This Week in America: Democracy, Architecture and White Supremacy

It isn’t always easy to keep up with what’s happening in the US. ‘This Week in America’ is a series where Dr Emma Shortis loops you in on what’s going on in America and shares news and analysis that you can trust.

In Washington last week, the Australian Prime Minister said that Australia and the United States “have stood side by side for freedom and democracy”. At the same time as the President was having part of the White House demolished to make way for his new ballroom. Cool.

This week:

• The big meeting
• Freedom and democracy?
• Architecture as dog whistle

 

The big meeting

As I wrote last week, diplomatically, Anthony Albanese’s meeting with US President Donald Trump was a success. We know how badly meetings with President Trump can go! That it wasn’t a disaster is really something. But the substance of the meeting was also widely hailed by the Australian media as meaningful. The Prime Minister was hailed as a diplomatic hero. But the shine (or should I say, bronzer) is starting to wear off.

President Trump can’t “guarantee” or “confirm” AUKUS. And even if he does, all that’s committing the US to is taking free money from Australia with no obligation to provide anything in return! In the Guardian Australia, Ben Doherty has a great explanation of what I mean.

Freedom and democracy?

Despite our game of pretend, President Trump continues his assault on both. In the next episode of After America, I chat with Matt Duss of the Center for International Policy about Trump’s assault on the rule of law at home and abroad. We focused particularly on Latin America, and the Trump administration’s “extra judicial killings” (which is fancy foreign policy speak for “murder”) in the Caribbean and Pacific. Mr Duss has been doing some great explainers over at CIP’s instagram.

Trump’s actions in Latin America reveal how he is, in many ways, a prisoner of American history. Some of that history – and the complexities of democratic downfall – is outlined in this great piece on Peru in the New York Times.

Architecture and White Supremacy

I’ve written in an earlier column about fascism and the cult of tradition. Trump and the MAGA-verse are actively trying to reshape history in their own image, which means erasing a whole bunch of stuff they don’t like. It also means constant appeals to “civilization” that include a certain kind of aesthetic – one that throws back to “classical architecture” and what they see as an ideal-type civilization (read: White). That all gets a bit lost in the coverage of Mr Trump’s outrageous demolition of the White House, but it gets to the core of the MAGA project. “Classical architecture” is, as this Layla A. Jones piece in Talking Points Memo outlines, “‘A Dog Whistle for White Nationalists”.

It’s grim, and there’s no sign of a let up in the grimness. Until next week.

This Week in America, link roundup:

• Can Albanese claim ‘success’ with Trump? Beyond the banter, the vague commitments should be viewed with scepticism | Emma Shortis, The Conversation
• Donald Trump says Australia will get the AUKUS submarines – but the decision won’t be his to make | Ben Doherty, The Guardian
• After America | Emma Shortis, Matt Duss
• Instagram explainers | Center for International Policy
• Peru Shows How Democracies Die Even Without a Dictator | Will Freeman, New York Times
• Trump Is Using ‘Classical Architecture’ as ‘A Dog Whistle for White Nationalists’ | Layla A. James, Talking Points Memo