Donald Trump’s efforts to make our country more “secure” are regularly in the headlines:
- “Trump administration prepares to send more deported immigrants to notorious El Salvador prison”, April 9, 2025, CNN
- “Arrest of Judge is Trump Administration’s Latest Attack on the Rule of Law”, April 25, 2025, Alliance for Justice
- “Trump deploy Marines to Los Angeles”, June 9, 2025 Politico
- “100 days of record-breaking immigration enforcement in the US interior”, June 13, 2025, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement
- “Trump tours Alligator Alcatraz as he pushes for more deportations”, July 2, 2025 Reuters
- “Trump Administration deports 8 migrants to South Sudan”, July 5, 2025 ABC News
- “ICE raid at Home Depot in California”, July 17, 2025 Fox 12, Los Angeles
- “Trump’s Imigrant Crackdown in New York: More Arrests, Longer Detention”, August 4, 2025, New York Times
- “Trump puts DC police department under federal control, deploys National Guard”, August 11, 2025, ABC News
The level of Federal Government involvement in law enforcement at the local level, the criminalization of behaviors that are not really criminal, the number of arrests, and the deportations of individuals for imprisonment in countries they have no connection to is unprecedented. Unfortunately, the more of it that is done, the more it seems like the norm. The amount, pace, and aggressiveness of Trump’s actions are overwhelming the capability of our country to appreciate and understand just how fundamentally law enforcement is being transformed. Of course that is part of the plan;
“I strongly believe in the flood zone theory, which is to just overwhelm the opposition…It’s both scale, depth, and urgency…you just drop the hammer, it;’s executive orders, executive action, all of this.” Steve Bannon
And really, there could be perhaps no better tool at Trump’s disposal than the omnimously named “Department of Homeland Security”. Who could possibly be against homeland security? The Department was created by George Bush, Jr. after the 9-11 attacks. Most Americans rallied behind its creation. Of course our homeland needs to be more secure after such attacks! Sceptics did raise doubts about the need for such an expansive and potentially powerful agency that might one day be used against anyone, foreign or domestic, who could be seen as a threat against “homeland security”. Defenders dismissed that idea, assuring the public that it would only be used against “external” threats. But couldn’t even some United States citizens potentially be seen as a homeland security threat?
Donald Trump is significantly increasing funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Over the next decade, funding will increase by $165 billion. Of that increase $43.8 billion will be allocated for 2026, an increase of 38% over the initial allocation of $115 billion. Most of the increased funding is suppose to be used to “enhance” border security, particularly the building of containment facilities for undocumented immigrants, as well as paymemts to foreign governments to house some of these individuals. But what really stops Trump from re-purposing these funds for other uses to enhance “homeland security”? He is already pushing (breaking) the limits of executive powers by declaring emergencies where no emergencies exist. He has used the tremendous powers of the goverment to go after his political enemies. And most threatenly, he has warned of the need to deal with the “enemy from within”:
“I always say we have two enemies. We have the outside enemy, and then we have he enemy from within, and the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia, and all these countries.” Donald Trump, October 13, 2024, Fox News.
“I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they’re big–and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.” Donald Trump, October 13, 2024, Fox News.
“These are bad people. We have a lot of bad people. But when you look at Shifty Schiff (California Senator Adam Schiff) and some of the others, yeah, they are, to me, the enemy from within.” Donald Trump, October 13, 2024 Fox News.
“I think Nancy Pelosi is an enemy from within”. Donald Trump, October 13, 2024, Fox News
“There could be an alliance of the Justice Department, Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense. Those three departments have to be coordinated in a way that maybe has never been done before.” Ron Vitiello, Acting Director ICE, Trump Administration.
Additionally, the Trump Administration is using the old authoritrian trick of engaging in the very tactics that they falsely accuse their opponents of engaging in:
“The American people have witnessed the previous administrtion engage in a systematic campaign against its perceived political opponents, weaponizing the legal force of numerous Federal law enforcement agencies and the Intelligence Community against those perceived political political opponents in the form of investigations, prosecutions, civil enforcement actions, and other related action.” Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government, The White House, Presidential Action, January 20, 2025.
Portraying the actions being taken as a protection against the very actions you are taking is an Orwellian twist that is brash, audacious, and, so far, effective in its implementation. In the Orwellian world created by the Trump Administration, the Administration itself is NOT engaging in the weaponization of the government; rather, they are defending the country AGAINST the weaponization of government (by weaponizing the government). What was once seen as outlandish and unacceptable political discourse and actions are now being normalized to the extent that people don’t know what to make of it. And it has happened before:
“What made National Socialism possible wasn’t a single moment of collapse; it was the steady erosion of democratic norms…and the willingess of the political and professional class to look away so long as their own lives continued uninterrupted. I’m comfortable…What time is the football match on?” Tad Stoermer, author A Resistance History of the United States.
And that is the greatest danger; that people will simply give up and turn away from all the confusion and noise as long as their own life isn’t being too bothered. It is already happening; we’ve all seen it. Many people who were initally willing to engage and regularly express their concerns about what is happening have slowly, gradually disappeared from the debate and have gone silent. Are they just accepting the new normal, fearful of being involved, or just can’t be bothered anymore? This trend is concerning. It has happened before; and not for the better.
