L: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller gaggles near the West Wing in front of the White House. Photo by Annabelle Gordon for The Washington Post via Getty Images. R: US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks during a tour of the Terrorist Confinement Center (CECOT). Photo by Alex Brandon / POOL / AFP.When I write about the latest horrific policy or action by the Trump administration, often a reader will comment, “The cruelty is the point.” We all sense, and in many ways accept, this as true. How could we not, given everything we have seen and experienced for years under Trump?But there has always been something unsatisfactory and circular about this assessment. It asserts that Trump and his lackeys are cruel just to be cruel, presumably because that is their nature and they enjoy it.That feels correct, but also incomplete.Cruelty serves a number of other
Leave a Reply