Trump's Police State

 

It’s happening. Right before our eyes.

Donald Trump is forging together his police state.

From his pick to head the FBI to his directives on policing, prosecution and punishment, there can be no doubt Mr. Trump is developing a police state in his own image.

He told us that that was his intent should he be elected. During his campaign he even listed his targets. Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, even Joe Biden, among others. Anyone from the FBI or the DOJ  who investigated his crimes and began prosecution for those crimes. Members of the press who are critical of him. Ordinary citizens who might protest against him or his policies.

He is starting with putting restrictions on our Constitutional Right to Assembly and Freedom of Speech. He will be determining what is or is not a legal assembly of protest. Those who he has labeled as “illegal” will be arrested. He has stated he will use the military to break up demonstrations and make arrests. He had practiced what he is preaching during his first term when he had protesters outside the White House dispersed with tear-gas and deployed US Marshalls to arrest not only protesters but journalists during demonstrations in Portland, Oregon. He made his first move in this term by using ICE to arrest two demonstrators at Columbia University who oppose his position on Gaza.

He took the unprecedented action to hold a mini-rally attended by Trump loyalists inside the DOJ to set the stage for his prosecution of those whose duty was to bring him to court when evidence they obtained indicated Trump had violated the law. Unprecedented because the President is expected to keep a distance from the DOJ so Americans can be assured that the DOJ is independent of prejudice, pressure and manipulation from the Oval Office. He falsely accused those in the DOJ from having acted illegally in pursuing those charges and for Joe Biden having had used the DOJ for political purposes, when in fact this is exactly what he is doing. To pursue this, he put attorney Pam Bondi who represented him during his first impeachment trial where he was accused of violating the Constitution ; supported him in his hush money case; and who Trump illegally wrote a $25,000 check to support her own political campaign from his charitable foundation in charge of the DOJ . She has stated it is her intent to “investigate the investigators…prosecute the prosecutors.”

He is purging the FBI of any agents who were involved in investigating his crimes as well as those who will not pledge loyalty to him. To accomplish this, he put Kash Patel in charge of the FBI. Patel pushes Trump’s “Deep State” conspiracy narrative; that the 2020 election was rigged although not only is there no evidence of this, but audits; 60 judicial rulings; and Republican Governors of the states’ he claims were rigged say no election fraud occurred. Patel denounces all of Trump’s critics as Deep State conspirators and even includes Trump Attorney General Bill Barr because Barr stated that the 2020 election was honest and Biden won.

“We will go out and find the conspirators – not just in government, but in the media…we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections…We’re going to come after you,” declares Patel.

Donald Trump has found his gestapo.

To strengthen his bid for absolute power – a power he unabashedly professes he has – he and his right- and left-hand men – Elon Musk and JD Vance – have declared the judicial branch has no right to rule on Trump’s directives. They call for the impeachment of judges who do make findings that Trump’s orders are unconstitutional or a violation of law and people’s rights. Congressman Darrell Issa has introduced a bill designed to prohibit the courts from ruling on Trump’s executive orders.

No police state is complete without undermining the Freedom of the Press. At his DOJ rally, Trump again called for shutting down CNN and MSNBC for “illegal” news coverage that is contrary to his narrative. He has also called for shutting down ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS. Musk has called for the imprisonment of the producers of CBS’s 60 Minutes.

Meanwhile, Trump releases from prison his most militant thugs who answered his call to storm Congress and stop the certification of the election he lost. We recall his prior warning that it is his supporters that “have all the guns” and his orders for the paramilitaries to “stand back and stand by.”

America is at a crossroads that we never expected could be possible. We are already in the shadow of fascism. The question is not if these are the actions of a would-be dictator, but what are we as American patriots going to do about it?

Donald Trump is not a president. Donald Trump is a crisis.

Shameful Schumer

An absolute blitzkrieg. Like the Panzers rolling across the Polish plains in lightening fashion, ignoring international norms and justice, failing to respect another country’s sovereignty, Donald Trump has been rolling over Democrats at warp speed, ignoring the Constitution and rule of law, failing to respect the other two branches of government.

