I thought this thoughtful analysis by journalist David French was worth re-publishing.
“It’s important to know exactly what is happening in our country. President Trump suffered a setback in Minneapolis. His larger project proceeds apace, however, and it’s creating a parallel MAGA reality that is laying the foundation for a further escalation of state violence.
Here’s how the process works. FIRST, federal officers (mainly from ICE and the Border Patrol) engage in extraordinarily aggressive and lawless conduct, including initiating physical contact with protesters or members of the public. And they’re not limiting their aggression to criminal illegal immigrants, the “worst of the worst.” They’re detaining people who have been granted lawful status, they’ve swept up citizens in the dragnet and they’re claiming the authority to enter people’s homes without judicial warrants granting them a right to search.
SECOND, as many people (including me) have noted, when a confrontation occurs, the administration and its allies in Congress immediately release statements blaming the victims, often using the strongest possible language – calling them “domestic terrorists” or “seditionists.”
Think of the dreadful things they’ve said about Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two Minnesota residents who were gunned down by federal agents on the streets of Minneapolis. Kristi Noem accused Good of committing an act of “domestic terrorism.” Vice President JD Vance called her actions “classic terrorism.” President Trump said she “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer.”
NONE OF THOSE STATEMENTS ARE REMOTELY SUPPORTED BY THE AVAILABLE EVIDENCE. (My caps).
The administration’s slander of Pretti may have been even worse. Gregory Bovino, then still serving in Minnesota in his capacity as Border Patrol commander at large, said Pretti (who had a valid firearms permit and was carrying a gun but did not appear to touch it, much less brandish it) looked like he was attempting “to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” Noem accused him, too, of “domestic terrorism,” and Stephen Miller called him “an assassin” who “tried to murder federal agents.” Vance reposted Miller’s slanderous accusation. Again, none of those claims were supported by any meaningful evidence.
The administration makes these statements before there’s any investigation and sometimes before they’ve even had an opportunity to review all the publicly available evidence, including cellphone videos. If the encounter isn’t fatal, they’ll often file criminal charges and put out news releases trumpeting their prosecution. You get the feeling that if they could charge the dead with crimes, they’d do so, with glee.
THIRD, when members of the media try to carefully report the facts and call into question the administration’s account, then that’s a fresh outrage. To MAGA, contrary media accounts are yet another example of the activist legacy media lying and spinning.
FINALLY, when the criminal cases come before the court, the administration often can’t support its claims, and the cases are dismissed again and again. Adverse legal rulings anger MAGA even more – now the judges are also engaged in a form of “legal insurrection” or nullification of federal law.
PROTESTS MAKE MAGA MAD. JOURNALISM MAKES MAGA MAD. ACCOUNTABILITY MAKES MAGA MAD. AND THE ANGER KEEPS BUILDING UNTIL A SINGLE SENTENCE STARTS TO SPREAD ACROSS THE LENGTH AND BREADTH OF TRUMP’S BASE: “INVOKE THE INSURRECTION ACT.” (My caps).
Viewed through one prism, this pattern is a form of political suicide. As the polling demonstrates, many Americans who thought they were voting for better border controls and tougher immigration restrictions are unhappy with Trump’s aggression. Voters don’t like the sight of masked officers dragging people out of homes and stores and cars. They don’t like the hype videos on social media in which ICE and the Border Patrol cosplay as low-rent versions of SEAL Team 6. They don’t like it when the administration lies and slanders the very people that it hurts and kills, and they get especially angry when cellphone video immediately debunks the administration’s spin. And to the extent that they pay attention to court proceedings, they definitely don’t like it when the administration is caught lying and defies court orders. At each and every step along the way, the administration is squandering whatever good will it had and increasing the chances of a blue wave in the midterms.
THE PROBLEM, HOWEVER, IS THAT THE ADMINISTRATION IS PLAYING A DIFFERENT GAME. IT’S NOT TRYING TO WIN HEARTS AND MINDS, BUT RATHER IMPOSING ITS WILL. (My caps)
When undocumented immigrants commit a violent crime, the news blankets right-wing media. We know from the 2024 election that the right will traffic in the wildest lies about immigrant communities, including indulging the fantasy that Haitian immigrants were eating household pets in Springfield, Ohio. Words like “invasion” are omnipresent in right-wing media. In fact, the Trump administration lies with such regularity and brazenness that one should presume that it’s being dishonest until we can see with our own eyes the evidence that supports its account.
Trump appears to be backing down a little from the actions in Minneapolis, but there is a difference between a change of heart and a tactical retreat. As of this writing, Miller’s post accusing Pretti of being an assassin is still up. Vance’s retweet of Miller’s post is still up. On Tuesday, a homeland security spokesman pointedly refused to back away from calling Pretti a domestic terrorist during an interview with Dana Perino on Fox News. It was only this past Sunday that Miller claimed that Democrats, “after losing an election, launched an armed resistance to stop the federal government from reversing the invasion.” And then, as if on cue, Miller attacked the judiciary again. A federal court in Minneapolis issued an order blocking the administration from arresting or detaining refugees who are legally in the United States, which prompted Miller to post on X, “The judicial sabotage of democracy is unending.”
If you think MAGA believes that its fury and rage will cripple its ongoing bid for ever-greater power, think of the lesson it took after Jan. 6: Trump could trigger what amounted to an attempted coup and still return to the Oval Office. So it doesn’t believe the polls. It doesn’t believe the media. It doesn’t believe the courts. In Trump it still trusts, and it’ll remain under his spell when someone else dies and the whole cycle starts over again.”
I believe it is all heading toward the invocation of the “Insurrection Act” as a pretext to disband elections, preferably all elections from now on (By popular demand, as Trump will frame it). Remember, Trump promised a large gathering of his evangelical supporters, just before his re-election, that if they vote for him they will never have to vote again. Think about that statement for a minute!
