The following provides further information and sources on the points made in this week’s article “Fascist Trump Steamroller Barrels Forward—Will You Be Part of Stopping It?” about what the Trump regime has done just in the past week. 

1. The Trump Regime’s Attack on Truth

Denial of Climate Science

On July 29, EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) chief Lee Zeldin, speaking at an Indiana truck dealership (because… of course!) announced that EPA was revoking the scientific understanding that global warming is real and dangerous (known as the “endangerment finding”), which is the basis for EPA restrictions on emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases. The endangerment finding is the product of over 50 years of extensive study by thousands of scientists worldwide, and on that basis it is overwhelmingly recognized as a fact. Facts cannot be “revoked”… but they can be ignored—at great peril to humanity.

Firing of Statistician

On August 1, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) “released monthly jobs data showing surprisingly weak hiring in July and large downward revisions to job growth in the previous two months.” These figures contradicted Trump’s claims about how great the economy is under his leadership, and even hinted at a possible recession. Trump’s response—he declared the figures to be “rigged” and fired the head of the BLS.

Making Trump’s Impeachments “Disappear”

Also on August 1, the Smithsonian Institute¹ confirmed that it had removed mention of Trump’s two impeachments from an exhibit covering presidential impeachments. Reportedly this happened “as part of a content review that the Smithsonian agreed to undertake following pressure from the White House.”

2. Taking Personal Control of the Military

On July 30, the White House admitted that all generals slated for promotion to the “4-star” rank must be interviewed by Trump first. The point of this is to make sure that top military leaders are personally loyal to Trump, and not to the Constitution.

Military.com reports this is happening in the context of the regime increasingly “tapping the military for the president’s domestic agenda, including the creation of new militarized zones along the southern U.S. border, deployments to tamp down public protests over immigration raids, and the use of troops to bolster immigration enforcement and deportations.” And in that context, these interviews not only test personal loyalty to the fuehrer, but will likely also assess willingness to intervene to suppress and control U.S. civilians, in violation of the Constitution.

3. Supporting Genocide and Toying with Nuclear War

Trump has continued to support Israel’s full-scale genocidal war—fought mainly with U.S. weapons—against Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza strip. Trump has proposed that Palestinians be moved out and that Gaza be built up as the “Riviera of the Middle East.” As starvation mounted and famine loomed, Trump supported and helped oversee Israel in driving out and banning the highly effective United Nations aid operations (UNRWA) and replacing them with a U.S./Israeli operation (the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF), a Christian fascist pseudo-humanitarian group which not only doesn’t come close to feeding the vast majority of starving people in Gaza, but also makes a practice (as do Israeli military forces) of firing live ammunition into crowds of people waiting for food, killing around 1,400 Palestinians as of August 1. As deaths from starvation mount, including many children, Trump complains that nobody has thanked him for the food he’s provided!

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Trump has threatened Putin and Russia with massive sanctions if they don’t end their war with Ukraine. In response, a Russian official posted online that these threats and ultimatums could lead to a war between the two major powers. On August 1, Trump fired back that he had “ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions,” deliberately amping up potential for a nuclear conflict. 

4. Breaking the Independence of Colleges and Universities

On July 23, Columbia University announced an agreement with Trump in which Trump would restore some of the $400 million in research funds that he was using to blackmail Columbia. In return, Columbia agreed (among many outrageous conditions) to establish as policy that it was “anti-Semitic” to question the legitimacy of the Jewish-supremacist state of Israel, or to even compare its mass slaughter of Palestinian children and other non-combatants to the horrific crimes Nazi Germany committed against Jewish people during World War 2. These views are now essentially banned on campus, and students can be—and have already been—suspended or expelled for upholding them. Faculty cannot even discuss them in classes. As Columbia professor Rashid Khalidi wrote, “Columbia’s capitulation has turned a university that once was a site of free inquiry and learning into a shadow of itself.” (Go here to read Khalidi’s full statement saying he is withdrawing from teaching his course on Middle East history this fall because of Columbia's deal with Trump.)

Trump views Columbia’s deal as a model for U.S. colleges, and is using similar blackmail tactics against, or in other ways targeting, Harvard, Brown, UPENN, Cornell, Duke, Princeton, Northwestern and more than 50 others. In addition to Columbia, Brown and UPENN have already made deals—including agreements to accept Trump’s insistence that transgender women do not exist. Others are still “negotiating.”

