In the past two weeks, Trump has attacked protestors, declared a false ‘national invasion,’ invoked war powers in time of peace, ignored federal court orders, and sent people to an El Salvador labor prison without due process, a hearing, or review. Flexing full tyranny, Trump is now threatening to imprison civilian protestors.
Triggered over tanking Tesla stock and sales and global anti-Musk demonstrations, Trump calls demonstrators ‘domestic terrorists’ and ‘sick terrorist thugs.’ He is threatening “20 year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla,” while suggesting demonstrators could be sent to “prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!"
It isn’t a joke, but it is sick and un-American. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a statement promisinginvestigations that “impose severe consequences on those involved,” including targeting people who organize Tesla protests with five-year mandatory prison sentences.
Most Tesla demonstrators, like most Gaza protestors, are not violent and have no violent intentions. Intimidating peaceful protest organizers who neither engage in nor encourage physical violence violates the 1st Amendment and chills the free speech of every American watching.
Clearly that is Trump’s intention.
Trump expands his authoritarian rule and boosts foreign mockery
After Trump disregarded federal court orders and invoked war powers during time of peace to remove Venezuelan immigrants, hearings on the merits of the case stalled, but the facts are appalling.
Trump officials knew about the court’s order and imprisoned people anyway, commanding the third flight to leave the country while the third hearing was still underway.
When El Salvador’s self-described dictator president mocked the judge’s order on X, with a sarcastic “Oopsie . . . too late,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio retweeted the slam. Tom Homan, Trump’s chief border official, piled on, telling Fox viewers, “I don’t care what the judges think... We’re coming.” AG Bondi also attacked Judge Boasberg, accusing him, outrageously, of “supporting Tren de Aragua terrorists over the safety of Americans.”
Trump and his unqualified hacks are deliberately fomenting public hatred toward federal judges who are now, as a result, experiencing threats of violence. These actions will cause such irreparable harm to the rule of law that in any functioning democracy, where legislators honor their Constitutional oaths, they would result in Trump’s impeachment and swift removal from office.
Trump’s continuing tyranny is laced with dementia
Trump openly manufactured an invasion to imprison people, and is now denying that he signed his own Executive Order to do it. His ‘invasion’ declaration was as lawless as it is dangerous; that he doesn’t remember doing it, like he doesn’t remember calling Ukraine’s President Zelensky a dictator, is even more dangerous.Trump also said yesterday he “knew nothing about” his cabinet texting on Signal, an unsecure chat app, about detailed war plans in Yemen. Either Trump really didn’t know about the security breach, despite it dominating world headlines, or he was told earlier in the day and forgot what he was told in the afternoon.
Retired psychiatrist Greeley Miklashek, MD, who writes the excellent Greeley’s Newsletter, recently reviewed footage of two late in the day interviews with Trump and saw clear evidence of a dementing process, often called sundowner syndrome. Greeley writes, “Trump has a deteriorating dementing disorder: confabulation, perseveration, short-term memory loss, poor impulse control, neologisms/poor speech construction/ slurring, loss of energy, confusion. He slid into this state over time, so the casual observer just thinks he's lying. Not so, he's sinking into Alzheimer's dementia. It can be seen in his presentation of himself with a different skin tone, hair color, affect daily.”
With Trump/Bondi calling Tesla protest organizers ‘domestic terrorists and thugs,’ it’s only a matter of time before anyone who criticizes Trump becomes an ‘enemy of the state’ targeted for imprisonment. One wonders how many people Trump will imprison before frightened Republicans honor their Constitutional duty and check him, if not for tyranny, then for spiraling dementia under Art. 25.
Americans who value freedom must urgently speak up now. Take to the streets, go to as many protests as you can. Go to Telsa protests. Paint those signs, call your representatives and senators on the daily- calls are counted. Talk about Trump’s dementia on social media. Demand, and attend, town halls. Donate to pro-democracy and rule of law organizations. Speak up peacefully and forcefully, but speak up now.
A crazed madman can only turn America into Russia if we let him.
Sabrina Haake is a 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her columns are published in Alternet, Chicago Tribune, MSN, Out South Florida, Raw Story, Salon, Smart News and Windy City Times. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.
