Trump Expands on Bush-Era Tactics

When Donald Trump came to power, he criticized the foreign policy of George W. Bush—the last Republican to occupy the White House before him. Yet over time, it was Trump who expanded and institutionalized many of the practices that emerged after 9/11: from surveillance and preemptive strikes to extrajudicial detentions and manipulation of the judicial system.

This was most evident in two areas—immigration and Iran. Trump pledged to deport millions of undocumented migrants, using high-security prisons both in the U.S. and abroad, often without granting the right to a trial. The Bush administration had taken similar steps, including sending detainees to Guantánamo. In June, Trump authorized the bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities with 14 air-dropped bombs, followed by a missile strike on a pro-Iranian militia in Yemen. Like Bush, he cited the nuclear threat—but unlike his predecessor, he did not seek Congressional approval.

The methods of the two administrations resemble each other not just in substance but in tools. Under Bush, telecommunications companies played a central role in surveillance; under Trump, that role belongs to the private firm Palantir, which tracks migrants. The rhetoric is also similar: enemies are labeled as "terrorists" and "hostile outsiders." Both administrations invoked "state secrets" to restrict court access to information and entertained the possibility of suspending habeas corpus—the right to challenge unlawful detention. Bush attempted to do so in 2006 before being overruled by the Supreme Court. Trump has only hinted at such a move—but more openly.

At the same time, the scale of Trump’s measures often exceeds those of the "war on terror" era. Back then, the focus was on dozens of suspects; now, it’s millions. But the context has also changed: Bush acted amid the national trauma of 9/11, while Trump deploys similar tools absent any external catastrophe. His strikes on Iran have not led to a broader war, and his repression of migrants is tied to a calculated strategy of electoral mobilization.

Critics argue that what sets Trump apart is not his radicalism, but his candor. "Trump just says out loud what the Bush administration did quietly," says Vince Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, the first organization to represent Guantánamo detainees.

While some of Trump’s supporters—such as Tucker Carlson, who reminds audiences of the former president’s campaign promises to end America’s wars—have criticized his foreign policy moves, Vice President J.D. Vance does not see any contradiction: "The difference is that back then we had foolish presidents. Now we have someone in charge who actually knows how to achieve national security objectives."

What’s also notable is the muted response from Democrats. Joe Biden’s failures in managing the border crisis have made him vulnerable—and any overly aggressive criticism of Trump’s immigration stance risks backfiring at the ballot box. The situation recalls the early 2000s, when the Bush administration detained hundreds of Arabs and Muslims inside the U.S. By 2003, the Justice Department’s inspector general acknowledged that even in the post-9/11 emergency, the FBI "should have drawn clearer distinctions between those genuinely suspected of terrorist links and those guilty only of immigration violations."

Today, Trump is scaling up those earlier mechanisms—and doing so openly, without apology, without concealing the scope, and seemingly with the intention of making them a permanent feature of a potential second term.