Category Archives: Immigration

The Dishonest Reframing Of Operation Arctic Frost.

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With Senator Chuck Grassley’s description of an FBI and DOJ investigation targeting rightwing groups code-named “Artic Frost,” it would appear that the Biden administration had politicized and weaponized the government against Republican organizations.

But that narrative doesn’t fit the reality of the time.

Keep in mind that the operation began following a violent attempted coup at the nation’s capital and a coordinated attempt to overturn a free and fair election – all orchestrated by Trump and a variety of rightwing groups, including Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA. Indeed, prior to the insurrection, Kirk posted that Turning Point Action would send more than 80 busloads of Trump supporters to Washington, DC to “fight for the president.”

Other conservative groups conspired to illegally replace legitimate electors as part of the Stop The Steal scheme. And Trump, himself, was recorded demanding the Georgia Secretary of State to illegally “find” the 11,780 votes necessary to hand him the 2020 election.

All of that goes well beyond ordinary politics – well beyond Watergate. It undermines the very foundation of our nation and crosses the line into conspiracy to commit multiple felonies, including sedition.

To further put Operation Arctic Frost into context, the FBI had long ago identified rightwing groups as the most prolific source of domestic terrorism. {Think Timothy McVeigh’s bombing in Oklahoma City aimed at the FBI, a rightwing militia’s attempt to kidnap the Democratic governor of Michigan, and the murder of Minnesota Democratic legislator Melissa Hortman.)

In fact, over the past 10 years, rightwing extremists, including those who oppose abortion, immigrants, minorities, government and non-Christian religions have been responsible for 378 murders. These were all acts of terrorism.

That’s not to say that leftwing extremists haven’t committed acts of violence. But despite what Vice-President Vance says, they are comparatively rare.

Nevertheless, you can expect the Trump regime to use the murder of Charlie Kirk and the revelation of Operation Arctic Frost to justify further attacks on their political opponents. The regime has already shown contempt for the Constitution by governing in direct violation of the 1st, 4th, 6th, 8th and 14th Amendments. And Trump seems determined to seek a third term in violation of the 20th Amendment.

It would not be surprising to see the regime try to arrest and silence opponents. And, given that there were no real consequences for January 6 due to court delays, the SCOTUS immunity ruling and presidential pardons, you can be certain that Trump will further attempt to rig the 2026 election in order to retain his grip on power.

The Most Murderous Regime In U.S. History.

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As has been previously discussed, the Trump cult appears to view its leader as the savior of America, a man of God, the second coming of the Messiah. If so, Trump must serve a cruel and loathsome deity, since the Felon-in-Chief is responsible for millions of deaths. And he’s only halfway through the first year of his second term.

Think that statement is hyperbolic? Then consider the following:

A 2020 study in The Lancet led by professors at Harvard Medical School and the University of California at San Francisco found that the first Trump administration’s health policies led to 461,000 unnecessary U.S. deaths annually, plus 22,000 avoidable deaths annually from its environmental policies. Moreover, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated the death toll from Trump’s failed response to Covid-19 had reached 1,120,000 by January 2023.

In the current Trump regime, cuts to USAID are estimated to result in the unnecessary deaths of 14 million people by 2030, including 4.5 million children. (Thankfully, Congress restored $400 million in cuts to the PEPFAR program in a rare rebuke of Trump. Otherwise, there could have been an additional 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths over the next four years.)

Further, scientists from Yale and the University of Pennsylvania estimate that 42,500 vulnerable Americans may die each year as a result of health care cuts mandated by the Republican’s Big Ugly Bill. They warn that the cuts to hospitals and clinics, especially in rural areas, could be devastating to communities.

The regime’s plans to deport more than a million immigrants a year, the vast majority of which are only guilty of wanting to work hard and improve their families’ lives, is not just a blow to our communities and our industries. It will almost certainly be deadly. How many of our neighbors will die as a result of being forced to return to the nations they fled to escape war, gang violence, poverty and political retribution?

