#tyrant 47

Robert Reich:

You think I’m exaggerating? This is exactly what happened to Mahmoud Khalil on Saturday night. Khalil, who graduated from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs in December, has a green card. His wife, who is eight months pregnant, is an American citizen.

Immigration agents appeared at his apartment building and told him he was being detained. He now appears to be in a detention facility in Louisiana. Khalil did nothing illegal. He has not been charged with a crime. He expressed his political point of view — peacefully, non-violently, non-threateningly. That’s supposed to be permitted — dare I say even encouraged? — in a democracy. So why is he in jail?

Khalil was one of the leaders of last year’s peaceful pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. In a post on Truth Social, Trump conceded Khalil was snatched up and sent off because of his politics. “This is the first arrest of many to come,” wrote Trump. “We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.”

Where, may I ask, are the “First Amendment absolutists” such as Trump First Buddy Elon Trump when it comes to protecting speech that the Trump regime finds objectionable? Where are all the Republicans who for years have accused liberals of “cancelling” their views? Where are the conservatives who have claimed for even longer they only want to conserve traditional American values? Nearly 13 million people in the United States hold green cards. Tens of thousands more are here temporarily as foreign students and professors. Apparently all are now in danger of being arrested if they speak their minds. If this assault on civil liberties stands, Trump could just as well arrest and expel permanent residents who voice support for, say, transgender people or DEI or “woke” or Ukraine, or anything else the regime finds “anti-American” and offensive. If it stands, what’s to stop the Trump regime from arresting American citizens who support any cause the regime doesn’t like — such as, say, replacing Republicans in Congress in 2026 and putting a Democrat in the White House in 2028?

PA Media at The Guardian:

Donald Trump has warned that he will move matches from next summer’s World Cup away from host cities he deems to be dangerous. The US president said he was going to make sure San Francisco and Seattle were safe, adding that the cities were “run by radical left lunatics who don’t know what they’re doing”. Seattle’s Lumen Field is due to host six matches at the finals, with Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara – an hour away from San Francisco – doing likewise. Trump has again threatened to send federal troops into Chicago, having done so in Los Angeles and Washington DC. He pledged that Chicago would be made safe for the World Cup. The city is not hosting games.

Brian Tyler Cohen:

A lot of ink has been spilled about Trump’s decision to deploy the US military into Los Angeles. Yes, it was a well-timed distraction to shift our attention away from his feud with Elon Musk and his deeply unpopular budget bill that will strip healthcare away from 14 million Americans, gut $300 billion worth of food assistance, and explode the deficit to the tune of trillions. Yes, it was an authoritarian power grab at the hands of a man who never misses an opportunity to defy the law and consolidate more control for himself. And yes, it was just one more occasion for Trump to see how far he could push his party to comply, push Democrats to fight back, and push the courts to rein him in. But there’s a far more insidious plan that Trump has long wanted to effectuate. Back in 2020, Trump engaged in discussions to seize voting machines as part of his effort to overturn the election results. Draft executive orders were prepared that would have directed either the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security to execute that plan with the help of sycophants like Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Michael Flynn. To Trump’s dismay, the effort was ultimately abandoned after officials including Bill Barr, Chad Wolf, and Ken Cuccinelli reportedly told him and his allies that the government lacked the authority to seize the machines. But Trump’s second term is about correcting the errors of his first. Never again will he empower people like Mike Pence and Mark Esper who refused to enact his illegal edicts. Never again will he be restrained from using the US military as his own personal police force. And never again will he miss his opportunity to entrench Republican control for the foreseeable future. Five years ago, Trump’s plan to seize voting machines and overturn the election was blocked from within the government, but what few responsible officials remained have been replaced by loyalists. And now, with Trump deploying the military into American cities, he will have boots on the ground to execute his plans.

