“It felt like we were under siege.” That’s how Darrell Ballard, a 63-year-old Chicago resident, described a massive federal raid on a South Side apartment complex on Tuesday that involved a swarm of drones, snipers rappelling from helicopters, and hundreds of heavily armed agents. They stormed the building, breaking down doors and igniting flash-bang grenades, and pulled out dozens of residents—some of whom were naked children, and many of whom were U.S. citizens. The adults were cuffed and the kids zip-tied to each other, in some cases for hours, while their names were run through a database to check for existing warrants and citizenship status. The Department of Homeland Security claimed, without providing evidence, that the building was a hotbed for Tren de Agua, the Venezuelan drug gang.
Two days after federal agents turned a peaceful apartment complex in Chicago into a war zone, Donald Trump informed Congress that he had “determined” that drug cartels operating in foreign countries are “nonstate armed groups” and “unlawful combatants,” whose actions “constitute an armed attack against the United States.” Trump was declaring war, in other words, and providing the same post-9/11 rationale used for taking out terrorists to justify repeated airstrikes on small Venezuelan vessels in the Caribbean that have left several dead. The administration has claimed, again without providing evidence, that these ships are carrying drugs—not that the presence of drugs would warrant obliterating them, the administration’s legal contortions notwithstanding.
Even with the fig leaf of legality, those strikes almost certainly defy international law, just as the warrantless detention of U.S. citizens in Chicago make a mockery of the Constitution. Taken together, they are stark examples of an administration that is increasingly using state violence with impunity—both outside and within America’s borders. But they are also chilling signs for the future: The awesome power being wielded against Venezuelans may one day be wielded against what Trump calls “the enemy within”—and justified on similar grounds.
It’s becoming clear that the administration’s extralegal assault on immigrant communities was just the beginning of a wider war, one that lately hast targeted anyone—from the street to the TV screen—who dares criticize the regime. Trump and his cronies have targeted media and entertainment companies, with the president filing baseless lawsuits against organizations like The New York Times (which is fighting) and CBS (which folded)—the goal being to cow them, and by extension their entire industries, into submission. Though unsuccessful, the Federal Communications Commission’s effort to push ABC host Jimmy Kimmel off the air—done via an assist from right-leaning affiliate broadcasters—showed that the administration does not give a damn about the First Amendment. It was also unmistakable proof that it will use state power to crush dissent with impunity.
There are troubling signs as well that the administration aims to attack critics of the Department of Homeland Security, the Border Patrol, and ICE in much the same way that it is attacking immigrant communities. As protesters massed outside an immigration detention facility that was being visited by Homeland Security head Kristi Noem, they were met with barricades, violence, and arrest. The same day, Wired reported that ICE was assembling a 20-person team to monitor social media to target people—presumably critics—for deportation, and Apple, in yet another blow to free speech, announced it was removing apps used to track ICE raids in communities, accepting the administration’s baseless claim that it endangered the agents’ safety. That argument—that criticizing ICE’s gestapo tactics amounts to a physical threat—is absurd, but it is increasingly being used to justify crackdowns on administration critics.
Trump’s decision to label “antifa” a domestic terrorist organization after Charlie Kirk’s assassination—even though his assassin had no connection to far-left anti-fascist organizations—was largely symbolic. There is no “antifa” command structure because it is not an organized group; labeling it a terrorist organization was applauded on the right, where it has become an almost mythic bugbear, but meant little in practice. Still, it was a fearful sign that the president will eagerly label critics and opponents terrorists and attempt to direct federal law enforcement agencies against them.
It would be a mistake to describe this as a crisis that has yet to arrive. Immigrant communities, foreign students, and pro-Palestinian activists have been victims of state violence practically from the moment Trump reentered the White House. This administration has already deployed the military to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and plans to do so in Portland, Oregon, and Chicago. It has already sicced its lawyers on the president’s “enemies,” notably former FBI Director James Comey, who last month was slapped with ridiculous charges of lying to Congress. And yet, we have all seen enough these past eight months to know how much worse it can, and almost certainly will, get.
Speaking to hundreds of military commanders on Tuesday, Trump hinted that he plans on expanding his crackdown to target administration critics, activists, and pretty much anyone else who dares speak out against a corrupt and increasingly murderous president. “This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room because it’s the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control,” Trump said. “It won’t get out of control once you’re involved at all.” It’s easy to see that becoming a legal justification for just about anything—just as ICE claims critics endanger its agents, or the administration claims it can kill anyone it says is trafficking drugs or arrest anyone who belongs to “antifa.”
Trump’s comments were met with stony silence by the generals, but he didn’t seem to mind. He kept on talking. Who was going to stop him? He has all the power now, and he knows it.
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