The one endearing feature of President Donald J. Trump is that, to quote his Attorney General, “he is the most transparent President ever”. The President has made it abundantly clear that The Constitution gives him dictatorial powers and that he directly controls the military. Weaponizing these beliefs could set off a second Civil war with the objective of conquering “The Blue States”. Trump has to be taken seriously as the bipartisan Congress January 6 Committee concluded that he engaged in a multi part conspiracy to overturn the 2020 Presidential election, including by inciting a riot. So the question is can he be stopped?
Trump's immediate objective is to ensure winning, one way or the other, the 2026 Midterm elections. The Supreme Court could simplify his life by ruling IN TIME allowing the Southern States to gerrymander up to 12 Black Democrats out of Congress in 2026. However Trump cannot bank on that.
But Jay H.Ell is getting ahead of himself so let us go at this slowly because America is still a Constitutional Democracy albeit with an authoritarian Executive. First task Trump has to do is to inform the military establishment that America is at war with domestic enemies. He needs to create a situation that precipitates a response which he can call a rebellion or at worst an insurrection. Then he needs to persuade the Judiciary to believe that the situation needs the military to resolve it.
Trump has a long way to go as at this early stage The Courts have been generallly unimpressed with his attempts to prove there is an uprising in certain “Blue” states. The Courts remain a constitutional obstacle to Trump's march to autocracy - The District and Appeal Courts particularly, The Supreme Court not so much.
The Republican controlled Legislature having abandoned its oversight responsibility, so it is left to “We The People” to help halt this march to a Putin like oligrarchical autocracy. “We The People” took protest to another level where in over 2,700 sites in America with over 7 million people took part in an anti Trump “No Kings Protest”. This was the largest single day protest ever by far which, in addition, creates the organization and motivation to turn this into ballot success.
But back to Trump's objectives to ensure winning the 2026 midterms.
TRUMP’S ADDRESS TO THE GENERALS SEPTEMBER 30 2025
Trump addressed an unprecedented meeting of all the military leadership, mostly the generals, having unilaterally renamed The Department of Defense, The Department of War a few weeks earlier. At the very beginning of his now customary rambling non sequitur rant he blandly stated, “….if you don’t like what I am saying you can leave the room…… of course there goes your future”. Trump then gave them a short history of how the woke people changed the name from Department of War to The Department of Defense in 1950. He slurred on and on from “sleepy Joe and his autopen” till he finally hit his objective after 35 minutes, “……we are being invaded from within……..”. Five minutes later, “We are at war ….and this is going to be a major part for some in this room…….. Our military heroes …. have taken on all foreign AND domestic enemies”. In the interim he pointed out where this war was now taking place in Democratic American cities like Chicago, Washington, LA, and Portland.
So onto what followed, unsurprisingly didn't involve the generals, rather Trump set about to create a violent response to him sending a collection of thugs ostensibly to carry out raids on "illegals".
"THE PLAN"
The mantra is that the "blue" cities are “crime infested” but more significantly they harbor “illegals”. This Trump believed allowed him to send in hordes of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents (ICE). The latter armed to the teeth, faces covered with masks terrorized the cities with violence, tear gas, pepper and rubber bullets with arrests and deportations. Predictably this evoked protests from the citizenry which Trump claimed were uprisings or rebellions. Consequently he needed external militia to control the latter as he maintained that neither ICE, the City and State law enforcement were able to do so.
Trump has not as yet called on the conventional militia rather he brought in the National Guards of the “Red” States. National Guards are state based military forces who also can serve as reservists in the US Militia. It is in the latter capacity that Trump enlisted them. The cities that were under intense pressure were Chicago and Portland. His actions engendered legal challenges.
Trump has not attempted to send in the regular militia nor has he declared an “Insurrection” at this stage. In fact he has claimed he would only declare an “Insurrection” if there were “hindrances” to controlling these "uprisings", including by the courts.
In response to the legal challenges in Chicago he had to convince the Judiciary that Trump was at war with the "domestic” enemy who are the brown immigrants, legal and illegal, the lunatic left and their mythical organization, “ANTIFA".
THE JUDICIARY
Thus far the Federal District and Appeal Courts have done a sterling job in interpreting the Constitution in relation to Trump’s attempts to claim that there are "unmanageable" rebellions in cities requiring military intervention. In Chicago, the Federal Courts, while giving The President’s assessment “the greatest deference” have ruled against his argument that his decisions cannot be reviewed.
Chicago District Judge Perry in an exhaustive 51 page opinion stated that she found, “Trump’s witness accounts unreliable”. She further added that the Defendants’ declarations equated protests with violence. To show how far off the mark, the defense was, Judge Perry maintained “Defendants have offered no explanation supporting the notion that widespread opposition to immigration enforcement constitutes the makings of a broader opposition to the authority of the federal government”.Finally there was no evidence that the City, State and appropriate Federal enforcement officers were unable to contain what limited violence and crowd control that was necessary.