Olivia Troye at Olivia of Troye:

I've seen the signs abroad, in intelligence briefings, crisis war rooms, and inside Trump's White House. The raids in Los Angeles weren’t about immigration. They were a televised warning, a declaration not just of Trump’s return to power, but of his intent to rule by force. Days after the raids sparked protests, Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard troops, claiming they were needed “to ensure law and order.” White House hardliners like Stephen Miller are branding demonstrators “insurrectionists,” deliberately reframing peaceful action as criminal uprising. Then Trump escalated again: dispatching more Guard units and U.S. Marines. Secretary Pete Hegseth stated during Congressional questioning today that the Guard troops will be there for sixty days, costing taxpayers $134 million. When your government is acting lawlessly, it’s the height of hypocrisy to accuse the American people of disorder. Trump keeps invoking “order” while operating outside the very boundaries of our Constitution. And now, we brace for the next act: a military parade in Washington, D.C.—funded, staged, and weaponized by a White House that dreams of autocracy. Let’s call this what it is. These aren’t isolated incidents. They’re steps in a sequence. The mass ICE raids, the armored vehicles, the media spectacle, they were the rehearsal. The parade is the performance. Martial law is no longer theoretical. It's coming. Trump’s obsession with parades dates back to his first term. I was there. He envied strongmen who stood before tanks and troops, not as symbols of service, but of personal power. Ask anyone in South Korea what it feels like to watch a North Korean military parade: the missiles, the precision marching, the unspoken threat: We can unleash this on you. That’s not theater. That’s control. That’s not speculation; that’s exactly how North Korea uses these parades to control its population and project dominance abroad. That’s the template Trump is following. The parade in Washington, D.C. isn’t about honoring the military. It’s about flexing it. While the Army’s 250th birthday celebration was long scheduled, Trump announced plans to hijack the event, conveniently timed to his own 79th birthday, and turn it into a full-blown military showcase. Sixty-ton M1 Abrams tanks and Paladin howitzers are now set to roll through D.C. "No Kings" counter-protests are planned nationwide, with a mass march to the White House expected on Saturday. Officials worry that clashes in L.A. could spread to D.C. or other cities. That’s the climate being engineered: confrontation by design.  This parade isn’t symbolic. It’s strategic. It’s meant to normalize the military’s presence in civilian life, to blend uniforms with political power. This isn’t optics. It’s indoctrination. Again, this was never just about immigration. It’s about conditioning the public to comply. Making people too afraid to question authority. The raids didn’t just detain undocumented individuals. They terrorized entire communities. And Trump’s crackdown on protest was meant to instill fear—of speaking, of gathering, of being seen.

It’s a line we were never meant to cross. Legal scholars are sounding alarms over Trump’s expanded use of Title 10 powers, federalizing troops without state consent to suppress protest. It’s a direct threat to the balance of power between states and the presidency, and it blurs the lines between civil governance and military rule.  This isn’t paranoia. It’s a blueprint. Once the public gets comfortable with militarization, it’s easier to justify curfews, surveillance, emergency powers, and martial law. U.S. Marines are no longer just on standby, they’re being deployed. These are troops trained for combat, not crowd control, now backing federal operations on American soil. This isn’t public safety. It’s a message: stay in line, or else. I’ve deployed with the military. I’ve stood alongside troops overseas whose mission was to defend this country, not be turned against it. There is no foreign enemy on our shores. We are not in a war zone. What’s unfolding is a domestic power grab. Authoritarian regimes use troops to silence their people. Democracies train them to protect people. That distinction is vanishing. And if we let it vanish now, we may never reclaim it.

[...] Protest is powerful when it robs the strongman of his narrative. So protest with purpose. Don’t become the story Trump wants. If you go to D.C. on June 14, or attend a counter-protest elsewhere, be peaceful. Be disciplined. Bad actors are looking to exploit this moment. Trump’s people are hoping they succeed. Bring your flag. Bring the banner of your cause, your heritage, your identity. But bring the American flag, too. Own it. This is your country, too. It always has been. Don’t let MAGA extremists twist your presence into propaganda. Be proud. Be peaceful. Be unmistakably American! We cannot afford to freeze in fear. We must move in defiance.

Olivia of Troye is right: The ICE Raids in Los Angeles and the protests that subsequently followed it were provoked by the Trump Regime’s obsession for control over the American citizens in a bid to try to invoke martial law.

