All summer the Trump regime has been taking shocking steps, one after another, to hammer into place a fascist police state. On August 26, Trump and his henchmen got together for a three hour, live broadcast cabinet meeting to publicly boast about what they’ve already done and get revved up for a whole new and more horrific stage.
Many elements of the fascist program were discussed and celebrated. Claims that safe and lifesaving vaccines for measles, polio, COVID and other deadly diseases cause autism. An open declaration that countries attempting to use clean energy are “destroying themselves,” and that “fossil fuel is the thing that works...” Bragging about the regime’s successes in bringing private universities—their curriculums, hiring, admissions and disciplinary processes—under fascist control.
In these discussions, Trump spoke of his ruling class opponents as subhuman and a plague on society. He referred to California’s governor as “Gavin Newscum.” He claimed that the staff of MSNBC are “worse than Tren de Aragua [a Venezuelan street gang that Trump is obsessed with], real scum, real scum, real scum.”
Many commentators remarked on how the other cabinet members groveled and bootlicked, and this was true. Others remarked on Trump’s out-of-control egomania. Again, true. But too many stopped there. What stood out most was the brazen, teeth-bared, bloodthirsty focus on the goal of a fascist police state to crush and terrorize the already oppressed masses, in the name of “fighting crime.” As Trump put it:
“I'm not a dictator.”
The line is that I'm a dictator, but I stop crime. So a lot of people say, “You know, if that’s the case, I'd rather have a dictator.” But I'm not a dictator.
And he kept repeating the same point:
Most people say, “If you go with dictator, if he stops crime, he can be, he can be whatever he wants”—I’m not a dictator, by the way.
Trump made clear that he intends to send military forces to Chicago (and other cities with large Black and Latino populations), despite the fact that both the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois have insisted and warned him not to do so. Trump's plan is blatantly illegal, but according to Trump:
I (have) the right to do anything that I want to do. I’m the president of the United States. If I think our country’s in danger—and it is in danger in these cities—I can do it.
Particularly chilling were his threats of lawless violence and even murder directed at Black and Brown people, including children. Trump said that the federal government would seek the death penalty for anyone charged with murder in Washington, DC, a mainly Black and Latino city. Note that capital punishment in DC was nullified by the Supreme Court in 1972, repealed by the DC council in 1981, and defeated in a referendum by a 2-to-1 margin in 1991, so this plan is totally in violation of the law, not to mention fundamental human rights and justice.
Then in the course of this Trump said they planned to treat 14-year-olds as adults:
One of the other laws we're trying to get done because your 14-year-old kids that are just as tough as a 25-year-old kid ... we have to make a provision where they're treated like older people because these are seriously tough, bad—they're children, but they're criminals and they're really bad criminals … you have 14-year-old kids that are evil, they're sick and they have to be put away. [Emphasis added]
This is the same Donald Trump who in 1989 took out full page newspaper ads calling for the execution of five Black and Latino teenagers in New York City who were framed for the brutal rape of a white woman in Central Park (known first as the Central Park Five, now known as the Exonerated Five). Even after irrefutable DNA evidence and testimony from the actual perpetrator proved that these kids had spent years in jail for a crime they did not commit, Trump refused to back down from his call for their execution.
Armed National Guard soldiers from West Virginia ordered by Trump to patrol Washington, DC, August 26, 2025. Photo: AP
Now imagine this racist, bloodthirsty lunatic occupying major cities with the power “to do anything I want.”
Again, the egomania and the ass-kissing were disgusting—but they must not obscure the fundamental point: Donald Trump is an unhinged, unleashed, and unrestrained-by-anyone fascist lunatic, surrounded by toadies, enablers and a handful of shrewd, sadistic monsters like Stephen Miller. There is no restraining this within the mechanisms of this system. THERE IS NO LIVING WITH THIS! And the question has to be asked of everyone disgusted by this spectacle: what are you doing to contribute to getting literally millions to DC on November 5 to drive this fascist regime from power?
