The moves of the Trump MAGA fascist regime are aimed at being overwhelming and relentless—and this is part of their fascist strategy. They are moving rapidly to gut the rule of law, silence and crush dissent in all spheres—from the college campuses to the media.
In his New Year's message, 2025: A New Year—Profound New Challenges—And a Profoundly Positive Way Forward in the Face of Very Real Horror, the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian said sharply:
Trump 2025 is not just another administration coming into office. This is fascism: the undisguised dictatorship of this system of capitalism-imperialism in the world’s most powerful capitalist-imperialist country—openly and aggressively oppressive and repressive—a fascism fueled by anti-scientific and Christian fundamentalist lunacy, moving to forcibly impose its racist, immigrant-persecuting, woman- and LGBT-hating MAGA madness, determined to unleash unbridled capitalist plunder and naked imperialist expansionism, prepared to violently crush any opposition or resistance.
Here we highlight four ways that this has taken a leap this week.
But note well: it is not too late to stop this, if there are forces acting in every corner of society declaring: NO! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America. The Trump Fascist Regime Must Go!
As Bob Avakian goes on to say:
...this is “not a time for accepting this Trump/MAGA fascism as ‘legitimate,’ and staying within the confines of ‘how things work’ under this system, as Democratic Party heads and other ‘mainstream’ ruling class representatives are urging people to do. It is not a time for turning inward and attempting to ‘take care of self’ as the juggernaut of Trump/MAGA fascism gains momentum and crushes masses of people. This is a time for reaching out to all the others who feel the same outrage at Trump/MAGA fascism—a time for collective action and self-sacrificing struggle for the greater good: the greater good of defeating this fascism.”
"New World Dis-order" Heightens the Global Danger
Two weeks ago, in reporting on the Oval Office beatdown of Zelensky by Trump and Vance, we noted that many liberals feared that Trump’s damage to and devaluation of NATO threatened the whole idea of the “rules-based international order forged by America through which so many have flourished.” We pointed out just some of the crimes that have been committed under this “rules-based order,” which included the genocidal killing of three million people during the wars against Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia; the similarly genocidal wars that included the massacres of entire villages in Guatemala and El Salvador; the slaughter of up to a million people in Indonesia through a coup directed by the CIA; the use of the NATO alliance to carry out wars against Afghanistan and Iraq; etc. This is the “rules-based” order which has presided over the death of 500 million children since the end of World War 2 through easily preventable starvation and disease as just “business as usual.”
But Trump’s upsetting of this postwar order—and the shredding of any pretense toward international law—does not mean the world is safer. If anything, Trump’s new foreign policy—in which he threatens historic U.S. allies like Canada, openly talks about seizing Greenland and the Panama Canal for "U.S. national security interests," and calls into doubt whether the U.S. would honor treaty obligations to defend Europe in the event of war—actually heightens the danger of war. You can begin to see the dynamic at work in a recent article in the New York Times, “As Trump Stirs Doubt, Europeans Debate Their Own Nuclear Deterrent.” The article reports that in the wake of Trump’s recent courting of Russia, Germany’s new chancellor is talking of extending the British and French “nuclear umbrella” over Germany (France and Britain are currently the only non-Russian European powers with nuclear weapons). The prime minister of Poland talked of the “profound change in American geopolitics“ and “hinted” that Poland might eventually develop its own bomb.
Then the question is what happens as the weapons spread into more and more hands, in an international situation that grows more uncertain and full of conflict by the day.
Think about it. Trump openly promotes gangster morality, gangster logic and gangster strategy with the posture of a wannabe “Don” who feels he’s not getting his due from the current setup—and you know where that leads.
But this is one “gang war” in which the crossfire is not a stray bullet hitting an innocent bystander, but a nuclear exchange that could kill millions and set off a worldwide, civilization-ending catastrophe.
*****
After we wrote the above, as if to underscore the point, Trump ordered savage bombing of Yemen. Over 50 people were murdered, including children. Trump followed this up with more imperialist gangster threats of the Houthi militia forces, and the government of Iran. Stay tuned for more coverage.
