| Image by Elaine J.E. Degale
War is Peace
On March 31, 2025, Senator Cory Booker delivered one of the longest speeches in modern U.S. history: 25 hours of protesting Trump’s economic policies and Elon Musk’s newly formed Department of Government Efficiency. Booker warned that American democracy was under siege not by tanks but by tax codes. “At stake right now are some of our most basic American principles – principles that so many Americans understand are worth fighting for, worth standing for, worth speaking up for,” said Booker.
Less than 24 hours after the historic speech, President Donald Trump announced a global trade overhaul in the form of “kind reciprocal” tariffs, calling it “America’s Liberation Day!” The next day, the Wall Street Journal reported a 2,200-point stock market tumble after China announced it would retaliate with a 34% levy on U.S. imports, leading many experts to believe this geopolitical move may be a public rebuke of Trump’s efforts to undermine America’s democratic order.
However, perhaps an opportunity exists in Trump’s resurrection of a neoliberal order in the Digital age. In the face of historic tariff tinkering impacting global trade, Manila’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) noted that the Philippine economy was “the least hit” among Asian countries. “The new tariffs also put the Philippines in a more advantageous position… specifically for certain export products,” said Philippine trade secretary Cristina Roque. She also said the Philippines can now offer “enhanced market access” for key U.S. export interests, such as automobiles, dairy products, frozen meat, and soybeans.
Many have described Trump’s recent Liberation Day policies as a geopolitical move aimed at destabilizing global markets. I don’t believe that is true, since the key trade facets of the global economy, such as the dominance of the American petrodollar and the oil sector, seem largely undisturbed by these recent developments. Mobile app remittances saw little change in the dollar’s valuation. Euronews reported that, in the aftermath of Trump’s tariffs, crude oil prices fell by 6% and OPEC output rose. Eight key members of the OPEC group, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman, have decided to increase output amid a tense geopolitical situation orchestrated by Trump to defend the dominance of the American dollar.
Freedom is Slavery
Many Filipinos were raised to see life in America as the ultimate symbol of success. Traveling to American shores could be a badge of honor—proof that you had made it. For many, the “American Dream” begins in childhood and comes at a steep cost: sacrificing comfort, community, and even identity to reach a fairytale land of milk and honey, where poverty supposedly vanishes and opportunity grows on trees.
But opportunity —the foundation of the American Dream —is evaporating at stunning speed.
Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, he has made significant strides in resurrecting the neoliberal agenda. Reaganomics—emphasizing tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation, and reductions in social spending—has found new life in Trump 2.0. This agenda aims to promote the illusion of a merit-based economy while obscuring the structural barriers that limit opportunity. In a well-functioning democracy, opportunity is typically defined by access to strong academic institutions, equitable education, and comprehensive social services.
In this resurrection of the neoliberal spectre, Vice President J.D. Vance plays the ordinary American man, living proof that if you “work hard,” you too can ascend the American caste system — or at least publish a bestselling memoir about your grit. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has become the poster child of the New Money oligarchy: an immigrant technocrat who claims to hate bureaucracy while recently accepting $5.9 billion in government contracts. His friend Jeff Bezos got $2.3 billion to keep opportunity equal in America.
“For the neoliberal agenda to prevail, people need to buy into the idea that hard work is enough to make it in America. This, of course, is not true because poverty and a lack of access to resources eliminate mobility between social classes. However, in the consciousness of the folks who voted for Trump, Musk and Bezos prove that the American Dream is alive and well.”
But let’s not be fooled by the glow of innovation that these two caricatures of the American Dream promote. The very same week these contracts were announced, the Trump administration slashed $2.9 billion from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), eliminating over 2,400 jobs — a decision as logical as building a space rocket while tearing down the fire alarm.
And yet, millions still believe in the American Dream — a concept that thrives on selective memory. This myth convinces us that anyone can succeed with hard work. However, reality shows us that your ZIP code in America predicts success better than your IQ. Or that Black and Latino families in the U.S. have a median wealth of less than one-tenth that of white families. Still, the myth persists, especially for the privileged few and the “deserving poor,” who are conditioned to shamelessly capitalize on their proximity to whiteness as a virtue so they can vote against their own interest.
Ignorance is Strength
Despite education being the surest way out of poverty, the Trump administration has decided that dismantling the Department of Education and eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies is conducive to equal opportunity. For the neoliberal agenda to prevail, people need to buy into the idea that hard work is enough to make it in America. This, of course, is not true because poverty and limited access to resources prevent mobility between social classes. However, in the consciousness of the folks who voted for Trump, Musk, and Bezos, the American Dream is alive and well.
The most curious aspects of the slew of recent Trump policies lie at the nexus of defunding education, gutting the CDC, and lowering oil prices. Before Musk’s foray into politics, he was very vocal about his disenchantment with the U.S. education system. “I think the value of a college education is somewhat overweighted,” he said. “Too many people spend four years, accumulate a ton of debt, and often don’t have any useful skills they can apply afterward.” With this logic, perhaps we could expect an elimination of all student loan debt in America.
Most education technologies powered by AI to be more learner-centric were refined during the global pandemic. After Trump’s tariffs last week, oil prices fell to pandemic levels. One can understand why there is particular anxiety in reading about the repeated cuts to the CDC and the global health infrastructure that the United States has built through agencies like USAID, another agency facing deep funding cuts.
Trump’s economic policies last week prove why Social Security should never be privatized. It must remain immune from the whims of greedy politicians who ignore the emoluments clause to enrich themselves at the expense of the American public. War doesn’t start with tanks — it starts with bad ideas backed by billionaires and voters convinced that the system’s broken because of immigrants or feminists or people like Cory Booker.
We should follow the lead of these college students and flood the streets wearing masks.
And that, apparently, is enough to cost Harvard $9 billion in federal funding because everything Orwell wrote about is becoming brave enough to express itself in our shared reality. An America, much like Oceania, where:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Elaine Joy Edaya Degale is a Black-Filipina writer and lecturer at community colleges within the City University of New York (CUNY) and has an Ed.M. and M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University.
She graduated cum laude from Mount Holyoke College, where she studied International Relations and Development, and continues to support literacy and food programming efforts in Indigenous communities through her Community-Based organization, OperationMerienda.org.
