In 2020, in response to the riots that followed the murder of 46-year-old Black man George Floyd, Donald Trump declared himself the “president of law and order.” During the same speech, he threatened to use the military to suppress the civil unrest that erupted after a police officer killed Floyd.
One American pundit argued that Trump was “tapping into a long history of presidents leaning on the idea of strict adherence to the rule of law to squelch civil disobedience, often by minority communities in the country.”
His fixation continues in his second presidency. A convicted felon himself, Trump recently proposed a plan to exile Americans who are repeat offenders. Notably, America has never used exile as a form of punishment.