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Rachel Bitecofer at The Cycle: Many times I’ve asked you to imagine what it would be like, what your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about contemporary America would be like, if you were one of the 100 million plus Americans who can’t name their own state’s senators. Vox dropped a recent piece that is firewalled, but I want you to read this short excerpt from their reporting:

Now, don’t focus on the particular demographics of this particular disenchanted voter. She could be anyone: a man, a woman, old, young, Black or White. Believe it or not, there are even college educated Americans who have this kind of limited, simplistic frame for interpreting political events. Anyhoo, that is a long wind up to get to what I want to talk to you about today which is the sensitivity of the low information public to lies intended to radicalize them.

Team Trump has a shrewd strategy to use obviously illegal executive orders to prepare the MAGA base for rebellion when they are inevitably struck down. An important concept from Introduction to American Government courses is something called the Expectations Gap. The Expectations Gap refers to the gap between what a president must promise to win election (especially to win their party’s nomination) and what he or she can actually deliver through a system intentionally designed to make governing very hard. Unless a president is extraordinarily lucky, like FDR who governed through two crises and used both to reshape the size and scope of government, a president is doomed to over promise and under deliver. All of them.

And that is during the best of times. These are not the best of times. Back in late 2009, early 2010, Republicans developed a keen strategy to try to make Barack Obama a one term president. That strategy was designed to increase the expectations gap by purposefully obstructing major legislation to deny Obama legislative wins. Its a strategy that benefitted Republicans politically so much, it became their go-to strategy throughout the full 8 years of Obama and for 4 years of Joe Biden, with one recent exception: Biden’s Infrastructure bill. They architects of the GOP’s opposition strategy had no idea at the time, but their strategy to starve the public of good government went on to play a key role in creating both the MAGA movement (right wing populism) and the Bernie Sanders movement (left wing populism). When people see their government can’t deliver solutions to their problems (or are told hyperbolic lies like Death Panels) they go a little crazy. And as demonstrated above, few voters have the sophistication to understand that Barack Obama failed to deliver on immigration reform because the Republican House simply refused to allow a vote on it.

[...] There’s just one problem: most of the executive orders Trump has issued to “finally achieve results for the American people” are illegal. Some are so grotesquely illegal they have Supreme Court justices gasping at the lunacy of the arguments coming out of what were once well-respected government lawyers. MAGA doesn’t know it yet, but most of Trump’s executive orders will never have the force of law. They will die quick deaths by a judiciary that overall seems inclined to protect the Constitution’s separation of powers system and maintain the power of the courts to review and determine the legality of actions taken by the Congress, the President, and the states. Unfortunately, Team Trump has been radicalizing the MAGA base for weeks in terms of the legitimacy of the courts.

Robert Reich:

Friends, One of my goals in writing this letter to you every day is to alert you to dangers to our democracy so you can alert others, who then alert others, and by this means we enlarge and strengthen our bulwark against the tide of fascism. Wars pose particular challenges to democracy because nations at war often become more xenophobic and willing to give those in power extra leeway to protect the homeland. That’s an underlying danger in Trump’s war with Iran.

Trump has already tried to use three pretexts to usurp power — terrorism, national emergency, and war itself — to justify his mass deportations, universal tariffs, and consolidations of power. And he has tried to use these to gain legal legitimacy under laws that give presidents additional power when the nation is threatened. Federal courts and public opinion haven’t allowed him to go as far as he wished. But if Trump’s war with Iran escalates — which it’s almost certain to do if Iran retaliates — courts may be reluctant to impede a commander-in-chief and the public may be willing to go along. I fear that Trump’s war with Iran will enable him to use these three pretexts — terrorism, national emergency, and war — to further suppress dissent at home, narrow freedom of speech and expression, make warrantless searches and arrests of Americans, imprison opponents, and put more military onto our streets.

Terrorism

The use of terrorism has already begun. A bulletin issued just yesterday by the National Terrorism Advisory System within the Department of Homeland Security warns of a "heightened threat environment in the United States" following the U.S. military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites. The bulletin notes that U.S. law enforcement "has disrupted multiple potentially lethal Iranian-backed plots in the United States since 2020," and goes on to warn of Iranian retaliation for Sunday morning’s attack.

