Luso-American Frank Ferreira, who left the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in collision with the leadership, considered that a re-election of President Donald Trump will be disastrous for the country.
“Despite some achievements or the perceived achievements of the administration, a second term of ‘Trumpism’ would be nothing less than a dystopia, as the philosopher John Stuart Mill explained, a place too bad to exist”, he told Lusa Frank Ferreira.
At a time when the country “is asking for unity and progress”, four more years of this administration “will only prolong a long and gray winter”, said the political scientist, considering that this is a period of “regression” like the process of dismissal managed to stop.
“A second term will encourage the President even more to abuse the power conferred by the presidency and continue to enrich himself and his family for the public,” he said. “Four more years and he will do to the country what he did to his business – bankruptcy”.
Ferreira recalled that the electorate “is extremely polarized” and there are a number of issues at the forefront, especially the covid-19 pandemic, which has already killed more than 192,000 Americans, the unemployment of millions of people, which has also led to loss of health insurance, and protests for racial justice. “A lot depends on the outcome of this election,” he said.
Political scientist and specialist in intergovernmental and congressional affairs, Frank Ferreira resigned in March this year from FEMA (federal emergency management agency), which is part of DHS, “because of a toxic and hostile, harassment and retaliation, ”he said. “All for speaking out against these conditions and the ineptitude of the agency’s leadership.”
“I was mistreated by FEMA. You don’t do that to someone who has worked there for 15 years, ”he said. “They were used to people who say yes to everything,” he said, saying the agency is weakened by an exodus of experienced hierarchies and an administrator who “reflects the President’s terrible behavior”.
For the Portuguese-American, born in Viseu, what is happening at FEMA is symptomatic of a wider problem in the administration. “He promised to recruit the best people to serve in the government, but he appointed criminals,” he said, stressing that several former officials and allies, such as Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Michael Cohen and Steve Bannon, were accused or condemned over the past few years.
“Ethics has become an academic exercise”, he considered. “The deconstruction of the administrative state, which started in the first term, will lead to total destruction in a second term”.
In terms of concrete measures, Frank Ferreira said he believed that “it will be more of the same and that is not a good thing”. The Luso-American exemplified some areas: “I think we will see him cut funding for a series of government programs and will weaken environmental regulations”.
Despite emphasizing that Democratic candidate Joe Biden is ahead in the national polls, with a margin between 7 and 10 points, Frank Ferreira stressed that this will be a very competitive election and “a lot can change” in the less than two months left until November 3rd.
“Trump is trying to raise doubts about the legitimacy of the election, because he begins to see that in many polls Biden is ahead and in competitive states that he won last time,” Ferreira said of the President’s criticisms of the postal votes.
“It is an unfortunate situation for democracy, that people do not trust the results of an election”, he analyzed, predicting that it will take more time to count the ballot papers and this will aggravate “the uncertainty and anxiety” that are already prevalent in the country. “We have always prided ourselves on having fair elections and this has serious implications for the future and for other countries in the world, which see us as a model”, he considered.
With nearly 25 years of public service and an extensive career in intergovernmental and congressional affairs, Frank Ferreira worked closely with former Portuguese Prime Minister António Guterres during his successful campaign for United Nations Secretary-General in 2016.
Graduated in Political Science from the University of Saint Joseph, he obtained a master’s degree in Emergency and Disaster Management at Georgetown University.
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