Trump’s hijacking of America at 250, debt danger, and ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
Welcome to our press review of events in the United States. Every Wednesday we look at how the Swiss media have reported and reacted to three major stories in the US – in politics, finance and science.
Are you going to be in the US on Saturday, when the country turns 250? If not, will you still be raising a glass to the “great liberal experiment”, based on Enlightenment values such as natural rights, the rule of law and government by consent? As US President Donald Trump said last week: “1776, what a time that was”.
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With the United States celebrating 250 years of the declaration of independence on Saturday, Swiss newspapers are horrified – but not surprised – at how US President Donald Trump is making himself the main attraction.
“Independence Day on the Fourth of July is usually a popular celebration during which the United States of America comes together to celebrate the nation and its values,” Swiss public broadcaster RTS wrote on Tuesday. “But Donald Trump has transformed it into a MAGA rally, highlighting his achievements. According to him, he has enabled America to regain the greatness it had lost under Joe Biden’s presidency, going so far as to compare himself to the patriotic colonists of 1776, who rebelled against the British Crown.”
Trump kicked off the celebrations on June 24 with a speech on the National Mall in Washington, DC. “The address was surprisingly brief, but it was packed with self-congratulation and superlatives,” wrote the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ). “Trump lavished praise on himself, on Republican Party politicians and on his allies.”
For Le Nouvelliste, “what was supposed to be a concert for everyone to enjoy ended up as a political rally where a crowd wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ caps gathered”. Trump had cancelled concerts planned for the National Mall after most of the artists backed out. “The Great American State Fair was intended to celebrate the nation’s unity. But it’s merely highlighting the divisions within the country,” the newspaper wrote on Sunday.
Lausanne newspaper 24heures agreed. “At the age of 80, Donald Trump is promising the dawn of a new ‘golden age’, but his America appears deeply divided, weakened by an unpopular war against Iran, which has sent the cost of living soaring,” it wrote. “Several observers have highlighted the difference between this personalisation of the 250th anniversary and the Bicentennial celebrations of 1976, which helped reunite the country after the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal and the oil crises.”
It concluded that “Donald Trump has done everything in his power to ensure that the celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the United States revolve around one man: himself”.
America has no intention of repaying its debts – and will eventually make its creditors pay the price, warns the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ).
“Politics in Washington is so deeply divided that the huge mountain of public debt can probably only be washed away by a powerful wave of inflation. Investors should be on their guard,” the NZZ wrote in an editorial on Tuesday.
“Warnings have been issued for years, and for years those issuing them have been ignored. But that is becoming increasingly difficult. The fiscal collapse of the United States is drawing nearer because the political system, under the Trump, Biden and, once again, Trump administrations, has become paralysed and is incapable of responding.” The problem, according to the NZZ, is not the debt itself. The problem is that nobody in Washington wants to tackle the problem.
It pointed out that, even excluding all the liabilities the US government has accumulated in its external accounts, such as the pension fund, the debt still amounts to nearly $32 trillion (CHF26 trillion). “This means it has recently surpassed the country’s economic output, which also stands at nearly $32 trillion. With the brief exception of the economic slump during the 2020 pandemic, this has never happened since the Second World War. At that time, however, the US and the free world were in a serious state of emergency. Today, the US is doing well economically. Unemployment stands at 4.3%, and the economy is growing at a rate of more than 2%.”
Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are explaining the gravity of the situation to voters, the NZZ complained. “Instead, they are presenting scapegoats and false solutions. Some Democrats suggest that a wealth tax on a handful of the super-rich would be enough to balance the budget and fund new government handouts. Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress are no better. A cost-cutting commission led by Elon Musk caused nothing but chaos in 2025, before the tech entrepreneur abandoned the project and turned his attention back to simpler endeavours such as colonising Mars.”
The NZZ concluded that investors in tangible assets such as the shares of the “many outstanding American companies” might be spared the worst. But anyone wishing to invest in US government bonds should think twice. “Uncle Sam will not break his promise to repay the money. But he will likely stretch it so far that it will no longer be worth very much.”
The deportation centre in the Everglades, southern Florida, known as Alligator Alcatraz is ceasing operations, reported Swiss public broadcasters SRF and RSI. This follows persistent criticism of detention conditions and complaints from environmentalists.
Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis last week confirmed the closure of Alligator Alcatraz, which had been in operation for around a year, SRF wrote on Friday. “DeSantis and US President Trump saw the camp as a tool for their policy of deporting illegal immigrants. Now, everyone still housed there is being transferred to other centres – partly because of the approaching hurricane season.”
According to DeSantis, 21,000 people were deported from the camp to their countries of origin. SRF said human rights organisations had repeatedly criticised the precarious sanitary conditions and the difficulties in accessing legal representation.
The facility was built on swampland populated by pythons and alligators. Alcatraz is an island off San Francisco which housed a maximum-security prison from 1934-1963.
“Alligator Alcatraz has proved to be a colossal planning failure,” the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) wrote in May. “This facility – which appears to have been built in a rush – is emblematic of the Trump administration’s immigration policy: in its efforts to counter the Biden administration’s lax border security, it has, at times, lost its way in sensationalist activism. The devastating escalation during ICE and Border Patrol operations earlier this year in Minneapolis, which claimed two lives, has already shown where this can lead in the worst-case scenario.”
The controversy surrounding Alligator Alcatraz is not over, SRF added. “Critics claim the camp was built without an environmental impact assessment,” it wrote. “Legal proceedings are now underway to determine any liability and damage to the Everglades’ ecosystem.”
The next edition of ‘Swiss views of US news’ will be published on Wednesday, July 8. See you then!
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