Trump Attacks Major Law Firms: A “Chilling” and Immediate Threat to the Rule of Law
On March 6, Trump signed an executive order apparently aimed at bankrupting Perkins Coie, a major law firm with more than 1,000 attorneys and 21 offices. The New York Times described this as Trump’s “payback for [Perkins Coie’s] legal work for Democrats during the 2016 presidential campaign.”
This came on the heels of another political attack—on February 25, Trump stripped away security clearances from some lawyers at Covington & Burling. Why? Because they had given pro bono (free) legal advice to Jack Smith, a Justice Department attorney who had brought felony charges against Trump.
Trump’s order will, among other things:
- Strip all Perkins Coie attorneys of security clearance, meaning they can’t access key documents in litigation involving the U.S. government;
- Bar the U.S. government from hiring Perkins Coie in any capacity;
- Bar Perkins Coie attorneys from federal buildings, possibly including federal courthouses, which would make it impossible to practice law on the federal level.1
On March 12 Perkins Coie’s attorneys reported that they had lost clients every day since the order was issued and would soon be bankrupt: “[This order] will spell the end of the law firm.” There is clear “cause and effect” here: what client is going to hire a firm that can’t even review key case documents and possibly can’t even enter the courthouse? And what client is going to hire a firm that Trump is openly beefing with, knowing that this will get them on his enemies list?
In 2022 Trump had sued Perkins Coie in federal court, claiming it was part of a left-wing conspiracy with Hillary Clinton to derail his campaign—the same basic claim he’s making now. The court found Trump’s suit meritless, and it was dismissed. This makes his executive order especially ominous. The courts already ruled on Trump’s complaint; now he is over-ruling them using illegitimate executive orders.
Perkins Coie is now suing Trump, and it was able to get a temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by a federal district judge. The judge who issued it said that the order sends “chills down my spine.” This TRO blocks implementation of much of Trump’s order—for now. But Trump seems determined to pursue and expand these attacks on the legal process, up to the fascist-dominated Supreme Court if necessary.
Implications
Now a wave of fear is ripping through the legal community—so much so that several major firms declined to take Perkins Coie as a client, fearing retaliation. CNN summed up: “The Trump administration is waging war against the legal community in the United States, with the target list growing every day.”2
If Trump can severely punish attorneys for defending people he doesn’t like, and if even powerful law firms are subject to devastating attacks, without any judicial process, just on the say-so of one person, that is a huge leap towards the end of “rule of law”… and the consolidation of full-out fascist dictatorship.
Or as one legal expert summed up: “This is unprecedented in our country. … The message is: Watch where you step.”
At Department of Justice, Trump Calls Media Criticism of Him “Illegal”
On March 14, Trump spoke at the Department of Justice, addressing a large hall full of prosecutors and other officials—including U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and head of the FBI, Kash Patel. This hour-long speech was a blizzard of fascist lies and threats. One thing that stood out was Trump’s escalating of the attacks on major news outlets to an even more dangerous level.
Taking aim at New York Times, Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS and others by name, Trump declared that “these networks and these newspapers are really no different than a highly paid political operative and it has to stop.” And he continued: “It has to be illegal. It's influencing judges and it's really changing law and it just cannot be legal. I don't believe it's legal and they do it in total coordination with each other and everything we do. We're restoring law, restoring order and restoring public safety in America.” (emphasis added)
Think seriously about what Trump is saying here—that news outlets that express any criticism of him and his regime, that are not obedient lapdogs of their fascist rule, are breaking the law! And think about what it means that Trump’s outlandish but deadly serious claim was made at the government body, the Department of Justice (including the FBI), that is the top institution for enforcing the laws of this country.
Since Trump retook power, his regime has been moving quickly to muzzle the major media and whip them into line—including banning Associated Press from the White House for continuing to use the name “Gulf of Mexico” after Trump unilaterally renamed it “Gulf of America” (see “Trump's Fascist Muzzling of the Press and the Raging Epidemic of Capitulation Thus Far”). Now Trump is going even further by calling the non-compliant media “illegal.”
The fascists are moving RAPIDLY to drown all criticism and exposure of their fascist program, and to make the lies that justify it the only voice people are hearing, day in and day out. They aim to enlist those who can be enlisted in their criminal plans—and to disorient, demoralize and crush anyone who opposes them. This must be stopped and opposed in every corner of society—by millions acting with courage and collective action aimed at defeating Trump MAGA fascism.