Like a player grinding through levels to unlock new abilities, in less than a year into his second term Trump has apparently succeeded in turning the most formidable military on earth into his own personal instrument of lethal power.
Whether the governmental system that comes after Trump is gone is better or worse than what came before him is up to us.
Trump v. Illinois is currently on the Supreme Court's "shadow docket." If the GOP-appointed majority should rule that Trump can use the National Guard (NG) as he sees fit for dealing with objectively nonexistent "rebellions," he will see it as a license to use
Now is not the time for Jeffries or any other Democrats, especially Senate Democrats, to go weak in the knees over shutdown politics.
Week by week and step by step, Trump is creating his own list of "subversives"--organizations, individual people, even entire American cities.
Senate Democrats must internalize the reality of the existential threat Trump represents to the survival of the constitutional Republic and then act accordingly.
Not since the Federalists controlled the White House and Congress at the end of the 18th century have we seen this kind of systematized, lock-step domestic political repression perpetrated in unison by the political branches of our government.
Trump's militarization of immigration enforcement and "crime control" is, of course, nothing more than a smokescreen for preparing for further such political repression operations in other areas of the country under the control of elected Democrats.
If you're a member of the United States Senate in 2025, you don't keep writing checks to the guy who's in the process of actively destroying a 250-year-old experiment in representative government.
The question right now is whether O'Donnell, who has engaged in high-profile legal battles in the past, wants to go after Trump for defamation in American courts, assuming the Supreme Court does not foreclose such an option.
The American Republic cannot defend itself. This is especially true when members of one major political party decide to either pledge their loyalty to a would-be dictator masquerading as president or to slink away when that same tyrant-in-the-making says nasty things about them on social media. Both are forms of
The tactics used by civil rights and anti-Vietnam War protesters during the 1960s and early 1970s had a political effect because JFK and LBJ were at least somewhat responsive to the political pressures the groups generated. Trump is overtly contemptuous of his political opposition, using lawfare against a Democratic mayor,
Donald Trump
In the weeks and months ahead, it may be necessary for each of us to make a life-altering decision: whether to confront the regime ourselves, in concert with like-minded people loyal to the constitutional Republic.
immigration
Federal senators, along with state and local officials across the country, should be prepared to utilize all available tools to the maximum extent possible to thwart regime actions that are unconstitutional, illegal, or otherwise endanger public safety.
Alien Enemies Act
If you live in a state with one or more Democratic Senators, tell them to refuse unanimous consent on any Trump-desired legislation or Trump nominees until he obeys federal court decisions barring his unconstitutional acts.
Books
If all of this sounds eerily familiar and frightening, it's because Trump is clearly--and enthusiastically--blazing his own infamous trail of authoritarianism that already matches, and in some cases is poised to surpass, the outrageous conduct of those who came before him.
political repression
The story it tells is not, unfortunately, an April Fools joke.
authoritarianism
The Roman example serves as a cautionary tale: their republic didn't collapse in a single moment but through a gradual erosion of institutional constraints and normative boundaries over decades.
Donald Trump
Every week since Trump's return to power, he and his key cabinet-level officials have simultaneously escalated their political retaliatory measures against disfavored individuals, groups, and organizations--in virtually every instance in defiance of the law, the Constitution, and now federal courts.
artificial intelligence
If an AI can understand how a Republic can be destroyed, why the hell can't everyone else in America recognize the same warning signs as Claude?
Donald Trump
What also seems certain is an even more aggressive push by Trump to undo Executive branch internal oversight and accountability mechanisms through further "lawfare."
Donald Trump
We are now witnessing, in real time, the price for not taking far more aggressive governmental reform and reorganization measures in the wake of successive presidents’ radical abuses of law enforcement and presidential powers.
Donald Trump
Starting today we're going to face a different series of threats, and these won't be courtesy of a foreign bad actor but from an American government under Donald Trump's control.
Donald Trump
The explosion of online right-wing, conspiracy theory-centric networks, podcasts, and similar digital sewers has created a permission structure for many Americans to embrace their worst selves and the worst political actors.