Appallingly, the Trump regime has also turned its back on the ongoing genocide in Gaza. By failing to support relief efforts by the UN and numerous European nations, the regime could be at least partially responsible for more than 500,000 Palestinians dying of starvation. And those who are spared from famine are likely to be displaced once again as Netanyahu and Trump have called for the relocation of 1.2 million Gazans.

Combined, the death toll from the first Trump administration and his current regime’s actions could total more than 16.8 million!!! Moreover, if Trump and his regime continue to deny the climate crisis, the death toll could rise to hundreds of millions more, if not the entire population of the planet.

What Did You Vote For?

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Did you vote for increased inflation and higher prices due to tariffs? Did you vote to pay higher taxes so that billionaires and multinational corporations could receive large tax cuts? Did you vote to increase the deficit and add trillions to the national debt? Did you vote to consolidate more power in the executive branch by taking power away from the courts and your elected representatives?

Did you vote to have unvetted 20-something-year-old geeks sort through all of your private information and cut thousands of federal jobs? Did you vote to make America more racist again by eliminating DEI programs and firing government and military leaders just because they are women or people of color? Did you vote to have inexperienced and unqualified people take control of government agencies?

Perhaps you voted to arrest and deport immigrants who are violent criminals, but did you vote for mass deportations of essential farm workers and those who work in meat processing plants? Did you want to see families torn apart? Did you vote to have your immigrant neighbors and community members arrested and deported without due process? Did you want to see innocent immigrants and US citizens imprisoned in El Salvador and beaten and tortured or thrown in concentration camps?

Did you vote for cruelty?

Did you vote to have masked men with military weapons kidnap working Americans without warrants? Did you vote to have armed military in our streets? Did you vote to have judges and congressional representatives arrested?

Did you vote to dispense with the rule of law?

Did you vote to deport Afghan interpreters who saved the lives of US troops? Did you vote for massive cuts to the Veterans Administration? Did you vote to see millions thrown off Medicaid, including elderly in senior care? Did you vote to make healthcare unaffordable for millions of your fellow Americans? Did you vote to close hundreds of rural hospitals? Did you vote to cut funding for the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control? Did you vote to cut medical research on cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases?

Did you vote to eliminate foreign aid programs that save millions of lives? Did you vote to alienate are most loyal allies, including Canada? Did you vote to make foreigners afraid to visit our country and to stop buying our products? Did you vote to end Voice of America? Did you vote to help Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians?

Did you vote to ignore climate change while cutting funds for NOAA and the National Weather Service and eliminating FEMA? Did you vote to increase the use of fossil fuels and lease public lands to oil companies?

Did you vote to lower taxes on gun silencers? To watch our leaders engage in massive bribery schemes and corruption? Did you vote to pardon the criminals who violently beat police and planned to hang the Vice-President and many in Congress on January 6? Did you vote to have the president pardon felons in exchange for presidential bribes? To sell green cards for millions of dollars?

Did you vote for increased attacks on freedom of the press and freedom of speech? Did you vote to undermine the US Constitution?

Maybe you didn’t intend to vote for many of those things. But if you voted Republican in 2024, that’s what you got. Indeed, that’s who you are. Because your vote is a reflection of you.

Imagine The Worst Thing That Can Happen To Our Country.

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Whatever scenario you come up with, the Felon-in-Chief will do worse. Since taking office, his actions have exceeded every worst-case scenario Democrats and even his own voters could have imagined.

For example, he didn’t just nominate a cabinet of staunch conservatives; he nominated unqualified and wholly incompetent extremists. He didn’t just pardon the January 6 insurrectionists that invaded the Capitol, he pardoned those who brutally beat cops.

He’s not just deporting immigrants who are violent criminals as he promised, he’s trying to deport law-abiding immigrants and lawful residents including essential workers, parents, children with cancer, educators, students, refugees, even US citizens.

