Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Politics

Trump’s New Spanish Empire

President Donald Trump: Imperialist, Oligarch, and McKinley’s Biggest Fan.

Donald Trump speaks at an event about his plan for defeating Kamala Harris in November. Credit: Shutterstock/Jonah Elkowitz
Credit: Shutterstock/Jonah Elkowitz

If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past decade, you’re woefully aware of the U.S. President Donald Trump’s sentiments towards people who aren’t white. Once brushed off as ignorant, his efforts to stir disharmony and mistrust are now revealing their true intentions: an imperialist agenda.

The very abridged headlines of Trump’s political rhetoric include accusing former President Barack Obama of not being born in the United States and claiming that former Vice President Kamala Harris “happened to turn black.” He also characterized Mexicans as rapists, criminals, and drug dealers, and Middle Eastern and North African people as dangerous—conflating these nationalities with a terroristic identity.

He proceeded to put his mouth where his money was, implementing the building of a wall along the border of Mexico and the United States, enforcing mass deportations, and denying the immigration of refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers to the United States.

It is a shame to see someone who believes himself to be a “genius” resorting to fear-mongering and the recruiting of radical white supremacist groups to gain power.

Trump’s latest moves are hyper focused on the erasure war against Hispanic, Latino, and Native American people. When coupled with his imperialist ideologies, they become immensely worrying.

The “Gulf of America”

The Realistic Map Of Gulf Of Mexico. Credit: Shutterstock / hyotographics

Perhaps the most infamous of his efforts is Executive Order 14170, “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness.” This order attempts to rename of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. He rationalizes this decision based on the arguments that the gulf is home to fruitful commercial fisheries, American tourism, the American maritime industry, and the production of crude-oil production and natural gas.

He fails to mention that the United States largely got its economic start in the gulf by way of the African slave trade.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum laughed off this outlandish idea. She maintains the belief that the rest of the world will continue to refer to the basin as the Gulf of Mexico, as recognized by the International Hydrographic Organization.

The Gulf of Mexico has most commonly been referred to as such since the mid 16th century. The very word, “Mexico,” is derived from the Nahuatl name ancient Aztecs gave to themselves, “Mexica.”

It seems Trump wishes to follow in the now fallen Spanish Empire’s footsteps, which forge a long path of colonization. His idea to rename the Gulf of Mexico isn’t even original. The Spanish Empire made a failed attempt to dub the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of New Spain.

“Mount McKinley”

Mount Denali
Denali or Mount McKinley? Credit: National Park Service / nps.gov

In 1896, a supporter of former President McKinley dubbed Mount Denali as Mount McKinley in his honor. In 2015, the United States Board on Geographic Names restored the original Athabaskan name, Denali. This was because the native Koyukon people had referred to the mountain as such for centuries. McKinley had also “never visited, nor did he have any significant historical connection to, the mountain or to Alaska.”

However, The Executive Order 14170 has already successfully re-renamed Mount Denali as Mount McKinley.

It is unsurprising that Trump wishes to honor McKinley. Under his leadership, the United States enjoyed rapid economic and territorial growth. It is due, in part, to the Spanish-American War, where the United States used the Spanish Empire’s decline to claim its colonies: Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and Cuba. McKinley promised Cuba independence, but made little effort to make good. He also took ownership of Hawaii and began the negotiations for the purchase of the Panama Canal.

With the knowledge of Trump’s expansionist desire to claim Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal, in addition to Executive Order 14162, which orders the state of Alaska and to “drill baby, drill,” the renaming of Mount Denali no longer seems so random. It is more than racially motivated, more than a fan-club for McKinley or the empires of old.

It is a precise, hellbent crusade towards imperialism: a rather antiquated policy that has been largely abandoned in the United States for over one hundred years.

The Cuban American Perspective

Many are quick to assume that all Hispanic and Latino individuals are vehemently opposed to Trump’s policies, mostly because he has made his prejudice crystal clear and exceedingly public.

As a person of Cuban descent from the city of Miami, I can vouch that Cuban Americans who oppose Trump are in the minority.

One might also assume that because Cuban Americans are either refugees or descendants of refugees, that President Trump’s many anti-immigration policies would pose somewhat of a deterrent. This is not the case.

Cubans have made a fairly unpopular name for ourselves among other Hispanic and Latino communities. We have enjoyed the privileges of the Cuban Adjustment Act, which expedites the path towards attaining American citizenship. Many Cuban Americans have allowed this advantage to get to their heads.

Many believe themselves to be superior to other Hispanic and Latino people, and often align themselves with white Americans. Internalized racism and xenophobia led many Cuban Americans to support Trump’s anti-immigration policies and racist beliefs.

May 11, 1963: Residents Welcomed Fidel. Credit: Shutterstock / emkaplin

Cuban Americans sport overwhelmingly Republican beliefs, due, in large part, to a trauma-borne fear of communism.

After taking power of Cuba, Fidel Castro was able to initially improve education, healthcare, and racial relations. However, the ravages of mass unemployment, food shortages, an unstable economy, extreme censorship, disenfranchisement, and the promises of prison labor camps, torture, and/or execution for anyone who dared to rebel quickly overshadowed these improvements.

While Cubans lived in poverty and persecution, Castro relished in a life of luxury and excess. He reserved the healthcare promised to the Cuban people for himself, his family, and his effective oligarchy.

Fear Works

It is difficult to blame Cuban Americans for fearing similar political ideologies because of the severe trauma they faced. But should we blame them for failing to recognize propaganda when it’s right in front of their faces? There certainly are chilling similarities between Castro’s dictatorship and Trump’s leadership.

Castro was never an imperialist, but maybe that’s because he wanted to save his money for his private yacht. He was never a true communist either, but Cuban Americans associate him with the ideology. Trump says the left is communistic, so they hate the left, and throw their trust in the Republican party.

But how have they allowed themselves to overlook America’s steady descent into oligarchy? How have they allowed themselves to be turned against other Hispanic and Latino people? Are they so easily bought that all it takes is the absence of torture and execution and a half-hearted welcoming into white America?

It hadn’t even been a full day after Trump’s official appointment when he removed the Spanish language version of the official White House website. I am away from Miami for college at the moment, but I can guess that Cuban Americans are agreeing with Trump’s belief that “we should speak English in America.”

Where do we go from here?

Thankfully, there is still some hope for redemption. Congress and the courts are able to challenge executive orders. In fact, a federal judge has already blocked Executive Order 14156, which attempts to end birthright citizenship. It has also garnered four lawsuits backed by 22 states. These contenders believe it is incompatible with the Fourteenth Amendment, making it effectively unconstitutional.


Maybe those with their heads in the sand are correct after all: maybe President Trump is not a racist. Perhaps imperialism simply requires racism to succeed.

How else can one justify the theft and abuse of land and people?

Hopefully, the people under Trump’s spell of propaganda and fear-mongering wake up and read a history book soon. The American Dream is homesick.

Written By

Hello! My name is Juliet Pis and I am a senior at the University of Florida. I am an English major in anticipation of law school, and aspire to publish short stories and poetry as well!

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement
Advertisement

You May Also Like

Sport

It’s the middle of February, and you can already hear madness in the air. The 2025 NCAA Tournament is shaping up to be a...

Sport

Let's reimagine some key moments from the 2024 NFL season.

News

What are some of the most common phrases used by the co-leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, CEO, billionaire Elon Musk?  “Interesting.”  “💯” ...

Sport

A star-studded Ring Magazine Boxing Awards saw some of the greats be appreciated for being great - specially Mr Oleksandr Usyk.