The District’s Court was immediately appealed to the Seventh Circuit where Judge Perry was upheld by a unanimous decision by a three judge panel. Needless to say Trump has immediately appealed this to the Supreme Court who have helped create this monstrous authoritarian Presidency, (See Blog: “The Trump Roberts Supreme Court”, September 1, 2025). Likewise the Trump attempt in California at using National Guards as law enforcement was defeated in a District Court which was then upheld unanimously by a three judge panel in the Ninth Circuit. The latter bizarrely then over rode a Portland District Judge's refusal to allow the National Guard to intervene in the protests against ICE in that city. This is being appealed to the full Ninth Circuit Court. Sadly none of this matters as it is ultimately up to the Supreme Court, which seems enthralled with the concept of a muscular presidency.
ICE AGENTS REPEATED USE OF FORCE
More disturbing is the outcome of a case brought by a group of journalists and protestors in Chicago who alleged that, “The ICE enforcement agents were targeting people engaging in peaceful activity, including multiple reporters, who said they had pepper balls fired on them despite being identified as the press”. Judge Ellis, who presided, issued a widespread Temporary Restraining Order, (TRO), on ICE and the US Border Control to cease their behavior.
In short order the complainants were back in Court alleging that Judge Ellis’s TRO was being ignored. The Judge was furious, “I live in Chicago, if folks haven’t noticed, and I’m not blind right? So. I don’t live in a cave. I have a phone. I have a TV. I have a computer and I tend to get news”. The Judge stated further that the news reports made her believe that the Trump Administration was not following her instructions. She insisted that the agents wear body cameras and that the Head of the ICE Operation appear before her on Monday October 20. She stated inter alia that ICE agents could not drive a car into a crowd.
As Governor Pritzker has indicated, “The President said he wanted to go after the worst of the worst……when they tackle a 15 year old girl because she is brown and haul her in, when they take on a US citizen, a young woman, whose coming out of Waukegan City Hall because she’s brown……he’s not doing that..)".
But onto the most remarkable peaceful resistance movement that the country has seen since the Civil Rights Movement - Indivisible.
INDIVISIBLE - THE PEACE PROTEST MOVEMENT
It is no simple task to organize and co ordinate nearly 3,000 separate protest meetings in one day. Then following the Martin Luther King model conduct training sessions of those in charge, to among other matters, how to confront violence whether it be from”law enforcement” or “counter protestors”. Indivisible’s is a remarkable achievement especially when thus far they have been no reported arrests among the over 7 million “We The People” participants.
The Founders of the entity, Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg began by publishing an Agenda on how to oppose Trump’s Policies in 2016. It went viral and by 2019 they were named by Time as 100 of the world’s most influential people. They became a non profit organization and are growing from strength to strength. They followed up their June 2025 “No Kings” protest by adding 2,000,000 more protestors 4 months later. These events involved the cooperation and coordination of 200 groups. They have received vast grass root support and to the joy of the right wing bogeymen an over 2 million grant from The George Soros Foundation.
There is little doubt that they are going to play an increasing role in the future. There is nothing like it on the other side. On Tuesday October 23 there is another mass call in to discuss what happens next. It appears that the next objective appears to get the voters out for the 2026 mid term elections
AT THE END OF THE DAY
The Supreme Court are sitting on two motions that could swing the 2026 midterm election to MAGA if they act in time. However so far Trump’s attempts at millitirization as a first move to win the mid terms in 2026 are under heavy pressure.
The Epstein files hang over Trump's head like a sword of Damocles and sooner or later they have to hit the fan. He has all manner of diversions including bulldozing the WhiteHouse and demanding 230 million dollars in compensation from the Justice Department. There are daily references to Epstein - Prince Andrew has dropped all his royal titles including The Duke of York following the release of Virginia Roberts Guiffre’s posthumous memoir, “Nobody’s Girl”. The London police are investigating him! Emails that have been leaked. The Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has kept the Chamber shut for 4 weeks so the Epstein Files can’t be debated. All this does is increase suspense, split MAGA further as the base demand the release.
Of course Trump can declare war against Venezuela and hope that all bets are off.
One fact is for certain, thus far, “We The People” are doing their Constitutional bit to hang onto America’s imperfect democracy.
At the end of the day there is one fact that needs to be emphasized, namely that Trump is not a rational actor and he will wing it from day to day. There is no master plan only a simple set of actions reliant on the Supreme Court ultimately declaring him a dictator. The position is fluid but what is for certain - The Founders did not intend that 9 unelected individuals would decide if there should be another King.
No comments:
Post a Comment