He’s not just lining his pockets by peddling influence to international leaders, he’s lining the pockets of his entire crime family and his billionaire friends.

He’s not just reshaping the government; he randomly fired tens of thousands of nonpartisan federal workers so he could replace them with MAGA loyalists. He’s not only discriminating against minorities by banning DEI programs in the federal government, but he’s also punishing universities and corporations that fail to follow his lead. He not only purged black and female leadership from our military, he’s all but erased the civil rights movement and LGBTQ rights movement from history.

He’s not just calling news reporters and the media “enemies of the people,” he’s suing networks for reporting the truth and threatening to take away their broadcast licenses.

He didn’t just alienate our closest allies. He’s sucked up to some of our worst adversaries and dictators. He didn’t just invoke tariffs to protect American industries; he invoked tariffs on all goods entering the U.S. resulting in higher prices and increased inflation. And he’s not only pushing a bill to cut taxes on billionaires and multinational corporations, but he’s also raising taxes on workers and taking healthcare access away from millions of ordinary Americans.

His DOJ isn’t just investigating those who worked on his own criminal investigations, it’s now arresting political opponents and charging them with crimes. His DHS isn’t just sending the heavily armed ICEstapo into communities to arrest innocent workers, the Felon has unnecessarily sent National Guard troops and Marines into Los Angeles to incite protesters in hopes he can invoke the Insurrection Act. And according to his executive order, it’s obvious that he plans to send the military into any city he considers worthy of his ire.

He ordered a $40 million Soviet-style military parade to celebrate his birthday. That’s bad enough, but don’t be surprised if he orders the troops and tanks to stay in Washington to take over the city and threaten Congress. (He did, after all, direct his supporters to overturn the 2020 election and hang his disobedient VP.) He didn’t just have the DOGE bros collect personal data on every living American, he’ll likely use them to electronically rig upcoming elections.

And these are but a few examples. What’s the worst you can imagine? Almost certainly, it won’t be as bad as the eventual reality.

The Kakistocracy Is In Full Bloom.

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And the foul odor coming from Washington makes a corpse flower smell like roses.

At the heart of that stench is the Trump crime family’s extortion and bribery campaign. Not only is The Donald unconstitutionally imposing or threatening tariffs to extort foreign governments. The 34-count felon has sold access to more than 200 of the largest investors in his meme coin cryptocurrency scam. He has also sold pardons to convicted criminals for bribes, and he has pardoned more than 1,500 insurrectionists, including those who violently attacked law enforcement and invaded the Capitol on January 6, 2021, with intent to hang VP Mike Pence, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and numerous other congressional representatives on his behalf.

In addition, Trump has used the power of the Oval Office to take aim at every individual and institution that, in his twisted mind, has wronged him. That includes former FBI agents and federal prosecutors who dutifully investigated the crimes stemming from his first term in office. Of course, he has illegally used executive orders to attack those he perceives to be liberal institutions, such as Harvard and other universities, as well as law firms.

And Trump isn’t the only one using the powers of office to pursue personal, vile and often illegal agendas.

Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Ed Martin and others are restructuring the justice system in such an extreme manner that it more rightly should be called the injustice system. They have opened investigations into former officials – not based on evidence of wrongdoing or unlawful behavior but based entirely on politics and cruelty. Bondi has even announced that judicial nominees will no longer be vetted by the American Bar Association in order that their selection be based on MAGA loyalty rather than legal worthiness.

Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller are pursuing their racist agenda of removing millions of brown and black migrants while welcoming white Afrikaners into the country. Indeed, they have announced their intent to arrest more than 3,000 per week, including citizens. (Of course, the ICEstapo already has a history of deporting residents without due process and illegally detaining citizens and legal residents who have exercised their freedom of speech.) And now the Supreme Rightwing Court of the United States has cleared the way for removing more than 500,000 refugees with Temporary Protected Status.

