OPINION

The Turd Reich and what it means for Scotland

Elon Musk’s controversial gesture at Trump’s inauguration sparked accusations of Nazi symbolism, while Trump’s extremist policies and global provocations highlight an alarming shift towards far-right authoritarianism. The world watches anxiously.

Wee Ginger Dug

Wee Ginger Dug

— 6 min read


The Turd Reich and what it means for Scotland
Credit: Dreamstime/Ifeelstock

O ver in America, it’s week one of the Turd Reich. Amongst the lowlights of Monday’s inauguration of Donald Trump as American president was the sight of an overly energetic Elon Musk excitedly making what looked very much like a Nazi salute to a crowd of Trump supporters at an inauguration event. The gesture, which Musk made a number of times, was identified as a Nazi salute by both the Israeli press and far-right antisemitic white supremacists, two groups which are not otherwise often in agreement.

Musk’s fanboys have tried to claim that it was no such thing, merely a clumsy attempt to hail, or should that be heil, his supporters in the crowd and give them his heart. However, there are videos on the internet of white supremacists making the exact same gesture Musk did, hand on heart and then arm extended in a Nazi salute. Those Nazis were very clear about what Musk meant.

Comparison of Elon Musk's gesture vs. Nazis

Musk could stomp on a bag full of newborn kittens and useful idiots would make excuses for him. Musk must be either a Nazi sympathiser or a moron, although there’s considerable overlap between these categories. The denials might have more credibility if Musk was noted for his commitment to fighting racism and bigotry, and for his commitment to real freedom of speech and opinion, not just that which agrees with him, but this is a man who habitually platforms extreme right racist conspiracy theories, supports far-right parties across Europe and who altered Twitter’s algorithms to boost racist and far-right content.

Was the gesture a Nazi salute? If the jackboot fits. Musk is engaged in an explicit and concerted effort to project the most extreme far-right political groups across Western democracy into power and he particularly loves the German far-right.

But according to Musk and the media, it was all just our lying leftist eyes. We didn’t see him do a Nazi salute. It was a “controversial and awkward gesture” that “sparked debate”, and I just awkwardly invaded Poland by accident when I was on the way to Aldi. I mean, who hasn’t done that?

At the inauguration itself, multi-billionaire tech oligarchs got front-row seats while Trump’s ordinary supporters were literally locked out in the cold. Some metaphors need no further explanation.

Trump himself issued a slew of presidential executive orders lifted straight from the far-right Project 2025 playbook, which he had denied having anything to do with prior to his election victory.

One order was to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, something Trump doesn’t actually have the power to do as it is not an internal body of water entirely within the USA. The rest of the world doesn’t need to go along with Trump’s grandiose fantasy. Instead, we should call it the Gulf Between Trump’s Promises and What He Delivers. Trump voters are going to be even more let down than those who voted for Starmer in the expectation of change.

Other orders include withdrawing the USA from the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organisation, mass deportations of undocumented migrants, and the reclassification of thousands of federal employees as political appointees, meaning civil servants can be fired and replaced by Trump loyalists. There were the expected attacks on the trans community and orders to rip up measures aimed at tackling structural racism. Women’s reproductive rights are next in the firing line. The US government website reproductiverights.gov went offline on the evening of the inauguration, the site contained information on access to abortion and reproductive health care and a Know-Your-Rights patient fact sheet. Search results for abortion have been scrubbed from the federal Department of Health and Human Services website.

It’s not just women and minorities who should be afraid, the anti-vaxxers and climate change deniers are now in charge of the White House. Efforts to combat the climate emergency just took a huge step backwards. Trump effectively declared war on Panama by insisting that the USA will seize the Panama Canal.

No one had America declared war on Denmark and Canada on their 2025 bingo cards, but that’s where we are now. While Trump has spoken of using economic force in order to pressure Canadians into agreeing to annexation by the USA, he has not ruled out using the military to gain control of the Panama Canal and Greenland. It’s quite possible that one reason Trump wants to annexe Canada is because the combined area of Canada and the USA is 7,651,842 sq miles, which would make it the largest country in the world, much bigger than Russia with its 6,601,670 sq miles. Control of Greenland would add a further 836,330 sq miles to Trump’s fiefdom for a total of 8,488,172 sq miles, 1,886,502 sq miles larger than Russia. That would appeal to Trump’s addled brain and his egoistical desire to always be the biggest.

Trump also pardoned the January 6 rioters, including those convicted of violent offences. Apparently, it’s OK to attack the police as long as you’re a far-right conspiracy theorist. He has signalled that those who carry out politically motivated violence on his behalf will face no penalty. It’s going to be a rough four years, and Trump and his team have only just gotten started on their transformation of America into a far-right oligarchy.

The world is now an even more uncertain place than it already was. Trump has said he is not confident of the ceasefire in Gaza holding – absolutely no one is – and added that Gaza needs to be rebuilt “in a different way.” He did not elaborate but given that he is surrounded by advisors who support the Israeli far right, that “different way” is unlikely to be one which is beneficial to the Palestinians.

The American NBC network reported over the weekend that the Trump administration is considering a plan to relocate some of Gaza’s two million Palestinians outside of the besieged enclave while the territory is rebuilt. Indonesia is among the locations under discussion for where some of them could go, according to a transition official who spoke to NBC.  Palestinians rightly fear that if they are removed from Gaza, their ‘temporary’ removal would become permanent and Israel would refuse to allow them to return. Any attempt to remove Palestinians from Gaza would most likely be resisted and violence would ensue.

Trump has previously spoken about the great ‘beachfront real estate’ Gaza offers. It is unlikely he sees a place for Palestinians in his redeveloped Gaza, other than as a labour force with minimal rights employed doing the most menial jobs.

Anyone who thinks that Scotland can leverage Trump’s Scottish connections in order to get a better deal for Scotland is deluding themselves. Trump spent a mere minute and a half visiting his mother’s childhood home in Lewis on a visit in 2008, most of which was taken up with a photo shoot. He has never been back. All of Trump’s dealings are purely transactional and based on what is in it for Donald Trump. Trump’s Scottish links did not prevent him from slapping tariffs on Scotch whisky the last time he was in power. Like any bully, Trump will try to take advantage if he perceives weakness, and he would treat any attempt to curry special treatment based on his Scottish family ties as a weakness.

What goes for Trump goes double for Elon Musk, a man whose mental stability must now be called into question. Whether or not Musk’s gesture was, in fact, a Nazi salute, there is no question that Musk has a habit of using his obscene wealth to promote fascists and racists. He spreads racist conspiracy theories and misinformation and is quite prepared to meddle in the affairs of other countries in order to bring down democratically elected governments. Musk is antithetical to everything that the great majority of the Scottish independence movement stands for and the independent Scotland we seek to build. Anyone who thinks he could be good for Scotland needs to be asked if they are right in the head. Inviting him into Scotland is like inviting a face-eating leopard into your home; don’t be surprised when it eats your face.

PUBLIC SQUARE UK

GOING FURTHER


Sources:

▪ This piece was first published in Wee Ginger Dug and re-published in PUBLIC SQUARE UK on 22 January 2025 under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. | The author writes in a personal capacity.
▪ Cover: Dreamstime/Ifeelstock.







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