In 50 days Trump has signed 89 executive orders – most overstepping the boundaries in which the power of the presidency is confined and in violation of our Constitution. Many of them bypassing Congress whose duty it is to make these decisions. Many that do fall within his legal purview cause harm to many people ranging from crippling their health care to costing them their livelihood.

He is laying the foundation for weaponizing the Department of Justice and the FBI, putting people who will carry out his political vendettas; removing those who will not; seeking revenge against those who followed the rule of law in investigating his alleged crimes and those who were preparing to prosecute him when the evidence pointed to his guilt.

“I will be a dictator on Day One,” he smiled to Sean Hannity. He wasn’t kidding.

So, who do we have standing up to Trump, his right-hand-Right-Wing executioner Elon Musk and all the Republican Trump loyalists in Congress?

Not Chuck Schumer.

An abhorrent budget was presented by Trump for Congressional approval…a budget that takes crucial spending decisions away from Congress and steers these decisions to the president, strengthening his authoritarian grip on the nation’s purse and with that power the ability to control the function of government. It puts Medicaid; programs to aid the disabled; programs to feed the poor; programs to assist veterans; education; and environmental protection at DEFCON 5.

“It is not a simple stopgap that keeps the lights on and the doors open,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro. “This is Republican leadership handing over the keys of the government and a blank check to Elon Musk and to President Trump.”

Not just Republicans. Senator Schumer also handed over those keys and that blank check to Trump.

The GOP budget resolution needed eight Democratic senators to cross over and vote for it in order to avoid a filibuster. Many expected the Democrats to filibuster the GOP proposal, forcing the Republicans to compromise or go back to the chalk board and draw up a better budget. Schumer gave Trump those eight senators.

Schumer’s rationale is that if he did not support Trump’s budget, there would be a government shutdown, crippling essential services with the voters blaming the Democrats for the shutdown. That may sound reasonable to Schumer, but if you peel back the skin, the rationale doesn’t necessarily hold up.

Trump is already crippling essential services. In fact, he’s gutting them. That is the danger of his budget: it gives him more latitude to chop away at what services he has yet to dismantle. One of Schumer’s goals was to stop the hemorrhaging.  He accomplished the opposite.

Schumer feared what a government shut down would do both to the people in need of those services and what it could do to his Party politically. He feared the Democrat minority in Congress would be blamed. Recent political history indicates that wouldn’t be what would happen, and Mitch McConnell, the mastermind of exploiting such a situation for his political advantage, must have had difficulty containing his laughter as Schumer made his fatal mistake.

When Barak Obama was president, McConnell met with Republican Congressional leaders and crafted his strategy that the Republicans would commit to. Don’t vote to advance any legislation. Create gridlock. Sure, it’s his Party refusing to work with the other Party, but he theorized that the public’s attention span is on who is president. If gridlock occurs and people suffer, the focus of their frustration will be on the president and the party he represents. They will blame the Democrats. Sure enough, that is exactly what happened, and Republicans gained the legislative branch. Instead of gambling that Schumer and the Democrats would be blamed, Schumer should have gambled that Trump and the GOP would be blamed. Given both past history and the growing skepticism voters have regarding Trump and Musk in recent polling, the odds would have been in his favor.

The opposition party needs to stand up to Trump and deliver, if not a win, at least land a blow and make Mr. Trump feel the sting of energized defiance. Drawing a line on the Senate floor and not crossing over to support the Trump agenda should have been that moment. It most likely would have earned concessions – for how long could Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune endure the failure of their assignment as political leaders to guide a functional government before public scorn pounded on their office doors?

Democrats need a leader who will pick up the gauntlet and speak in defiance – and fight with fury – against the Trump/Musk oligarchy. Schumer is not that person

Shredding the Freedom of the Press

 

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”  Thomas Jefferson, 1787.