Trump has even announced his intent to create an Office of Remigration, a fascist term for ethnic cleansing, based on removing all those who do not integrate into local culture regardless of their legal status – meaning they are brown, black or speak any language other than English. (Trump previously issued an executive order to overturn the 14th Amendment so that he might deport the descendants of certain immigrants despite their citizenship.)

RFK, Jr. has pursued his anti-vax, anti-science agenda to destroy the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control making the US and world population vulnerable to more pandemics. And he recently released his MAHA report. Though it offered some medically accepted studies on the cause of chronic diseases, it incorporates Kennedy’s skepticism of vaccines based on flawed and, in some cases, nonexistent studies.

And those are just the lowlights.

There are many more odiferous individuals within this criminal enterprise, aka the Trump administration. But, honestly, their cruel, illegal and unconstitutional actions are far too numerous to mention.

The Trump Regime’s Toxic Racism.

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The MAGA movement began with racist attacks on Mexican immigrants and attacks on political correctness (aka courtesy and civility). It incorporated the slogan “America First” previously used by the Ku Klux Klan. And it gained momentum with the claim that Critical Race Theory was being taught in K-12 classes. (It was only taught in law schools to help attorneys understand the disadvantages faced by minorities.)

And now that Trump is, once again, in the Oval Office, his blatant racism has permeated the entire federal government as well as both private and public institutions with his assault on DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), a long overdue initiative to create fairness for all Americans. The regime is even using its distaste for DEI to bludgeon corporations and universities by withholding federal contracts and research grants from those that refuse to accept the regime’s racist policies.

The Trump family’s well-known history of prejudice has led his loyal cabinet members to decapitate our military leadership by firing black and female military leaders and ordering the military to ban transexuals. It has led to the firings of minorities throughout the federal government. It has led to his takeover of the Kennedy Center for the Arts, the Smithsonian, and the Library of Congress. He and his MAGA minions have banned books featuring histories of slavery and any reference to the LGBTQ community.

None of this should come as a surprise. Since the late 1960s, the Republican Party has been built on racism and vicious attacks on minorities following the SCOTUS ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which ended segregation of public schools. It counted on Jim Crow, attacks on gay marriage and voter suppression to win elections.

The Party continued to create new scapegoats and culture wars including the myth of black “Welfare Queens” and the racist belief that poor black women relied on abortion as a method of contraception. It gained power by claiming that all Mexican immigrants were murderers and rapists. And that boys and men were emasculating themselves as transexuals just so they can enter girls’ bathrooms and succeed in sports against girls and women.

Now the Trump regime is rewriting the history of the George Floyd murder suggesting that Floyd was a violent criminal who deserved to be choked to death or that he actually died of drug abuse. The regime’s “Justice” Department is seeking to dismiss police reforms enacted following racist murders in Minneapolis and Louisville. And, in a clear sign of racist immigration policies, the regime has welcomed white Afrikaaners as refugees while pushing to end the Temporary Protected Status of black and brown refugees from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and elsewhere.

Not long ago, the House of Representatives banned the nation’s first transexual congressional representative from using the Capitol’s women’s bathrooms. What’s next? Labeling federal buildings as white only?

100 Days Of Criminality, Cons, Constitutional Crises And Chaos.

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As the second Trump regime concludes its first 100 days, let’s review the many lowlights:

To begin, there’s the takeover of the FBI, DOJ, and the State Department by Trump loyalists. There were pardons of more than fifteen hundred insurrectionists and violent criminals. The unjustified and illegal dismissal of entire government agencies and tens of thousands of federal workers. The careless and cruel deportation and imprisonment of immigrants and even US citizens without due process. The humiliation and thuggish intimidation of others by ICE brownshirts.

