Everything Is Suddenly a National Emergency
By framing it this way, the Trump administration makes it easier to arrest Americans for not supporting the MAGA 'revolution.'
Sebastian Gorka, an ornery man born in the United Kingdom and then raised in Hungary, is the counterterrorism czar in the Trump 2.0 White House (he was naturalized as a United States citizen in 2012). If you don’t know anything about this man’s thoughts, let me introduce you to his latest comments.
“It’s not left and right, it’s not even Republican or Democrat. There’s one line that divides us: Do you love America, or do you hate America? It’s really quite that simple,” Gorka told Newsmax on Wednesday.
“We have people that love America, like the president, his cabinet, and the directors of his agencies, who want to protect Americans. And then there’s the other side that is on the side of the cartel members, on the side of the illegal aliens, on the side of the terrorists,” he added. “And you have to ask yourself: Are they technically aiding and abetting them? Because aiding and abetting criminals and terrorists is a crime in federal statute (Kilmar Abrego Supporters).”
If you, like me, happen to be an American who believes in due process, which is clearly stated in the Constitution that Trump and his cabinet officials disregard, then you are potentially guilty of “aiding and abetting terrorists” according to Gorka. Right-wingers and Republicans in Congress will say that Gorka’s comments are hyperbole — until they aren’t. Like everything else during Trump 2.0, a world where the president has been freed from the laws of our land and is permitted to do whatever he wants to whomever, the most outrageous words and actions formerly only things we saw being enacted in places like Russia, are quickly being manifested in our flailing democracy.
Since retaking office on January 20th, Trump has ruled like a Russian czar, issuing diktats veiled as Executive Orders. Eight of these diktats have been bogus declarations of national emergencies.
Trump has issued national emergencies related to fossil fuel energy production, mineral drilling, additional militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, and the country’s economy, using the latter of those declarations to justify imposing tariffs on nearly every country on the globe. Despite some abuses of the law by multiple presidents, Trump’s actions have been much more numerous and noticeable, according to Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program (8 National Emergencies).
When a president declares a national emergency, it gives him enhanced powers that do not require congressional approval. Trump used the smokescreen of a national emergency to turn the world’s economy upside down with his insane tariffs. The SCOTUS decision mentioned above and the enhanced powers from the national emergencies permit Trump to behave like America’s first-ever dictator, and people like Sebastian Gorka become responsible for releasing the trial balloons for public consumption.
Trump’s inner circle, responsible for the construction of America’s fascist regime, will both watch and see how the public responds to Gorka’s comments, and it will soften right-wing public opinion by bombarding the airwaves with the narrative that anyone “not with us, is against us.”
Matthew 12 is a pivotal chapter in the narrative of Jesus’ earthly ministry and one that includes Jesus’ notable statement that “he who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad” (Matthew 12:30, NKJV).
Members of Trump’s cult genuinely believe he is a messenger of God. The grifter-in-chief plays to the need for mysticism among his followers by telling them that God intervened to save him from the assassin’s bullet on July 13th. One has to wonder, though, what the cultist who was killed that day did to upset God, but those are musings for another day.
Trump’s misuse of national emergencies and the steady drip of willing propagandists at places like Fox and Newsmax are becoming a new Gospel for the MAGA cult. By turning everything into a “with me or against me” dichotomy, in conjunction with the straw man fallacy, Trump is guaranteeing that even the cultists who will suffer the most from his economic and DOGE chaos will still support him and be ready to kill.
When confronted with “if you are against the cuts to social security, then you are against a strong America,” the cultists, incapable of critically thinking through the manipulation of facts, will side with “a strong America.” When Trump says, “If you are for due process for ‘terrorists,’ then you are against a safe America,” the cultists will side with a “safe America.” When Trump says, “If you protest against me, then you don’t want America to win,” the cultists will cheer because they want victory.
In the meantime, the Attorney General of the United States will be prosecuting American citizens for protesting Trump’s terrorism. She will be outlawing the “Hands Off” protests, and mass arrests will take place. MAGA cultists will accept the arrests because Trump will tell them that the national emergency he declared against those “domestic terrorists” is necessary to save America.
And if you are upset that Americans are being arrested for exercising their 1st Amendment rights, then you too might be a terrorist and want the nation’s failure.
Then, they will come for you.