What emergency will Trump declare next? How about a crackdown on the "fake news" media? A 1934 law still on the books allows the president to shut down or take control of "any facility or station for wire communication" (arguably, the internet in the digital era) upon his proclamation "that there exists a state or threat of war" or other national emergency."
5. The Scapegoating of Immigrants
The most heartless and dangerous policies adopted thus far by the Trump administration arguably lie in the area of immigration. Nothing says fascism more than dispatching federalized National Guard troops to the border, as Trump did in 2018, or incarcerating undocumented immigrant children in makeshift detention camps, or withholding federal funds from so-called sanctuary states and cities.
Trump's policies may be especially oppressive, but they haven't sprung from thin air. In the larger historical context, they fall well within the boundaries of America's deep-seated nativist traditions. From the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the "red scares" of the 20th century, the "Operation Wetback" mass roundups of the Eisenhower administration, the expedited deportation hearings instituted by Bill Clinton and the deportation records set by Barack Obama, our immigration laws and policies have been driven by political expediency, paranoia, scapegoating, racism and economic exploitation. Trump has simply taken advantage of them to consolidate and appease his electoral base.
6. The Transformation of the Department of Homeland Security Into a Mobile Paramilitary Force
Since its creation in 2002, the Department of Homeland Security has grown to become the third-largest federal agency, with more than 240,000 employees. More than 60,000 DHS employees work as law-enforcement officers assigned to the Border Patrol, the Federal Protective Service and other units.
The DHS operates at the direction of the president. In July, DHS forces were dispatched to Portland, where they bombarded protesters with tear gas and pepper spray, savagely beat protesters, and abducted some in unmarked rented vans. Rather than reprimand the agency for its excesses, Trump has promised to use similar tactics in other cities. He has also threatened to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Ac t to send the U.S. military to quell protests elsewhere.
7. Abuse of the Pardon Power
The Constitution gives the president broad authority to grant "reprieves and pardons" for federal crimes. Presidents since George Washington have exercised the power, sometimes controversially.
No president has used the power to reward political cronies, misfits and crooks more than Trump. In 2017, Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, the notorious Arizona sheriff, after he had been convicted in federal court of criminal contempt. In 2018, he pardoned the far-right pundit Dinesh D'Souza, who had pleaded guilty in 2014 to making an illegal campaign contribution. In 2019, he pardoned three U.S. military officers accused of committing war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. And earlier this year, he commuted the prison sentence of his longtime adviser and associate Roger Stone.
In the manner of a dedicated fascist, Trump has even claimed the "absolute right" to pardon himself if the need ever arose.
8. Eroding Justice Department Independence
No fascist takeover can be complete without the steadfast loyalty of government prosecutors to the nation's supreme leader. Until the arrival of Trump, every president since Nixon had respected the operational independence of the Department of Justice. The DOJ's independence, however, is not enshrined in the Constitution or protected by federal statutory law. It is a norm that the president, as head of the executive branch, can breach at will.
Trump has worked hard to break the DOJ. When he fired Jeff Sessions, his first attorney general, in November 2018, he replaced him with Bill Barr, a hardline proponent of the "unitary executive," a theory of governance that espouses a wide-ranging expansion of presidential power. Since then, as Intercept columnist James Risen has charged, Barr has "turned the Justice Department into a law firm with one client: Donald Trump."
9. Voter Suppression
In the run-up to the 2020 election, Trump's new appointee as postmaster general, a former donor named Louis DeJoy, is shutting down local post offices and reducing overtime pay for postal workers under the guise of cost-cutting to sabotage the agency that will be charged with delivering a critical mass of mail-in ballots in the fall. Combined with other suppression techniques that are already in place-strict voter ID laws, voting roll purges, the closing of polling stations, etc.-a grand plan is taking shape to cast doubt on the vote tallies in crucial swing states.
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