Guest Column - A Return to Normalcy?

A Return to Normalcy?

By Joshua D. Clarke

Donald Trump’s return to office was heralded as a “return to normalcy” by a local opinion columnist. I thought it best to wait a full month before commenting—just long enough to see what, exactly, “normalcy” now means.

So, 30 days in, what are the fruits of this administration?

Well, loyalty purges are well underway. Federal employees deemed insufficiently aligned with the administration’s vision are being pressured into resigning with severance packages offered to literally every federal employee. The new FBI director, Kash Patel, also sits on the board of Trump’s personal social media platform, Truth Social, where he was handed nearly a million dollars in shares. 
Federal agencies are systematically scrubbing their websites of any reference to transgender, LGBTQ+, or pronouns. The Air Force briefly stopped teaching about the Tuskegee Airmen, perhaps sensing that celebrating Black excellence in military history no longer aligns with the administration’s goals. Even historical recognition is being rewritten. At the National Cryptologic Museum, plaques honoring women and people of color who served in the NSA were literally covered with sheets of paper—an absolutely insidious erasure. Meanwhile, national security professionals overseeing our nuclear arsenal and pandemic response were fired, only for the administration to panic and scramble to rehire them. The sheer incompetence would be amusing if it weren’t so profoundly dangerous.
Our closest allies are moving forward without us—literally. European leaders convened without U.S. representation, openly planning for a world in which America’s influence is diminished. Trump has demanded that Ukraine—our supposed ally—fork over $500 billion in natural resources in exchange for U.S. assistance. This isn’t aid; it’s extortion. And to justify it, he’s rewritten history, declaring that Ukraine—not Russia—started the war. The rest of the world sees this for what it is: not just a betrayal but the abandonment of any remaining pretense of moral leadership.
Trump has once again floated the idea of purchasing Greenland, baffled as to why Denmark believes it has any claim to its own land. He has revived his fixation on reclaiming the Panama Canal, despite a treaty signed nearly 50 years ago returning it to Panama, prompting concerns that the U.S. may simply take it by force. And, in perhaps his most ridiculous fantasy yet, he has suggested that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state. The White House press secretary remarked about Trump watching a hockey game: “And we look forward to the United States beating our soon-to-be 51st state, Canada.”  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau quipped, “You can’t take our country—and you can’t take our game,” after the Canadian hockey victory over the 
At CPAC, two outright Nazi salutes were performed—one by Steve Bannon, who raised his arm immediately after declaring, “We're not going to surrender. We're not going to quit. Fight, fight, fight!” The other by José Eduardo, mimicking Elon Musk’s infamous “my heart goes out to you” gesture. Of course, some will rush to downplay these moments, claiming Democrats have been photographed in similar poses. The difference? Videos of Obama and Harris show an unfortunately timed frame. Videos of Musk, Bannon, and Eduardo show exactly what you’d expect from a Nazi salute. The distinction is absolutely not subtle.
Could it be any clearer that we have become bullies on the world stage? That the swamp is now overflowing with billionaires, consolidating power like never before? This is a nation that once prided itself on moral leadership, now attempting to shake down a war-torn ally for $500 billion, reneging on a treaty with Panama that has stood for nearly five decades, and openly taunting Canada with annexation jokes.
If we needed any clearer proof of just how far this administration and its loyalists have veered into self-parody, we need only look up—literally. As I write this, astronauts are openly dismantling Musk after he called ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen “fully retarded” in a post so indefensible that even Fox News is struggling to spin it. The irony is almost poetic. Conservatives, having waged their war on wokeness with religious zeal, have finally taken it to new heights—so high, in fact, that they’ve left the stratosphere. Somewhere between their orbit of grievance politics and Musk’s rapidly plummeting credibility, we might finally have proof of intelligent life beyond Earth.
A return to normalcy, indeed.

Joshua  Clarke