Viet Thanh Nguyen on Trump's "Apocalypse Now" Rhetoric and Gaza Genocide

Trump's "Apocalypse Now" Rhetoric and Immigration Raids

• 🚨 Donald Trump invoked the Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now with an AI-generated image and the phrase "I love the smell of deportations in the morning," referencing his order to rename the Department of Defense.
• 🎯 This rhetoric coincided with ICE launching "Operation Midway Blitz" in Chicago and the Supreme Court allowing indiscriminate immigration raids in Los Angeles.
• ⚖️ Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized the raids, highlighting the hypocrisy of allowing race to be considered for immigration enforcement while not for university admissions.

Historical Parallels and "Othering"

• 🧠 Viet Thanh Nguyen connects Trump's rhetoric to a long history of American ethnic cleansing and genocide, from indigenous peoples to current immigration policies.
• 💡 The Apocalypse Now reference evokes a history of American militarism, where the US doesn't always need to win wars but can maintain dominance through killing large numbers of people.
• 🎭 Nguyen points out the irony that Apocalypse Now, intended as a satire of American militarism, is embraced by Trump, who misses the critique and celebrates the figure of Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore.

Erasure in Narratives of War and Colonialism

• 🌍 In Apocalypse Now and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, the Vietnamese people and Congolese people are erased and silenced, respectively, with the drama centered on white men.
• 🗣️ This silencing of people of color within liberal narratives of anti-racism is something Trump intuitively grasps, using Apocalypse Now to stage a narrative about deportation where Vietnamese people are removed from their own story.

Support for Palestinian Liberation and Gaza

• ✊ Nguyen identifies strongly with the plight of Palestinians due to his Vietnamese heritage, seeing parallels in the dehumanizing language used to justify genocidal warfare.
• 📢 He spoke out in support of Palestinians, warning that Israel's actions would be a war of genocide, and highlights the comparison between US actions in Vietnam and Israel's actions in Gaza.
• 💔 Nguyen was disinvited from the 92nd Street Y for his stance on the conflict, including supporting a ceasefire and the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Parallels Between Gaza and US Immigration Policy

• 💥 Nguyen draws a distinct structural parallel between Israel's actions in Gaza, characterized by indiscriminate killing and ethnic cleansing, and Trump's rhetoric of deportation.
• 🚫 He argues that the mindset of not distinguishing between enemy and civilian is genocidal and a policy of ethnic cleansing, aiming to get rid of Palestinians in Gaza.
• 🇺🇸 This mirrors Trump's desire to deport non-white people, indicating a continuation of white nationalism and white supremacy in American policy and rhetoric.