Of course, there’s the incompetent leadership of the Pentagon, the NSA and HHS. The complete abdication of the constitutional power given to Congress. The stonewalling of judicial rulings and verbal assaults on the judiciary. The ongoing attacks on all but the most compliant of news gathering organizations. The assaults on free speech. The many vengeful acts against political rivals. The partisan attacks on K-12 education, universities, students, corporations, law firms, medical research, the VA, Medicaid, public broadcasting, the Voice of America, endangered wildlife, national parks, national forests, clean air and clean water.

There are the economy-killing tariffs that have created an international trade war. The alienation of traditional allies and the embrace of war-criminal-led governments. The dismissal of inspectors general and other watchdogs to enable blatant and unconstitutional grift, including insider trading, the awarding of questionable government contracts, the Trump meme coin, and the hundreds of millions spent on weekend golf retreats, the Super Bowl, NASCAR, UFC, etc. – events where the felon-in-chief can bask in the public spotlight.

And now, with the destruction of our federal government nearly complete, the end will likely be marked by a military parade in celebration of our dear leader’s birthday. If that happens as planned, we may as well tear down the Statue of Liberty and set fire to every copy of the Constitution. At that point, we’ll have become a nuclear-armed superpower with a banana republic-style leadership and faint hopes of ever restoring democracy.

The Trump Regime’s War On Everything.

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Much has been written about Trump’s insane trade war with the world, which has endangered our stock markets, our economy, our international reputation, and the strength of the US dollar. Even the very conservative Wall Street Journal has taken the regime to task for its stupidity.

We’ve also seen and heard a lot about the regime’s war on immigrants. Though Trump claimed that he would only deport immigrants with serious criminal records, it is now obvious that his thugs at DHS and ICE are targeting all immigrants, including those here on student visas.

But the Trump regime’s war is much, much broader. Since taking office less than 100 days ago, the regime has expanded its list of targets to include American citizens, federal workers, veterans, the LGBTQ community, news media and newswire services, people of color, disabled, women, Democratic-led states and cities, the environment, climate change mitigation, intelligence professionals, USAID, Voice of America, FEMA, NOAA, National Weather Service, IRS, FBI, CIA, VA, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, prosecutors, scientists, immunologists, health care workers and researchers, AmeriCorps, HeadStart, the education system, universities, libraries, arts centers, museums, law firms, judges and the courts, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Canada, Greenland, Panama, our closest allies, and virtually every longstanding positive norm and institution.

Not the least of the regime’s targets is the United States Constitution beginning with an executive order repealing the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of birthright citizenship and, more recently, full-frontal assaults on the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of press and the freedom of assembly.

The regime has gleefully overstepped its authority by illegally destroying agencies created by Congress and blocking congressionally authorized funding, a violation of Congress’ Article One powers as spelled out in the Constitution.

Under the guise of fighting antisemitism, the regime has even attacked the First Amendment guarantee of free speech by detaining students and legal immigrants who have spoken out against Israel’s many war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, including the indiscriminate bombing of civilians, murders of journalists and aid workers, and the intentional targeting of children as young as 2-years-old.

Even worse, the regime has abducted and imprisoned dozens without acknowledging their constitutional right to due process. In fact, it has attacked almost every aspect of the rule of law – the very foundation of our democracy. That has led to a full-fledged constitutional crisis as Trump and his cronies have willfully ignored a unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court demanding the regime to facilitate the return of a legal resident who, by its own admission, was sent to a Salvadoran prison through an “administrative error.”

By contrast, the regime has supported dictators and brutal strongmen, most especially Vladimir Putin. It has also pardoned and excused felons, including the seditious mob that invaded the US Capitol and violently attacked law enforcement on January 6.

All of this has led to massive nationwide demonstrations, to longtime allies making plans to defend themselves without our help, to trading partners banning the import of American-made products, and to almost every nation on the planet issuing travel warnings to the United States resulting in significant drops in tourism along with a corresponding drop in revenue.

