The one word that defines Trump 2.0

If one word could summarize the ideology of the second Trump regime, it would be “hate.”

Consider, for example, Paul Ingrassia — who started off as Trump’s White House liaison to the Justice Department and then liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, before Trump nominated him in May to run the White House’s Office of Special Counsel.

Politico is out today with an exposé of Ingrassia — noteworthy because it so clearly illustrates Trump’s priorities when it comes to personnel.

Before his nomination, Ingrassia reportedly told a group of fellow Republicans that “I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time, I will admit it.”

He has written about former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy: “Never trust a chinaman or Indian … NEVER.”

He has said Black people behave like “victims” because “that’s their natural state … You can’t change them,” adding: “Proof: all of Africa is a shithole, and will always be that way.”

He has urged that the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell.” Using an Italian slur for Black people, he wrote: “No moulignon holidays … From kwanza [sic] to mlk jr day to black history month to Juneteenth,” adding: “Every single one needs to be eviscerated.”

He has written: “We need competent white men in positions of leadership. … The founding fathers were wrong that all men are created equal … We need to reject that part of our heritage.”

He has backed martial law. He’s referred to 2024 GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley as an “insufferable bitch.” He called Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel a “psyop,” (which stands for psychological operation).

He has ties to avowed antisemite Nick Fuentes. Soon after he made the “Nazi” comment, Ingrassia attended a rally for Fuentes.

Ingrassia’s overt bigotry was too much even for Senate Republicans, who pushed back against his nomination to lead the Office of Special Counsel — resulting in Trump’s pulling the nomination in November.

But Ingrassia wasn’t booted from the Trump administration. In fact, after pulling his nomination, Trump invited Ingrassia to meet with him at the White House and offered him another administration post — deputy general counsel of the General Services Administration. He is now acting general counsel, supervising more than 100 lawyers.

Trump doesn’t mind Ingrassia’s bigotry because Ingrassia is a Trump loyalist who for years has praised Trump on X and Substack. (After Trump reposted more than 100 of Ingrassia’s fawning Substacks, Ingrassia called himself “Trump’s favorite writer.”)

In Trump world, fawning loyalty always trumps hateful bigotry.

In contrast to Trump’s graciousness toward Ingrassia, the Trump regime has been trying to rid America of people seeking to stop the spread of online hate speech.

On Thursday, a federal judge in New York temporarily blocked Trump from detaining Imran Ahmed, the founder and chief executive of a nonprofit organization that works to stop the spread of online hate and disinformation, whom the Trump regime accused of promoting the censoring of “American viewpoints.”

Ahmed — who is in the United States legally, with a green card and an American wife and child — is one of five people barred by the Trump regime because they’ve been scrutinizing hate speech on social media platforms such as Elon Musk’s X.

Musk had unsuccessfully tried to sue Ahmed’s research group in 2023 when it documented a rise in hate speech on X after Musk bought the platform, then called Twitter. When Trump’s State Department barred Ahmed from America, Musk posted, “This is so great.”

So there we have it, friends. Hateful bigotry is fine inside the Trump regime as long as the hateful bigots are loyal to Trump.

Meanwhile, the regime is trying to rid America of people fighting hateful bigotry.

Hate is the defining ideology of the Trump regime.

Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.