Donald Trump called on the country to go “back to 1798” during a rally that showcased the former president’s full embrace of nationalism in the final days of the 2024 campaign cycle.
During a rally Monday in Greenville, North Carolina, the former president criticized illegal immigrants and promised to invoke the Alien Enemies Act — a more than 200-year-old law that gives the president the power to arrest, detain and deport individuals from countries. In a phase of war against the United States without standard due process requirements. This law was only used in times of war, and was infamously used by President Franklin Roosevelt to detain thousands of Japanese, German, and Italian citizens in internment camps during World War II.
“To expedite the takedown of Tren de Aragua and other brutal gangs like MS-13,” Trump said Monday. “I’ll cite the Alien Enemies Act 18, 1798. That’s when we had real politicians who said, ‘We’re not going to play games.’ We need to go back to 1798.”
Despite Trump’s claims, the Alien Enemies Act — and three other pieces of legislation including the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 — were not universally popular when they were passed. The Republican Party at the time opposed these laws as a blatant violation of civil rights and due process rights. President Thomas Jefferson called these acts “abominable” legislation and “worthy of the eighth or ninth century.” Large portions of the law were allowed to lapse, but the Alien Enemies Act remains active, because it did not include an expiration upon its passage.
In 1798, the enslavement of black people was still the law of the land, and women could not own property, vote, control their reproductive choices, or participate in broad swaths of society under the protection of the law. Yet Trump and the Republican Party regularly imagine a return to a time of legalized repression. Editor’s Picks
As Trump threatens to use the military against his political opponents, he has also been dreaming of a return to the days before the military was “woke,” playing clips of fictional soldiers being verbally abused by a drill sergeant wearing a full metal jacket. “We’ve won two world wars with this kind of thing,” he told his audience on Monday.
Trump’s desire to invoke the law of war to fulfill his dreams of mass deportation of illegal immigrants is legally questionable, but he has assured his supporters that immigrants are invaders who, in his words, “poison the blood” of immigrants. nation and carrying out a legendary crime wave against its citizens.
“The United States is now an occupied country, but on November 5, we will be a liberated country,” Trump said on Monday. We will be liberated like never before. It will be liberation day.”
The former president claimed that North Carolina, which was recently devastated by Hurricane Helen, is being plundered by the Biden administration. Trending
“We will end looting, pillage, rape and plunder in North Carolina,” he said, repeating false claims that FEMA is illegally squandering disaster relief funds on illegal immigrants.
When Trump talks about liberalization, he is talking about dissolving all checks on his power. If he prevails on Election Day, the consequences of his vision will be borne not by him, his allies, or the elected officials who support him, but by ordinary Americans, whose rights will be trampled upon.
