Security fencing surrounds the CoreCivic, Inc. California City Immigration Processing Center in the Kern County desert ahead of the facility reopening as a federal immigrant detention facility under contract with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in California City, California on July 10, 2025.
Everyone's Freedom Is Vulnerable in Trump's America
If others—other Americans, other human beings—can lose it, so can I. I can become the enemy.
Words fail me—but they’re all I have, or so it seems as I sit here at a table in my new apartment. They ain’t enough! Not as I read the news and feel... something... rise, politically and socially, and presume to be the American future.
Is this the rise of fascism? I use this word with uncertainty. I have never lived within its brutal purview and do not live within it now, as I write about the increasingly bizarre—and terrifying—presidency of Donald Trump. I feel no constraint as I write, no need to be cautious with my words. I feel no eyes on me, ever-assessing the loyalty of the opinions I express. I feel no fear, only outrage, as the snarky and bumbling “supreme leader” wannabe tells us who our enemies are. Can’t someone shut this fool up?
But then I read the news and, often enough, learn there’s a further Trump transgression today, a further grab for authoritarian dominance. And I have to look deeply at this freedom I think I have and acknowledge that it’s vulnerable. If others—other Americans, other human beings—can lose it, so can I. I can become the enemy.
America is an armed and frightened country. We believe—at least at the level of political leadership—far more in force, military or otherwise, than in understanding. We’ve waged hellish wars throughout my lifetime, killed or enabled the killing and suppression of millions of people. Why shouldn’t this come home?
I have no doubt that I am part of Trump’s “enemy from within.” So are you, in all likelihood. How far could this go?
Let me grab a single news story that I read Wednesday morning—no big deal, no complex analysis, just a brief NBC News account of a meeting convened recently by Pete Hegseth—secretary of the Department of War—summoning some 800 of the country’s highest-ranking military officers to Quantico, Virginia, from posts all across the planet.
Hegseth talked about how the officers needed to “lead with an eye on more lethality and less on wokeness.” America’s military must toughen up. That apparently was the essential message, and anyone who disagreed had only one option: Get the hell out of here.
After Hegseth, Trump himself spoke, boasting about the new America he’s creating. He told the generals and admirals about “the successes he believes he’s had in sending the military into American cities, and a potential preview of more to come.”
Reading this sentence in the article is when I first felt that stab of vulnerability. My God, Trump is simply accessing the power at his disposal. He isn’t inventing something new. Rule by force is already fully present in the American infrastructure. But apparently it’s now being turned on a larger segment of the American population, i.e., everybody.
I can feel Nazism emerging from the social margins. Suddenly the word isn’t merely a metaphor. This is reality, at least in an early stage, manifested by federal troops and masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. There’s an ever-expanding list of enemies from whom America has to be protected. Not just immigrants, not just brown-skinned Americans, but “the left” itself,” problematically pulsating in all those blue cities: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland. Where is this headed?
Trump said, “I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, National Guard but military, because we’re going into Chicago very soon.”
He also noted: “Last month, I signed an executive order to provide training for quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances. This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room, because it’s the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control.”
You know, before it votes Trump out of office. I have no doubt that I am part of Trump’s “enemy from within.” So are you, in all likelihood. How far could this go? Asking this question opens my soul. This planet’s human occupants have not transcended their addiction to rule by force. Kill thy enemy and all will be better. This goes beyond Trump. This goes beyond politics.
And I find myself back where I started: Words fail me. But I will write them anyway, because I have the freedom to do so... for now and, by God, forever. No matter who’s watching me.
Urgent. It's never been this bad.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission from the outset was simple. To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It’s never been this bad out there. And it’s never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed and doing some of its best and most important work, the threats we face are intensifying. Right now, with just four days to go in our Spring Campaign, we are not even halfway to our goal. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Can you make a gift right now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? There is no backup plan or rainy day fund. There is only you. —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Words fail me—but they’re all I have, or so it seems as I sit here at a table in my new apartment. They ain’t enough! Not as I read the news and feel... something... rise, politically and socially, and presume to be the American future.