“They (the press) are truly the enemy of the people.” Donald Trump, February 2017.  “Don’t believe the crap you see from these people (the press)…” Trump, July 2018. “I hate ‘em, (but) I would never kill them.” Trump, December 2015.

Donald Trump had declared war on the world’s media from the very beginning. War on those news agencies who dare to report anything that appears unflattering to his actions. Anything that might expose inappropriate behavior. Anything that proves his narrative is riddled with falsehoods. But while in his first term it amounted to a battle of words and an attempt to manipulate public perception – and in effect, the public’s knowledge of events and circumstances – in 2025 it is becoming a matter of survival for independent and honest journalism.

Two days after his inauguration, he called on MSNBC to be shut down. They commit two sins that justify such an action: they advocate a liberal perspective and they make it a mission to hold Trump’s feet to the fire. That may not be totally objective, but their facts aren’t wrong, they don’t lie, and they are hardly subversive. Yet on February 22, 2025, he declared that MSNBC is a threat to democracy and must be brought under control.

He isn’t just picking on MSNBC. In October he specifically called for removing the broadcasting license of CBS because he did not like their coverage of Kamala Harris and during the same outburst he added “as should all other Broadcast Licenses because they are all as corrupt as CBS – maybe worse!”

NBC was the first to be targeted for shut down when in 2017 NBC reported that Trump and his military advisors were having a dispute about the size of America’s nuclear arsenal. Trump wasn’t going to stand for that – shut ‘em down. He called for ABC to be shut down in September. Trump tried to burn CNN at the stake in his first year in office, with him most recently calling them out by name to have their license removed last year.

The threats are moving from rhetoric to physical action. To achieve this, Trump named a Trump loyalist to be Chairman of the FCC. Brendan Carr is a contributor to the Heritage Foundation’s  Project 2025, the blueprint to achieving an ultra-conservative agenda. He has long advocated ferreting out all perceived prejudice against Trump. Therefore, he was a logical pick for Trump to entrust to develop a strategy to bring down network news.

Four weeks into his tenure, Trump’s attack dog has ripped into all major networks including PBS and NPR by using a strategy to remove their licenses without being too transparent that he is protecting Trump. He is going after a San Francisco radio station that chooses not to support Trump’s deportation policies. NBC, through his investigation into Comcast who owns NBC’s parent company NBCUniversal, will lose their license if Carr’s allegations that they practice Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies are true. ABC faces execution for Carr’s allegation of bias in the presidential debate. PBS for their financial sponsorship. CBS he blatantly put on trial for distorting the news.

At some point we need to note that Fox News and Newsmax face no scrutiny much less criticism.

Trump’s bringing the press down to its knees takes other approaches as well. The Associated Press and Reuters are banned from the White House and Air Force One, the AP because they continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico instead of Trump’s preference of Gulf of America, and Reuters because they were critical of the AP being blackballed. Trump is employing financial stress to get the press to heel by using lawsuits. If he doesn’t like how you reported or what you reported, he will sue you. He currently has a lawsuit against CBS for $10 billion because he didn’t care for their airing of an interview with Kamala Harris. Trump had turned down CBS’ invitation to have equal time in an interview, but nonetheless he claims the interview was deceitful and intended to tip the election in favor of Harris. He is also using this as his platform to revoke CBS’ license. It is obvious this is intended to get the networks to fall in line and cover the Trump administration in the manner he wants it covered.

This is Authoritarian 101. If you can’t control the press, undermine the public’s confidence in the press. When the networks ignored his November 2016 lecture at Trump Tower on how to cover his presidency, he turned to referring to the press as “fake news” and advised the public to turn to him for the truth. Apparently not completely satisfied with his fake news campaign, he seemingly intends to finish them off for good.

When Trump Betrays Ukraine, He Betrays Europe

 

I have never been more ashamed of being an American in my lifetime than while I was watching President Trump and Vice President Vance’s treatment of Ukrainian President Zelensky.

