So many political norms have been broken so quickly by the Trump regime that it is hard to keep up. Chaos is the new normal and it is all in an effort to create a one party-rule police state that could overwhelm any opposition. I wanted to list the features of this transformation that are most troubling. Individually and separately they may seem like scattered pieces of a puzzle but collectively they present a devastating totalist vision.
- In a little reported story, hundreds of the detainees who were incarcerated at Alligator Alcatraz in Florida have disappeared. The Miami Herald has reported that two-thirds of the 1,800 immigrants who were held there in July have gone missing from ICE’s online data base. Their families and attorneys have been unable to locate them. It is unclear if they have been deported or transferred to another facility. All legal process has been bypassed to fast track deportation. Extrajudicial black sites are replacing lawful process.
- The Trump regime has no legal authority to order the execution of civilians in international waters outside a military conflict. The war on drugs doesn’t justify killing an alleged enemy. Blowing up boats off the Venezuela coast was an act of premeditated murder as an estimated 20 people died. No proof was offered to show that these boats had any contraband on board. It is not enough to simply label people “narcoterrorists” and perform executions. Even if those murdered were drug runners, criminal penalty should be incarceration. Due process has been short-circuited so that the Trump regime can post videos and sadistically boast of the murders.
- In the past there was always a wall between the President and the Department of Justice. Trump has treated the DOJ as his personal law firm. The prosecution of Jim Comey and Letitia James are malicious and there will, no doubt, be many more on the Trump vendetta list. Trump has turned the DOJ into a corrupt tool for personal vengeance. Pam Bondi makes John Mitchell look good.
- The Trump regime has deployed National Guard troops to cities that don’t want or need them. He has wildly misrepresented the facts by describing peaceful cities like Portland and Chicago as war-ravaged hellholes. Speculation is rife that he will invoke the Insurrection Act even though no rebellion is going on. The Trump regime uses the language of war in calling anyone who opposes it a terrorist or an insurrectionist. It is hard not to wonder if he will use troops as a means to intimidate Democratic voters in the 2026 election. Experience shows that he is unlikely to accept any election result where he loses.
- Millions of Americans hold anti-fascist political views. As a nation we proudly fought fascists who committed enormous crimes in World War II. The Trump regime has declared war on Antifa, an imaginary enemy. It is likely the campaign against Antifa will be directed at all who dissent from Trump’s policies. In the Trump mind, opposition to Trump equates to terrorism even if it is just the Democratic Party. The effect is to block free speech and all dissent, kind of the ultimate cancel culture. Mark Bray, a history professor at Rutgers and the author of a book about Antifa has received death threats and felt so threatened he and his family just fled to Spain.
- On Oct. 1 at 1 a.m. in the morning, ICE conducted a military-style raid on a low rent apartment complex in Chicago using a Blackhawk helicopter and armored vehicles. They dragged everyone in the complex out of their beds, zip-tying all, including children. Supposedly this was a raid to capture the undocumented. ICE trashed the place making it uninhabitable. What happened to our Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizures? This raid was exactly what our Founders warned against and with ICE’s massive funding, there are likely to be more. Nothing could be more un-American than masked, unidentified ICE agents running amok and sequestering people in secret prisons with zero transparency.
- The degree of corruption in the Trump regime is unprecedented. Foreign governments pay bribes to Trump through crypto. The Trump family has cashed in to the tune of billions. The DOJ has so far buried the Jeffrey Epstein file because it incriminates his former best friend, Trump. One thousand FBI agents were given the task of redacting Trump’s name from the files. Journalist Michael Wolff reported that Epstein showed him pictures of Trump with topless young girls sitting on his lap and Pam Bondi refused to answer questions about that from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. This DOJ now specializes in disappearing and hiding evidence.
- I recently watched the most recent meeting of the Trump cabinet. It gave new meaning to the phrase “worst of the worst.” To be a part of this cabinet you have to sell your soul. Cabinet members lavished praise on their boss like he was the leader of North Korea. The meetings are dominance-submission affairs where loyalty is demonstrated by slathering accolades upon Dear Leader. Personal humiliation is a job requirement.
In putting the pieces of this puzzle together, the big picture is not hard to see. Call it dictatorship, police state, strongman rule, authoritarianism or fascism — all fit. What is going on is a government replacement from democracy with three co-equal branches of government. Now the question is what the American people will do about it.
Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot.