Member-only story
Trump’s Latest Executive Order Is a Blueprint for a Police State
You don’t need a dictator to build a police state. You only need facial recognition, loyalty databases, and lawyers on retainer.
“Other countries do it all the time.”
That was the pubescent teen logic that Trump used to demand shooting squads for “criminals.” A former White House official told Rolling Stone that Trump repeated his death by firing squad authoritarian fantasy so many times during his first term that his staff lost count.
Firing squads weren’t Trump’s only demand for violent spectacle. Let’s not forget his juvenile scheme for a moat stocked with snakes and alligators surrounding his border wall. (Apparently, Trump gets policy ideas from The Lord of the Rings movies.)
But Trump’s latest executive order isn’t just tough-on-crime posturing — it’s a blueprint for a police state. It vows to “unleash” local law enforcement, remove federal oversight, and pump military gear into precincts like they’re prepping for Fallujah.
In Trump’s words, policing should be “aggressive.” Consent decrees (used to reform departments after abuse) will be rescinded. And federal “task forces” will link Homeland Security with your local cops to “increase the…