Zelensky is a pillar of strength, a source of inspiration and courage for a people besieged by a military power who invaded their country; kidnapped children; bombs churches, schools and hospitals, logging in a death toll of 12,605 Ukrainian citizens in addition to 43,000 soldiers.

Zelensky is a symbol of Ukrainian pride and resilience that has managed to hold the Russian tanks to the eastern perimeter of their republic in a stunning setback for Russian dictator Putin who expected to overrun Ukrainian soldiers and successfully plant their flag of conquest along the Ukrainian-Polish border within three weeks, but after three years they have not only been unable to advance past Ukraine’s southeastern elbow, they were pushed back from three provinces they had once occupied and had to retreat from their advance on  Ukraine’s capital.

Zelensky, and all Ukrainian people, are heroes.

Trump doesn’t see it that way. He calls the popularly elected Zelensky a dictator while Zelensky is desperately fighting to preserve his people’s freedoms as well as their sovereignty from the insatiable appetite of the former KGB chief made imperialist dictator. And on February 28, in front of the world, he gave it his best shot at bullying and intimidating Zelensky while his toady JD Vance rushed in to give Zelensky a good kick while Trump held Zelensky down.

Trump was disrespectful to Zelensky, making allegations with an angry scowl, a pointed finger and a scathing tone. Every time Zelensky diplomatically attempted to respond, Trump would cut him off. Trump chastised Zelensky for gambling with the start of WWIII – clearly shifting responsibility for such a risk away from Putin who, not satisfied with already having stolen Crimea from Ukraine, decided he wanted all of that nation and threatened to use nuclear weapons if any country dared to militarily help Ukraine. Under Trump’s thinking, Poland started WWII.

In short, Trump was advancing Putin’s narrative of the war.

In the process, Trump was disrespectful to democracy, American values and American history. America fought to defend European democracies against the darkness of fascism. Went to battle to defend South Korea. Fought to protect tiny Kuwait from a ruthless dictator in Iraq. Yet, for the first time, the United States is siding with the oppressors. The US is not only turning its back on the underdog whose crimes are apparently wanting to build upon the democratic foundation they established when they chased Russian stooge Viktor Yanukovych from office in 2014 as well as their return to independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the US is turning its back on Europe who sees Zelensky fighting for all Europe and who fears Russian expansion.

Of course, the Narcissist-in-Chief says it was Zelensky who is disrespectful. Vance said the same. Vance even accused Zelensky of not once saying “thank you” to Trump – even though Zelensky had in fact thanked both Trump and America earlier. Vance leaned forward saying Zelensky is failing to be grateful to Trump when Trump is the one with a proposal to end the war…A proposal that would force Ukraine to accept Putin’s terms of allowing Putin to not only annex the occupied territory, but also cede the provinces Russia once held and would give Trump half of Ukraine’s mineral resources. That’s not a peace settlement, that’s more akin to Stalin and Hitler carving up Poland.

Trump later fumed that it will be impossible to get a peace deal that includes Zelensky because Zelensky “hates” Putin. “It’s very hard for me to make a deal with that kind of hate.”

So, we have a president insensitive to the reasonable feelings of hate one might have towards a foreign dictator who is seizing your land, slaughtered your people and kidnapped your children to indoctrinate them inside Russia. We have a president who thinks it is unreasonable for the victim of a war to have a seat at the negotiating table and who will not sign a peace treaty that has no concessions from the invading party, much less forfeits their land, their people and their mineral resources.

What is the fallout from Trump’s posture?  Every democratic European nation has denounced him. Norway’s fuel supplier refuses to provide fuel to American ships and submarines. Europe now recognizes they can no longer rely on the US as an ally. Leaders such as Germany’s new Chancellor have made it clear that if there would be war with Russia, Europe will be on their own and must create a stronger defense, which means proliferation of nuclear arms.

Trump not only shamed Americans, he has alienated us from our allies and our position as a world leader. He has made the world more dangerous.