An examination of Donald Trump’s “Drain the Swamp” campaign, the riots that followed the death of George Floyd in 2020, Democratic politicians’ responses, donations by Biden campaign staff to a bail fund, calls to defund the police, and the struggle to restore law and order.

July 9, 2020
The “Monsters” Trump Confronted in America: Politicians Pandering to Black Voters, the Political Structure Behind the Riots, and the Collapse of Law and Order
The following is taken from an article by Soju Watanabe published in the monthly magazine WiLL under the title “Trump’s Enemies: Their Appalling True Faces.”
Soju Watanabe is one of the world’s leading researchers of modern and contemporary Japanese–American history.
This article should be read not only by the Japanese people but also by people throughout the world.
It presents facts and arguments that people who rely solely on news programs produced by NHK and the reporting of newspapers such as the Asahi Shimbun would never be able to learn.
When this article was published in 2020, large-scale protests and riots spread across the United States following the death of a black man in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
While peaceful demonstrations raised legitimate questions concerning racial discrimination and police conduct, looting, arson, and attacks on public buildings and police facilities occurred in some cities.
Japan’s major media organizations, however, could hardly be said to have adequately examined responsibility for the riots and looting, the responses of Democratic politicians, or the effects that campaigns to reduce police funding could have on public safety.
What Soju Watanabe revealed in this article was that the struggle between President Trump and his opponents was not merely a partisan confrontation between Republicans and Democrats.
It was a struggle between a political movement that placed importance on employment, public safety, law, and order, and forces that appeared willing to exploit social disorder for political advantage.
During his first three and a half years in office, Trump had fought the “monsters” entrenched within the United States.
The next monsters to be defeated were “politicians who pandered to black voters.”
Biden’s Sinister Intentions
Before the 2016 presidential election, even among Japanese conservatives, few people understood the essential nature of Donald Trump as a candidate.
In the presidential election scheduled for November of that year, many conservatives hoped that President Trump would be reelected.
There was probably no need to explain the reasons once again.
The central pledge of candidate Trump’s campaign was to “Drain the Swamp”—to clear the filth out of Washington and eliminate corruption.
It was a declaration that he would cut into the entrenched structure of the political, bureaucratic, and corporate triangle, as well as the special-interest groups rooted in Washington.
The first three and a half years of the Trump administration were a battle against the monsters that emerged from that swamp.
The author wrote that he had “enjoyed” watching the political drama in which monsters protected by the Democratic Party were defeated one after another.
The latest monsters to appear were politicians who pandered to black voters.
At the end of May, a black man died while being restrained by police officers in Minneapolis.
The incident triggered riots in cities throughout the United States, and Watanabe argued that the cities most severely affected were governed by Democratic mayors.
Rioters looted stores and even attacked police facilities.
On May 29 and May 30, at least thirteen members of Joe Biden’s campaign staff posted on Twitter that they had donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, an organization assisting with bail payments for people arrested in connection with the unrest.
President Trump accused them of tolerating and financially supporting disturbances that were destroying businesses and ruining people’s lives and jobs.
Watanabe suggested that the Biden campaign may have calculated that a weakened economy and deteriorating public safety would help it attract more votes.
That position was the complete opposite of President Trump’s emphasis on employment, economic activity, and the restoration of social order.
What was also difficult to understand was that, instead of demanding an examination of inadequate security arrangements during the riots, a widespread campaign arose calling for police budgets to be reduced.
Mayors who spoke as though President Trump himself were responsible for the riots joined that campaign.
Police officers on the front lines then became angry.
Watanabe cited a case in a city governed by a Democratic mayor in which fifty-seven members of a special police unit collectively submitted their resignations.
Police labor unions had traditionally supported the Democratic Party, but it was possible that they would shift toward President Trump, who was calling for the restoration of “Law and Order.”
The argument presented here does not deny the existence of racial discrimination.
It is self-evident that all citizens, including black Americans, must be treated equally under the law.
However, when violence, looting, and arson are committed in the name of protesting racial discrimination, that does not mean politicians or election campaigns are justified in tolerating or directly or indirectly supporting such conduct.
When politicians exploit racial issues and attempt to gain votes by pandering to a particular racial group, divisions within society become even deeper.
The people who suffer are not large corporations or wealthy politicians.
They are local residents whose stores are destroyed, workers who lose their jobs, and ordinary citizens who are forced to live amid deteriorating public safety.
When problems exist within police organizations, those problems must be specifically investigated and the necessary reforms implemented.
However, if police budgets are indiscriminately reduced and the police themselves are weakened, the greatest harm will be inflicted on ordinary citizens living in communities where public safety is already fragile.
President Trump’s call for “Law and Order” was not merely an election slogan.
It represented the most fundamental responsibility of a nation and its political leaders: protecting the lives, property, jobs, businesses, and communities of its people.
If political forces believed that continued riots and disorder would increase public dissatisfaction with the administration and improve their chances in an election, then they could only be described as the true “monsters” entrenched within American society.
To be continued.