Malice and spite

Donald Trump may have failed in his bid for re-election, but it seems he is not yet done cementing his divisive legacy. As he counts down his last days in the White House, he has embarked on a spree of controversial pardons that simply reek of malice and spite. While all of those Trump ‘exonerated’ are questionable figures in their own right, his most reprehensible pardon concerns four contractors of the erstwhile Blackwater private military company who were responsible for one of the darkest episodes of the Iraq War. In what came to be known as the Nisour Square massacre, the trigger-happy quartet gunned down 14 unarmed civilians without provocation. Their youngest victim was just nine-year old.

Convicting the four men took long drawn-out, uphill legal battle. In one fell swoop, the outgoing US president has shattered any hope the victims’ heirs had for accountability. But Trump’s move is more than just a gross miscarriage of justice. There is much more to unpack in his decision to pardon the war criminals. On one hand, it is emblematic of Trump’s brand of politics as a whole. When the four Blackwater men were convicted, a certain misguided segment of the US populace lionised them as “American heroes wrongfully reprimanded for performing their duties”. In trying to hold on to his seat of power, Trump has shown a constant willingness to harness the worst forms of populist rhetoric, consequences be damned. His approach in response to police excesses against American minorities was one such example, and in that respect, this pardon is no different.

But there is also a seemingly personal aspect to Trump’s move, one that paints him as deeply spiteful man. After a federal judge dismissed initial charges against the men in 2009, then vice-president and current President-elect Joe Biden announced the Obama administration would retry them. His comments led conservative US media to label the contractors the ‘Biden Four’. Whether out of spite or simply to shore up popular support among his extremist support base, ultimately Trump’s pardon, like the rest of his actions while president, will only erode any prestige and respect the US has left before the rest of the world.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2020.

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