A CEO’s departure from America reveals the cost of trading democracy for performative cruelty

Six legally present CVT clients—torture survivors—were abducted by ICE agents and flown 1,800 kilometers to a detention center in Texas. The author, CVT’s former president and CEO, decided to return to Australia with his family after 15 years in the U.S. Within days of his second inauguration, Trump froze $20 million in funding to the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT). CVT furloughed 430 staff and shut down lifesaving programs in refugee camps across the Middle East and Africa. CVT lost its Supreme Court challenge to restore funding. Trump deployed thousands of ICE agents to Minneapolis in January. Immigrants across the U.S., including those legally present, now fear speaking their native languages or revealing accents. Trump won the 2024 presidential election with 77.3 million votes to 75 million. The decision was driven by the erosion of democracy, human rights, and the normalization of government cruelty.