Trump administration unleashed a new kind of enforcement with masked and armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on our streets. This wasn’t an accident. It was a deliberate choice.
From the start, Trump weaponized fear and hatred of immigrants, using a military-style response to what should have been routine law enforcement issues. This militarized response, with masked agents, is far beyond what’s typically seen in local law enforcement.
“The silence from Trump’s party … is palpable and profoundly distressing.”
This is a dangerous trend, echoing the historical warning from pastor Martin Niemöller: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.”
The silence from Trump’s party as he turned militarized federal officers on immigrant communities, then on protesters, is palpable and profoundly distressing. Now, the attorney general of Texas has threatened state House Democrats with arrest for boycotting a special legislative session. This indicates cruelty is not contained but is spreading.
Trump also displays a clear vindictiveness. The name Alligator Alcatraz for a Florida detention center is a perfect example. Naming a swamp prison after a notorious federal penitentiary isn’t a coincidence. It’s a nod to a certain kind of cruelty, one that is being embraced more and more.
When a leader engages in such behaviors and is met with approval, their actions only escalate. The political party that supports him is becoming anesthetized and desensitized to this new reality. As a result, our society is at risk of accepting this cruelty, meanness and vindictiveness as normal.
Based on my work with trauma survivors, we must avoid two dangerous conclusions.
First, sustained trauma becomes normalized, and people accept cruelty as the way things are. Second, once a new normal is established, it can take years for society to move past it, and some people never do.
We must not allow our nation to fall into this “new normal.” Despite our historic faults, our common culture has always carried a sense of caring for one another and the world. We cannot lose that now.
Michael Chancellor served 33 years as pastor of four Baptist churches in Texas, six years as a mental health manager in a maximum-security Texas prison before becoming a therapist in private practice in Round Rock, Texas. He now lives in Taylor, Texas.
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