Trump slavery would have to be slavery like nobody’s ever seen before. Flashy. Covered in gold. Televised, of course. It would also be something that he would get away with brazenly while flagrantly shoving it in everybody’s face. That is his style. Everything he does is like this. And just as people start to figure it out, he’ll misdirect or steal the spotlight from victims of these heinous acts while pretending to be the savior of mankind. This is happening. Right. Now.
He even says that “if you look at it that way we should win the case.” That is a double entendre and he may be talking in one sense about the birthright citizenship case; but he is also covering up the scandal with El Salvador.
Donald Trump spoke about the Supreme Court case challenging birthright citizenship, and in true Trump fashion, he said the word “slavery” over and over again. Repeatedly. To a level like nobody’s ever seen before.
Slippery Slopes Are For Slippery Folks
Trump is not wrong about the birthright citizenship case’s historical ties to slavery. Birthright citizenship was a direct response to the horrors of chattel slavery. But, pay attention to the move he’s making. By invoking slavery repeatedly while tying it to himself – as the one “fighting” (in the form of legal arguments about citizenship) – he’s changing the narrative about his participation in the slave trade.
There was even rhetoric the administration used to describe one of the most known victims of this situation. Karoline Leavitt, current press secretary, has now said that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was “engaged in human trafficking.” This is something that most people would view as an accusation. However, since I know how Trump and people like him operate, I can tell you that this is actually a defensive statement. If the Trump administration (as I believe) has traded Garcia like a slave to El Salvador, is is engaged in human trafficking – as a victim. A subject. A piece of property. No wonder why Bukele said he “can’t” return this person.
Trump Repositioning “Slavery” To Suit His Business Deals
Many commentators like the guys on Pod Save America, Kyle Kulinski, Breaking Points, and others in the indie liberal media space have referred to the “Terrorist Confinement Center” in El Salvador as a “slave labor” facility or a “gulag,” or even “slave labor gulag.” They are therefore harkening back to the Soviet era Russian prison system that often intentionally locked up innocent people as a means of instilling terror internationally about their brutality.
They step right up to the line but refuse to cross it. They go right up to the door but won’t ring the bell. Their firey speeches amount to nothing on this topic. The entire political media ecosystem is a personal connection or two away from having read this blog, but they all refuse to acknowledge the work of this publication and how we have made this point razor sharp. That injustice to our right to free speech is one thing. But the callousness towards me and the independence of this publication is actually indifference towards the human suffering these people opine about.
They joke, but their humor isn’t funny, because they don’t even recognize the reality deeply enough to comment on it.
Listen Hear, and Listen Well
In the last few weeks, I’ve articulated clearly (and Write In Freedom is the only place that’s been made so clear) that Trump and Bukele have created a slave trade. It’s not a slave labor gulag without slaves. Conspiracy theories are clogging the independent media space with satellite photos of an area they claim is evidence it’s a “death camp.” The evidence of that is scant. But the reality of a slave trade going on is simply between the lines. Between these lines you are reading right now, and between the media lines that you don’t understand.
The Ability to Stop This Is Actually In Our Hands
If Trump can convince the press and the public that the real conversation about slavery is this birthright case – where he gets to position himself as challenging a supposed legacy of injustice – then it becomes much harder for anyone to call out what he’s actually doing elsewhere. If people ignore this publication – or worse, censor it or plagiarize it poorly—nothing changes. I’ve spent the past five years fighting that exact dynamic: a press industry that refuses to accept me as an outsider. But that resistance must end now.
Because you might be able to rob me of credibility or acknowledgement in this case. Your editors might be able to contort my point into something you can own; but it won’t be right. The madness will continue, and things will keep deteriorating beyond what’s already about as bad as it could get. The President of the United States of America is personally trading slaves with foreign leaders while using our government resources to do it. All while pretending he himself is Abraham Lincoln. At best, he’s Jefferson Davis at this point.
Modern Slavery May Look Different Than Chattel Slavery
Too often people misconfigure what slavery, human trafficking, and indentured servitude are, because it looks more “civilized” in a lot of places now. The line can be blurry. Some people may think about Chinese factories with horrible conditions where they make things like electronics. I am not here to excuse or empower those.
However, those people in general were not abducted from foreign nations against their will in exchange for money between nations. They do earn a living, even if it is meager. You can say it’s slave labor in China if you wish, and you could say that the United States benefits or trades in it. But even in those cases, the United States buys the product, not the people. Once again, I’ll reiterate, I am not excusing poor working conditions in China, Asia more broadly, or anywhere else in the world. Buying products from such places using labor in conditions we find reprehensible may be enabling the process. Yet that still is very different than purchasing human beings or selling them.
The Morality of Slavery vs. Buying Slave-Made Goods
How different? The 13th amendment abolished slavery. It enables prison labor – in America – but there is no provision in our laws for the President of the United States to send citizens or non-citizens in exchange for value; to a foreign labor camp or prison. Let me be explicitly clear: Trump is not fighting slavery. He is benefiting in it. Donald John Trump is personally profiting from slavery and the selling of people.
Think about that: the President of the United States of America is right now personally benefiting from deals that send human beings – including U.S. citizens – to a confinement facility in El Salvador labeled for terrorists – where they may be forced into labor, under a regime widely condemned for human rights abuses.
That’s slavery. Right here. Right now. No equivocation.
It’s Not An Immigration Policy, It’s A Grotesque New Business Model
Another one of these distinctions that the press and public and politicians are playing right into Trump’s hand with has to do with the concept of immigration. It is under the context of an emergency order to stop the flow of fentanyl from our Northern & Southern borders in conjunction with the Alien Enemies Act that Trump has ushered in this slave pipeline. If a person is trafficked as a slave, they were not deported. Those things are incongruous.
But if the debate which wages between the opposition party, online social media networks, and courts – is about immigration policy and deportation – we will all lose. If, however, the people in the El Salvador trade were viewed as property of the President (as he thinks of them) trading to become property of Nayib Bukele – things would be very very different.
But if you only hear that word – slavery – in the context of Trump’s legal battles, you won’t hear it where it matters most: in the violent, flesh-for-profit system he’s building through informal, unconstitutional international arrangements.
Don’t let Trump steal “slavery” and turn it into a shield. He’s not fighting slavery.
He’s rebranding it – under his name. So, let him own that on his way out of office. But do not wait until mid-terms of 2028, if you’re Democrats or Independents or even Republicans. That would suggest you are complicit in a slave trade so long as you can use that as leverage to become an elected official again. To me, and to others, that’s just as sickening. It is long passed time to impeach Donald John Trump.
Tell your elected officials in Washington to Impeach Donald John Trump immediately – and tell them why.