Of course, none of this should come as a surprise to voters. Much of it was clearly laid out in Project 2025. Moreover, if you give a convicted felon, rapist and fraudster great power, you shouldn’t be surprised when he engages in criminal activity and breaks more laws

What Is Our Democracy’s Breaking Point?

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All but the most extreme of Trump’s supporters now have legitimate concerns about the future of the world’s oldest democratic republic.

After all, we’ve seen the Supreme Court of the United States give our Dear Leader immunity for official acts while in office. We’ve seen Trump pardon violent criminals who attacked police and vandalized our U.S. Capitol. And we’ve seen the unqualified and incompetent take control of our government agencies.

We’ve seen Trump, the world’s richest man and his DOGE bros usurp congressional authority by illegally firing more than 200,000 government employees and withholding congressionally approved funding in order to rationalize a $4.6 trillion tax cut for American oligarchs. We’ve seen them threaten Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. We’ve seen them decimate HHS, SSA, VA, the Department of Education and more. And we’ve seen go so far as to eliminate USAID and the Voice of America.

We’ve seen the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice and the National Security Agency decapitated. We’ve seen longtime FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors fired for simply having done their jobs by investigating Trump and his friends for legitimate and obvious crimes.

We’ve seen women, people of color and other minorities removed from positions of leadership as part of Trump’s attacks on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. We’ve seen history removed from government websites. We’ve seen Trump take control of the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian. We’ve seen universities have their federal research grants pulled for refusing to give up control of their institutions to the administration. We’ve seen Trump threaten some of the nation’s oldest and largest law firms along with legacy media and newswire services.

We’ve seen former president Joe Biden and former Trump and Biden officials have their security clearances pulled. Some have also lost their security details leaving them vulnerable to the Oathkeepers, Proud Boys and other violent MAGA supporters.

We’ve seen Trump threaten Canada, Greenland and Panama. We’ve heard him speak glowingly about his plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza and build a Mar-a-Lago on the Mediterranean. We’ve seen him alienate our closest allies and side with brutal dictators and autocrats. For example, we’ve seen him side with Vladimir Putin by claiming that Ukraine started the war with Russia.

We’ve seen Trump institute tariffs against all of our trading partners – tariffs that have crashed the stock markets, and increased prices on all imported goods.

We’ve seen retribution and threats against judges who have signed injunctions to block Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional actions. We’ve seen immigrants arrested and sent to an El Salvador torture center without due process. We’ve seen a DOJ attorney fired for admitting in court that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a legal immigrant, was mistakenly sent to El Salvador through an administrative error. We’ve seen foreign students detained for having written or spoken out against our government’s support for Israel’s war crimes. We have heard Trump talk about sending US citizens to El Salvador. And we are in the midst of a very real constitutional crisis now that Trump and his minions are defying a unanimous Supreme Court order to facilitate Garcia’s return to the US.

All of this has happened in less than 3 months! And the Republican’s narrow congressional majority seems uninterested, willing to fall in line behind Trump without so much as a vote. Indeed, the only thing that seems to motivate the majority is to further restrict voting in Democratic-leaning areas.

The question is: How much longer can our democracy hold? Will we still have our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms by the congressional midterm elections in 2026? Our nation is already unrecognizable to the majority of our citizens and to most of the world. If the administration’s illegal and unconstitutional actions are allowed to continue for another 22 months, what of our democracy will be left? Even if Democrats win an overwhelming majority in both houses of Congress in 2026, it will take decades to rebuild a functioning government, and generations to rebuild our stature around the globe.

The A In USA Now Stands For Autocracy.

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Fellow Americans: The good news is that we no longer have to worry about our nation becoming an autocracy under a second Trump administration as many Democrats feared. The bad news is that it already has.

Trump has moved the nation toward autocracy faster than Putin of Russia, Erdogan of Turkey or Orban of Hungary.