Surely Iran is planning retaliation. During a Sunday phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian insisted that the U.S. "receive a response to their aggression," according to Iran's official news agency, IRNA, as reported by The Times of Israel. Any retaliation by Iran will be used by Trump to justify an intensifying crackdown on “terrorism.” Even before Trump’s attack on Iran, he appropriated the term “terrorist” to describe various groups he deemed threats to the United States — including drug cartels and migrants. Trump framed the rendition of Venezuelans to El Salvador as necessary to protect the U.S. from the scourge of “terrorism.” And he described fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. Now that we are at war with Iran, expect Trump to use the rhetoric of terrorism far more often, and the Department of Homeland Security to lead the charge against such threats.

National emergency

In his first hundred days in office this term, Trump declared eight “national emergencies” — far more than any other modern president in that same period of time. By comparison, Biden declared 11 national emergencies over his whole four-year term. Obama declared 12 in his eight years. George W. Bush declared 14 in his two terms. The declaration of a national emergency automatically allows a president to use “emergency” powers in laws intended by Congress to be utilized rarely, when the nation is seriously imperiled. Trump has been using such so-called “emergencies” to achieve domestic priorities more quickly than he’d be able to if he tried to pass laws through Congress.

[...]

Trump’s stream of emergency declarations has also contributed to a sense that America is facing perpetual crises, under threat from foreign nations and domestic enemies. Trump thrives in this atmosphere, adopting the role of fighter and savior. His war with Iran will fuel even more “national emergencies” and the legal authority that accompanies them.

War

Trump has tried to use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to justify his mass deportations without due process, but unsuccessfully in the courts because the Act allows a president to detain and remove nationals of an enemy nation only during a “declared war,” “invasion,” or “predatory incursion” against the United States. The law was invoked only three times before Trump, each during a war declared by Congress: the War of 1812 (with the United Kingdom), World War I and World War II. Each gave the U.S. government heightened powers to remove from the U.S. nationals of the party it was fighting. It was used during World War II to justify the internment of Japanese Americans and has since become synonymous with some of the nation’s most shameful civil liberties violations.

Trump’s attempt to use this centuries-old statute to conduct mass removals—outside of immigration law, with no hearings or judicial review—has been another authoritarian power grab posing grave threats to civil liberties and the rule of law.

[...] In addition, Trump has not ruled out invoking the Insurrection Act, which allows the deployment of active-duty U.S. military personnel within the United States in cases of unrest or rebellion — a prospect also made more likely when the nation is at war. Trump wants to be a war president. Everything he has done to date has been aimed at concentrating power in his hands and undermining democratic institutions, which are far easier to do as a war president.

David Folkenflik at NPR:

Journalists showed up at the Voice of America today to broadcast their programs only to be told they had been locked out: Federal officials had embarked on indefinite mass suspensions. All full-time staffers at the Voice of America and the Office for Cuba Broadcasting, which runs Radio and Television Martí, were affected — more than 1,000 employees. The move followed a late Friday night edict from President Trump that its parent agency, called the U.S. Agency for Global Media, must eliminate all activities that are not required by law. In addition, under the leadership of Trump appointees, the agency has severed all contracts for the privately incorporated international broadcasters it funds, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. The termination notices for grants for the funded networks, two of which were reviewed by NPR, carried the signature of Trump's senior adviser Kari Lake, whom he placed at USAGM, not the agency's acting chief executive. Lake does not appear in her current job to have the statutory authority to carry out that termination. "I am deeply saddened that for the 1st time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced," the network's director, Michael Abramowitz, said in a statement posted on his personal Facebook account. "VOA needs thoughtful reform and we have made progress in that regard. But today's action will leave Voice of America unable to carry out its vital mission." He wrote that he was among those 1,300 journalists, producers and support staff put on leave. Grant Turner, the former chief financial officer at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, called it "Bloody Saturday" for the agency and its networks.