5. Taking Direct Personal Control of Economic Policy

Seizing the Right to Impose Tariffs From Congress

Trump unilaterally (on his own authority) imposed shockingly high tariffs (ranging from 10 to 41 percent) on nearly every country in the world, risking international financial crisis, even though legally the power to levy tariffs rests with Congress, not the president.

Attempting to Dictate to the Independent Federal Reserve Bank

And all through this, Trump has been trying to dictate to Jerome Powell—the head of the Federal Reserve Bank—almost daily insisting that he lower interest rates (with the hope of stimulating the economy), insulting him, and threatening to fire him. The Fed is by law an independent organization; its decisions profoundly impact not only the U.S. but also the world capitalist economy, and for that reason it is meant to be free of “partisan political influence.” In fact, Trump has no legal right to fire Powell, but from the standpoint of the fascists these safeguards are merely an obstacle to be brushed aside or blown up.

6. Openly Rigging the 2026 Congressional Elections

Fascist-controlled states are moving to make sure that MAGA keeps control of the federal Congress in the 2026 midterm elections. Leading the way is Texas: voting rights expert Ari Berman describes an “unprecedented power grab,” carried out at the direction of Donald Trump. Texas officials “gerrymandered” (redrew in an unfair way) the election map so that five of the currently solid Democratic congressional seats have become majority Republican. Berman says that under this new map, 80 percent of congressional seats will likely go to Republicans—in a state where Trump got 56 percent of the vote! 

Trump openly brags about this Texas vote grab, and adds “we have a couple of other states where we’ll pick up seats also.”²

7. Demonizing, Violently Abducting, and Imprisoning Immigrants on a National Scale

Targeting a Million Immigrants, Building a Network of Concentration Camps

Trump’s fascist regime has reiterated its goal of deporting 3,000 people per day (about a million a year) while Trump continues to insist that these are “the worst of the worst,” “murderers,” “rapists,” “gang-members” and so on. $45 billion dollars has been allotted to build a network of concentration camps to hold people “pending” deportation, which could take months or years.

A July 21 report from Human Rights Watch on conditions at three detention centers (“You Feel Like Your Life Is Over”) paints a picture of vastly overcrowded jails, where many inmates are “detained shackled for prolonged periods on buses without food, water, or functioning toilets… forced to sleep on cold concrete floors … denied access to basic hygiene and medical care” and subjected to extended solitary confinement, sometimes for punishment, sometimes because people have mental health issues.

In reality, the vast majority of people who have been abducted have no serious criminal record—about one in 200 has a murder conviction. 70 percent have no criminal record whatsoever, not even traffic violations or disorderly conduct. They are overwhelmingly ordinary people trying desperately to feed their families working some of the worst jobs around. 

Arrests are often brutal. A July 31 report from Pro Publica (“We’ll Smash the Fucking Window Out and Drag Him Out”) reveals that this terror tactic—smashing a car window and pulling people out—is routine, and used when children and other vulnerable people are in the car.

The Military Occupation of LA as a Model for the Whole Country 

Trump deployed thousands of National Guard troops and Marines to back up his ICE thugs in Los Angeles; now the regime is planning to “go national” with this approach. The New Republic (TNR) obtained an internal memo about a meeting between top leaders of the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS—which includes ICE) focused on normalizing the use of the military to round up immigrants, as well as to suppress protests and occupy U.S. cities. The memo specifically says that operations like the recent brutal occupation of LA, may be needed “for years to come.” And it says the collaboration between the U.S. military and DHS “is a priority of POTUS,” meaning Trump.

8. Eliminating Restraints on Oppression of Black and Brown People, Women, LGBT People and Others

The regime has, from before Day One, been on a campaign to reverse every concession to the struggle of Black and other oppressed people, as well as women, LGBT people and other oppressed or excluded groups. They have demonized even the mildest concessions as “DEI” (DEI was itself a very modest program to limit inequality and discrimination). 

Being for Diversity—a “Fire-able Offense”

For example, in Virginia—under pressure from Trump—university presidents who publicly argued that diversity is a good thing, have come under attack—the presidents of Virginia Military Academy and of the University of Virginia were forced out, and the president of George Mason University is hanging on by a thread.

Erasing the History of Oppression, and the Oppressed Themselves

Even more, the regime is aiming to obliterate the whole history of oppression in this country and erase many of the victims. In March, Trump issued an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” that calls for the removal of content from monuments and properties within the Department of the Interior that “inappropriately disparages Americans past or living.” The website for Stonewall National Monument—birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement—deleted the “T” signifying transgender people. A large image and a quote from Harriet Tubman—who led dozens of slaves to freedom—was removed from the National Parks webpage on the Underground Railroad.