Indeed, in just two months, he has ignored or dismissed most of his campaign promises to end inflation and cut costs for American consumers. He has elevated dozens of loyalists – many of them grossly unqualified – to cabinet positions. He has fired Inspectors General and others responsible for identifying government corruption. He has replaced Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs with racism and misogyny.

He has purged the DOJ and FBI of nonpartisan civil servants and replaced them with submissive toadies. He has withdrawn the US from the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization. He has defunded the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. And he has blocked funding for medical research.

He has punished news media that have had the temerity to confront him with difficult questions, to report his illegal actions, and to debunk his numerous lies. He has permitted an unelected and unvetted billionaire to fire tens of thousands of federal employees and to access classified information and the personal data of millions of Americans. Further, he has indicated his desire to eliminate Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security in order to justify an additional $4.5 trillion tax cut for billionaires and large corporations.

He has embraced our nation’s greatest adversaries while abandoning our most loyal allies. He has begun an international trade war that is almost certain to send our economy into recession. And he has threatened to make Canada our 51st state, to take Greenland, and to retake the Panama Canal by force.

Without debate or congressional input, he has governed by Sharpie.

Thus far, the Felon-in-Chief has signed 90 executive orders – many of them blatantly unconstitutional. For example, he unconstitutionally abolished birthright citizenship as established under the 14th Amendment. He has illegally blocked congressionally approved payments. He has illegally threatened research grants to universities that fail to suppress student demonstrations against Israel and his policies.

He has shuttered Voice of America and effectively closed USAID. He has ordered the closing of the Department of Education. He has revoked the temporary protected status of more than half a million refugees. And he has invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 to justify detaining and deporting those who do not meet his definition of desirable immigrants without the protection of Habeas Corpus. That includes those legally in the US who have committed the “crimes” of expressing contempt for Trump and his policies.

More worryingly, he has blatantly and dismissively ignored judicial orders and threatened the judges who made them, thereby creating a constitutional crisis. Not even a rebuke by Chief Justice Roberts seems to have deterred him.

Of course, all of this was predictable. What else would you expect from a presidential candidate who stated he would be a dictator on day one, who has been convicted of 34 felonies, who was judged to have committed sexual assault, who was the subject of multiple felony indictments, who inspired a violent insurrection, who announced his intention to exact revenge on those who tried to hold him accountable?

The only questions remaining are to what end and how do we save our democracy from his grasp? Waiting until 2026 to elect a Democratic-majority Congress may be far too late.

Already stock markets are plunging, inflation is soaring, and consumer confidence is falling. Adding to our economic woes, many former European allies have warned their citizens against travel to the US. Trump’s ill-conceived tariffs and dismissive speeches have infuriated Canadians causing Canadian tourism to the US to fall off a cliff.

Other NATO allies are making plans for their defense against Russian aggression without help from the US. In addition, our national security is at risk after Trump’s reported sharing of the nation’s most secret military plans with Musk and others who lack security clearances.

The question is: To what end?

I understand the desire of Trump and his oligarch friends to send the US economy into a recession. Many have already sold off their stocks and could reap immense profits by repurchasing shares at a lower price. I can understand the oligarchs’ desire to profit by privatizing pools of public funds, such as those intended for education, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. Though it sickens me, I can even understand Trump’s desire to undermine the Constitution by weakening Congress and the judicial system in order to consolidate his own power.

And given Trump’s years-long ties to Russia and reports of kompromat, I can understand why Trump would personally bow to Putin.

But why destroy most of the agencies of the federal government? Why make our government so dysfunctional? Why destroy our national parks? Why ignore climate change and endanger the entire planet? Why rewrite history and so embrace fascism, racism and misogyny? Why deport necessary undocumented workers? Why treat tens of thousands of hardworking civil servants so cruelly? Why destroy our decades of goodwill with democratic nations around the globe thereby weakening the US for decades to come?

Is Trump inviting Americans to take to the streets in protest – to engage in violence – so that he can institute martial law? If so, what then? He’s already acting as a king. What is the end game?