Trump compels his followers to endorse apparent lies. It’s accelerating the nation’s descent into authoritarianism.
Army personnel chat on the Nationwide Mall in Washington, DC, on August 14, 2025.
(Alex Wroblewski / AFP by way of Getty Photographs)
It was 8 pm, humid, and I used to be on my own, throughout the road from the place my children went to elementary college, banging a big metallic spoon towards a pot. I used to be alone, as a result of I had gotten the tackle mistaken for a pots-and-pans demonstration towards Donald Trump’s navy occupation of Washington, DC. What I missed was a cacophonous neighborhood protest, considered one of many throughout elements of the DMV (DC, Maryland, and Virginia). After dwelling in DC, I’m now a five-minute stroll throughout the border in Maryland. However my household works in DC, my neighbors (those that haven’t but been laid off) work in DC, and our lives are wrapped up in a city struggling beneath one other Massive Lie.
As absurd as I felt doing a pots-and-pans solo efficiency whereas households checked out me quizzically, this now feels applicable. It was no extra absurd than proclaiming against the law epidemic in a metropolis the place crime has fallen considerably since 2023. It was no extra absurd than being lectured about regulation and order by Justice Division officers protecting up a child-sex ring that appears to contain their boss. It was no extra absurd than a white, middle-aged Justice Division worker named Sean Dunn changing into a folks hero (no pun supposed) for calling considered one of Trump’s troops a “fascist,” chucking a messy sandwich at shut vary into his chest, after which outrunning them in boat sneakers. It was no extra absurd than listening to Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi, together with her cross necklace sufficiently big for an impromptu crucifixion, say that the sandwich man with boat sneakers is a part of the “deep state” that she’s been tirelessly preventing.
It was no extra absurd than the truth that town’s Reichstag Hearth was sparked by the alleged assault of an Elon Musk acolyte referred to as “Massive Balls” by children as younger as 12 years outdated. It was no extra absurd than seeing White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt being requested by white-supremacist gadfly, Russian stooge, and plagiarist Benny Johnson in an official White Home press briefing if Massive Balls can be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It was no extra absurd than listening to these oh-so-manly Republicans line as much as say how scared they’re to go work within the morning. Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin, a brutish dolt who challenges liberal congressional witnesses to fistfights, stated he doesn’t buckle his seatbelt in DC out of worry he’ll be carjacked. Consultant Tim Burchett stated he sleeps in his workplace, scared of town exterior.
Whether or not they’re making themselves laughingstocks to show their loyalty to Trump or as a result of they really stay with this worry, I can not think about admitting such issues publicly. They’re wonderful with their children pondering that Dad, in essentially the most closely policed a part of the US, is scared to go away his workplace. A cornerstone of white conservatism in 2025 is howling concerning the loss of life of American “manhood” and extolling the advantage of the gun—all whereas confessing to being a coward.
Present Problem
Trump says from the protection of the freshly paved-over Rose Backyard, the place his UFC ring will doubtless go, that now we have “caravans of youth rampaging by metropolis streets always of the day.” (Be aware the usage of “caravan,” a descriptor normally saved for immigrants making an attempt to cross the border. It’s Klan Mad Libs.)
Please hearken to me: I’m out right here every single day, and there are not any “caravans of youth” seeking to carjack Oklahoma senators with manhood points. As an alternative, Trump is making an attempt to nationalize what he did to the Central Park 5 and, identical to with the Central Park 5, it’s a divisive lie. That is another Massive Lie, facilitated by Fox Information, that Trump’s supporters have to imagine. They crave for Trump to be their white knight, which is why he’s determined that they not reckon together with his time on Epstein’s island. Trump must distract them, and he must suppress democratic revolt towards a failing, more and more unpopular agenda—and this transfer does each.
This isn’t about avenue crime. That is concerning the president’s public want to militarily occupy cities in states with Democratic governors, put a last stake within the coronary heart of democratic norms, and, most critically, do all of it on fictitious phrases. The bottom line is to make folks settle for the lies so that they grow to be complicit. Crime-rate drops are irrelevant. Homicide charges in pink states are irrelevant. If you select to imagine the lie, then you end up defending it. If you defend it, you grow to be part of the hurt it does. Trump getting folks to imagine what’s unfaithful is the political model of getting extra prints on the deal with of a gun.
DC is the proper testing floor for this coup, as a result of it doesn’t have statehood and solely restricted residence rule. As longtime DC civil rights chief the Rev. Graylan Hagler advised me, “We have been already occupied by regulation enforcement making DC some of the police-occupied cities within the nation, with Capitol police, park police, transportation police, the FBI, the DEA, and the checklist goes on, and lots of of these companies moreover having separate police departments of their very own. Solely the MPD [The Metropolitan Police Department] was beneath native management, and that now not exists. With the Nationwide Guard on the streets and all native empowerment gone, we’re a metropolis and folks dwelling beneath martial regulation.”
Because of this civil rights leaders like Reverend Hagler have lengthy advocated for DC statehood: As a result of with out it, DC residents are GOP prey. From constitution colleges to necessary drug legal guidelines, a GOP-controlled Congress at all times treats DC as its personal political laboratory. That is the tip outcome: A federal tyrant working town with none accountability. Banners dangle from overpasses now with a tweak on the longtime slogan of each 1776 and the DC statehood motion: “No Occupation With out Illustration.”
That occupation includes checkpoints, ICE raids, the terrorizing of unhoused folks, and Washington Submit interactive neighborhood maps so you’ll be able to watch the seizure of the nation’s capital from the consolation of your sofa. Nationwide Democrats and centrists have by no means taken the DC statehood motion severely. The worth for that will probably be paid nicely past the district’s borders.
On this second of disaster, we’d like a unified, progressive opposition to Donald Trump.
We’re beginning to see one take form within the streets and at poll packing containers throughout the nation: from New York Metropolis mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s marketing campaign centered on affordability, to communities defending their neighbors from ICE, to the senators opposing arms shipments to Israel.
The Democratic Get together has an pressing option to make: Will it embrace a politics that’s principled and widespread, or will it proceed to insist on dropping elections with the out-of-touch elites and consultants that acquired us right here?
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Bhaskar Sunkara
President, The Nation
