By David Sole
We are only 58 days into the current Trump regime. From day one there have been numerous outrageous, overreaching and downright illegal actions by the chief executive and his minions. Now we are witnessing actions that can only be described as clear steps toward a fascist dictatorship.
Much of the havoc created in the past two months has been carried out by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This creation by Trump and run by billionaire Elon Musk is not a U.S. government created department, nor is it authorized for funding by Congress. Its agents, many of them young thugs, have run roughshod over entire actual government agencies and their civil service workers. But in the past week DOGE agents have violated peoples’ rights with armed support from three government agencies.
Last week, on March 14, DOGE personnel were refused entry to the US Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., which is not a federal agency. USIP’s website says “Congress founded the U.S. Institute of Peace in 1984 as a nonpartisan, independent organization dedicated to help prevent violent conflict and broker peace deals abroad.” On Monday, March 17, they returned with a D.C. police escort. According to USIP’s chief of security the police “held the door open and allowed members of DOGE to enter the building…followed by 10 to 12 … uniformed DC police officers.”
It is reported that Trump unilaterally fired members of USIP’s board of directors, appointed his own people. USIP director and others were forced to leave their building but plan to go to court on the basis that Trump had no authority to replace the board of an independent organization. It appears that the FBI also spent the past weekend lining up the Monday local police to support Trump’s takeover.
Previously, on March 5, the U.S. African Development Agency, which is a small federal agency, had a confrontation with DOGE intruders. U.S. District Judge Richard J Leon in DC issued a temporary restraining order requested by the agency’s CEO, Ward Brehm.
However, on March 6, DOGE returned with U.S. Marshals who escorted them into the building. Building locks were changed. On March 19 another judge denied the temporary restraining order but ordered further briefing on the matter. “In a significant first, the court directed the government to be prepared to provide testimony, under oath, from three named representatives of Elon Musk’s so-called ‘Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to explain their activities.
Trump’s handling of deportations are also dangerous and illegal. The targeting of Columbia University pro-Palestine activist, Mahmoud Khalil, is most alarming. On March 8 Khalil, a legal, permanent resident, was seized by immigration authorities with no warrant and no legal charges against him. He was shipped to an ICE prison in Louisiana and, for days, could not meet with his attorneys.
Only the intervention of a judge, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman, on March 12 has so far kept the federal government from summarily deporting Khalil. The government even tried to keep Judge Furman from hearing the case, saying that it should be heard in remote Louisiana where they had quickly spirited him away to.
Khalil sent a message from his detention facility in Louisiana saying “My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night.” This flagrant abuse of power by the Trump administration is another dangerous step toward suppression of freedom of speech and assembly, presaging more targeting of Trump’s political opponents.
The deportation of over 200 mostly Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador on March 15 has created a sharp confrontation between the Executive and Judicial branches of government. Trump has defied a court order to halt the deportations and to have the planes carrying the men return to the US. Trump used the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 to justify his ouster of these immigrants with no charges and no due process.
Upon arrival in El Salvador the men had their heads shaved and were imprisoned in a massive prison. Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro condemned the treatment of these Venezuelans saying “They were not brought to trial, they were not given the right to a defense, the right to due process, they were deceived, handcuffed, put on a plane, kidnapped, and sent to a concentration camp in El Salvador.”
Trump and his agents, meanwhile, ignored the court order of US District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C. Attorney General Pam Bondi publicly announced the administration would continue the deportation flights. Trump and other top officials are condemning Judge Boasberg as “corrupt” and a “radical left lunatic” and are calling for his impeachment for demanding legal accountability by the government. The behavior of Trump & Company is so outrageous that Chief Justice John Roberts of the US Supreme Court went public saying “For more than two centuries it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
These recent actions of DOGE using armed police, individual and mass deportations without due process and threats against the judiciary show how easily Trump’s regime finds it to ignore basic human rights. As protests grow, in the streets and the courts, to Trump’s reactionary policies, it is safe to assume that Trump will grow ever more frustrated and violent. Congress has shown that under the Republican majorities (along with some help by Democrats) that the legislative branch is totally subservient to even the most flagrant abuses of power by “King” Trump.
It is urgent that resistance from the broad population go beyond mass protest to outright preparation to confront the growing threat of fascism. Three immediate elements of this movement must be: 1) wide discussion by unions, civil rights, peace and justice organizations for a General Strike if it becomes necessary to preserve basic rights; 2) issuance of appeals to military personnel to educate them to their right, and duty, to refuse illegal or immoral orders; 3) organizing locally, regionally and nationally to physically defend organizations and individuals who become targets of the Trump administration and its fanatic, violent followers.
It is also time that the multitude of local protests be unified in a massive “Solidarity Day” protest to show our growing strength. This can be followed by regional assemblies of activists who begin to prepare a political and economic program that goes beyond simply opposing Trump’s policies. This is necessary if we are to win elements of the mass Trump following as they learn the hard way that their idol’s actions are damaging to them.
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