If you know anything at all about how abusers talk, you’ll recognize the danger in one of the Trump administration’s favorite explanations for its tyranny: “It’s a privilege, not a right.”
Here’s what the White House Press Office said about removing access for the Associated Press: “As we have said from the beginning, asking the president of the United States questions in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One is a privilege granted to journalists, not a legal right. We stand by our decision to hold the Fake News accountable for their lies, and President Trump will continue to grant an unprecedented level of access to the press. This is the most transparent administration in history.”
Mark Wingfield
Here’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio talking to Fox News about visas for foreign students in U.S. universities: “Visiting America is not an entitlement. It is a privilege extended to those who respect our laws and values.”
Here’s a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services post on X: “Green cards and visas are a privilege reserved for those who make the U.S. better, not those who seek to destroy it from the inside.”
And what’s the latest Trump administration false declaration of something that’s a privilege and not a right? The writ of habeas corpus, Latin for “you have the body,” which actually is a Constitutional guarantee of due process for those to be imprisoned.
Presidential potion maker Stephen Miller says the White House is considering this extreme measure — which almost certainly is illegal — but doesn’t use the exact phrase “privilege, not a right.” Yet the idea is definitely buried in it: People deemed unworthy of being in the United States do not have a right to be here if we don’t grant them the privilege.
“All I can think of every time I hear this nonsense is a stern father lecturing a teenage child.”
All I can think of every time I hear this nonsense is a stern father lecturing a teenage child: “Going to prom is a privilege, not a right, so you better straighten up now!”
That fits because the entire milieu of the Trump administration reeks of Strict Father syndrome. As I have written previously, this is conservatism run amok. Whether in the family home or in the White House, “privilege, not a right” is code language for control. “You better do what I want the way I want it or I will keep you from doing what you want because I have power over you.”
For every MAGA voter reading this, no I am not saying we need “open borders,” as you so quickly declare anytime we mention mercy and kindness and common sense and the Constitution. This is not such a binary choice. We can have secure borders if we have a process for welcoming and evaluating all who come to our borders. But Congress has repeatedly refused to fix our broken system.
The answer is not to be more strict but to be more orderly. And there is nothing orderly or rational about the Trump administration’s “deport them all” approach to immigration. It is intentional chaos, meant to strike fear and exert control.
Just like an insecure father who thinks he can only control his children by threatening them.
When children are constantly threatened with losing “privileges,” they learn to be untrusting of others; they learn to live in fear. Which is exactly what Strict Fathers (and mothers) want. It’s all about control.
As others have more eloquently explained, with MAGA, the cruelty really is the point.
What the American people need to tell Trump and Miller and the rest of their cadre is that governing is a privilege and not a right. You are elected to serve and are accountable to the people — and the Constitution — not to yourself.
Pay attention to the words coming from the White House and then think of every abusive parent you’ve ever known. You’ll be surprised by the parallels. You definitely don’t want to ask the president to borrow his Tesla to drive to prom.
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He is the author of five books, including Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves.
Related articles by Mark Wingfield:
Majorities of all Americans want something Congress refuses to do: Meaningful immigration reform now
The case against conservatism run amok
The Strict Father model is killing us