A pretext is a false reason for taking a particular, often illegal, action. It hides a questionable motive by concealing it behind something that has the appearance of legitimacy. The Trump administration uses pretext repeatedly to confuse the public about its real intent.
The most recent example is the completely false assertion that cities governed by Democrats are “war zones” that demand the use of the military to bring order and to protect ICE agents and federal buildings. Reviewing the claims made by administration lawyers to justify sending the National Guard to Oregon, a federal judge appointed by Trump concluded that the description of the city was “untethered from the facts” and that there was no legal case to support use of the military against the explicit rejection from local political leaders. The same pretext was invoked to invade Washington, D.C., and is also being used to attack Chicago. The real motive behind the pretext is to create the very violence the administration falsely asserted by giving ICE agents and National Guard free reign to assault citizens without legal warrants or protections against false arrests. When the inevitable resistance emerges, mass arrests and violent suppression threaten to turn city streets into exactly the “hellscapes” that served as Trump’s pretext in the first place. He threatens to invoke the 1807 “Insurrection Act” that would effectively permit him to declare martial law, use the military inside the country and, potentially, cancel the next election.
Trump and his henchmen have routinely used pretext to disguise their real intentions. Do you remember these repeated slogans and phrases: Russia hoax, fake news, witch-hunt, “drain the swamp,” deep state, “waste, fraud and abuse,” “the enemy within,” Democrats are “totally unhinged” or a “wacko-mob” or “radical left lunatics,” and so on. Each of these distortions are designed to disguise their real motivation, to dismantle the federal government and concentrate power in the presidency following the plan in Project 2025. The sustained assault on universities under false or exaggerated claims of antisemitism were used to justify slashing federal grant support for completely unrelated research and to promote an anti-intellectual agenda. The pretext of foreigners ripping off American businesses was the fiction Trump used to impose tariffs that are actually a tax on consumers. He has no legal right to apply tariffs, which is the sole responsibility of Congress.
Perhaps the most pernicious pretext has been the claim that immigrants have invaded America, taken jobs from citizens and drained health care resources. Ever since Trump descended the escalator to announce his first presidential campaign, he has consistently repeated the outrageous lie that undocumented residents are gang members or mentally ill released by other countries to occupy American cities. With the backstage direction of his “advisor,” Steven Miller, a hate-filled ideologue who wants his boss to have dictatorial power, Trump has inflated the budget for ICE and allowed its agents to violate the rights of citizens and immigrants alike.
Pretext has been used throughout American political history, often to disastrous results. The sinking of the Maine in Havana harbor in 1898 was falsely attributed to Spanish forces by the scandal seeking “yellow journalism” of the day, leading President William McKinley to declare war on Spain. Inflated language about China’s promoting world dominance contributed to the “domino theory” that justified U.S. intervention in Vietnam under Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. George W. Bush used the pretext of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as a pretext for a military intervention in 2003, starting a war that lasted almost nine years.
What distinguishes Trump’s use of pretext is a massive propaganda industry, from Fox News to right wing social media, that perpetuates the lies even as evidence mounts that the claims are false. An acquiescent Congress and Supreme Court have further permitted and even promoted his deceptions. In fact, both arms of the federal government have actively engaged in the creation of additional pretexts. The conservative majority of the Supreme Court uses the pretext of “originalism,” a fringe theory that judicial decisions should stick to the exact intent of the framers of the Constitution, to advance its own disastrous agenda. The leader of the House is using the pretext of a recess of his own making to delay seating a newly elected representative from Arizona who threatens to be the deciding vote to release all the Epstein files.
Pretext has become “alternative truth,” and this administration has proven adept at advancing an agenda that, under any other presidency, would be rejected by large majorities. The consequence is that there is no actual balance of power left as the Republican Party rolls over for a wannabe autocrat. The historic turnout for the second “No Kings” protest on Oct. 17 is an indication that the majority of Americans aren’t buying either the pretexts or the resulting abuses of power. This rejection will only increase as the real impact of the Republican cuts to essential programs begins to hit more and more Americans.
Donald Joralemon, emeritus professor at Smith College, lives in Conway.