'Arsonists just set fire to it'

"From what I hear, this is shaping up to be a really sad day. USAGM networks share important news, information and American values around the world," Turner said. "It took decades to build this goodwill and an audience of hundreds of millions every week. Seeing arsonists just set fire to it all is awful." "The cancellation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's grant agreement would be a massive gift to America's enemies," Steve Capus, the president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, said in a statement today shared with NPR. "The Iranian Ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years. Handing our adversaries a win would make them stronger and America weaker. We've benefitted from strong bipartisan support throughout RFE/RL's storied history. Without us, the nearly 50 million people in closed societies who depend on us for accurate news and information each week won't have access to the truth about America and the world." Voice of America Director Michael Abramowitz declined to comment but acknowledged he had been among those put on indefinite paid leave. This story is based on interviews with 16 current and former employees of the U.S. Agency for Global Media and the networks it funds. Almost all spoke on condition they not be named due to fear of professional retribution. NPR has reviewed internal notifications about the suspensions and the killed contracts. Similar notices reviewed by NPR have been received by hundreds of contractors at the Voice of America as well today. USAGM and the White House did not reply to requests for comment. A deputy White House spokesperson tweeted "Goodbye" in 20 languages over a link to a story from 2023 over a controversy at the Voice of America about how to characterize Hamas. Taken together, the federally-funded broadcasters and their sister networks covering the Middle East and Cuba reach 420 million people in 63 languages and more than 100 countries each week, according to the agency. They are fully funded by federal dollars. The networks' mission is to deliver news coverage and cultural programming to places where a free press is threatened or doesn't exist. They are also designed as a form of soft diplomacy, modeling independent journalism that incorporates dissent from government policy.

Trump's friends in Moscow and Budapest aggrieved by network coverage

The Voice of America sparked Trump's ire in his first term in office over reporting on Covid-19. His appointee as chief executive for U.S. Agency for Global Media embarked on a series of suspensions, visa revocations and investigations that were found, in some instances, to violate the law and federal policy. This time, Trump's budget-slashing adviser, Elon Musk, and other administration officials have called for Voice of America and some of the sister networks to be shut down. The scope and legality of these acts are not yet in full focus, but they appear to be designed to gut them and place whatever coverage survives under tighter control of politically appointed officials. Trump placed Lake, a two-time unsuccessful MAGA candidate, as his senior adviser over USAGM. She did not reply to a detailed request for comment for this story. USAGM's media relations team has not replied to NPR's repeated and detailed requests for comment about developments at the networks in recent days, including today. Trump's pick to lead the agency permanently, the conservative media critic L. Brent Bozell III, has not yet been scheduled for confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate.

Free press-hating Orange Führer’s regime orders mass cullings of journalists working at US Agency For Global Media-owned outlets such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.

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Jason Easley at PoliticusUSA:

Donald Trump wants all Americans to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. The Associated Press has refused this silly executive order, which has no bearing on anyone outside of the Executive Branch, so Donald Trump responded by banning the AP from the Oval Office, press briefings, Air Force One, and threatening to remove their workspace from the White House. CNN’s Brian Stelter posted on X: [The Associated Press is contemplating next steps now that it has been banned from Air Force One, including from President Trump's flight to Mar-a-Lago this afternoon. Here's why it is a big deal >>> Blocking the AP from what are known as "pooled" events, like Air Force One flights and Oval Office photo ops, interferes with the news outlet's ability to do its job. The "press pool" travels with the president at all times and shares information with the wider press corps. The Associated Press is foundational to White House coverage – and serves many news outlets all around the world. In fact, The AP helped create the pool in the first place!] The AP’s history in the White House dates back to 1881. It is a wire service that provides news around the world. In the United States, it is a foundational pillar of news coverage. It is important to understand that Trump’s attack on the AP isn’t really about the Gulf of Mexico. The real motive here is control. Trump wants to control the news coverage. The administration is trying to make an example out of the AP because they can break the legendary Associated Press, and the rest of any remaining media resistance will crumble.

Thank God the AP isn’t bending to the anti-American Tyrant 47’s wishes on renaming the Gulf of Mexico.

The AP got wrongly barred from being in the Oval Office and Air Force One for not bending to Traitor Tot’s un-American order to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” This is an egregious attack on the free press.

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