Is this the rise of fascism? I use this word with uncertainty. I have never lived within its brutal purview and do not live within it now, as I write about the increasingly bizarre—and terrifying—presidency of Donald Trump. I feel no constraint as I write, no need to be cautious with my words. I feel no eyes on me, ever-assessing the loyalty of the opinions I express. I feel no fear, only outrage, as the snarky and bumbling “supreme leader” wannabe tells us who our enemies are. Can’t someone shut this fool up?
But then I read the news and, often enough, learn there’s a further Trump transgression today, a further grab for authoritarian dominance. And I have to look deeply at this freedom I think I have and acknowledge that it’s vulnerable. If others—other Americans, other human beings—can lose it, so can I. I can become the enemy.
America is an armed and frightened country. We believe—at least at the level of political leadership—far more in force, military or otherwise, than in understanding. We’ve waged hellish wars throughout my lifetime, killed or enabled the killing and suppression of millions of people. Why shouldn’t this come home?
I have no doubt that I am part of Trump’s “enemy from within.” So are you, in all likelihood. How far could this go?
Let me grab a single news story that I read Wednesday morning—no big deal, no complex analysis, just a brief NBC News account of a meeting convened recently by Pete Hegseth—secretary of the Department of War—summoning some 800 of the country’s highest-ranking military officers to Quantico, Virginia, from posts all across the planet.
Hegseth talked about how the officers needed to “lead with an eye on more lethality and less on wokeness.” America’s military must toughen up. That apparently was the essential message, and anyone who disagreed had only one option: Get the hell out of here.
After Hegseth, Trump himself spoke, boasting about the new America he’s creating. He told the generals and admirals about “the successes he believes he’s had in sending the military into American cities, and a potential preview of more to come.”
Reading this sentence in the article is when I first felt that stab of vulnerability. My God, Trump is simply accessing the power at his disposal. He isn’t inventing something new. Rule by force is already fully present in the American infrastructure. But apparently it’s now being turned on a larger segment of the American population, i.e., everybody.
I can feel Nazism emerging from the social margins. Suddenly the word isn’t merely a metaphor. This is reality, at least in an early stage, manifested by federal troops and masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. There’s an ever-expanding list of enemies from whom America has to be protected. Not just immigrants, not just brown-skinned Americans, but “the left” itself,” problematically pulsating in all those blue cities: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland. Where is this headed?
Trump said, “I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, National Guard but military, because we’re going into Chicago very soon.”
He also noted: “Last month, I signed an executive order to provide training for quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances. This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room, because it’s the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control.”
You know, before it votes Trump out of office. I have no doubt that I am part of Trump’s “enemy from within.” So are you, in all likelihood. How far could this go? Asking this question opens my soul. This planet’s human occupants have not transcended their addiction to rule by force. Kill thy enemy and all will be better. This goes beyond Trump. This goes beyond politics.
And I find myself back where I started: Words fail me. But I will write them anyway, because I have the freedom to do so... for now and, by God, forever. No matter who’s watching me.
- Alarm Bells Sound as Trump Gets to Work on 'Extreme Authoritarian Agenda' ›
- 'Cruel and Dangerous': Trump Ends Protected Status for Afghans and Cameroonians ›
- Making America Powerless Again: How Trump Is Robbing America of Its Greatest Strengths ›
- 'All Are Now Vulnerable': Legal Scholars Alarmed as DOJ Begins Push to Denaturalize Citizens ›
Words fail me—but they’re all I have, or so it seems as I sit here at a table in my new apartment. They ain’t enough! Not as I read the news and feel... something... rise, politically and socially, and presume to be the American future.
Is this the rise of fascism? I use this word with uncertainty. I have never lived within its brutal purview and do not live within it now, as I write about the increasingly bizarre—and terrifying—presidency of Donald Trump. I feel no constraint as I write, no need to be cautious with my words. I feel no eyes on me, ever-assessing the loyalty of the opinions I express. I feel no fear, only outrage, as the snarky and bumbling “supreme leader” wannabe tells us who our enemies are. Can’t someone shut this fool up?
But then I read the news and, often enough, learn there’s a further Trump transgression today, a further grab for authoritarian dominance. And I have to look deeply at this freedom I think I have and acknowledge that it’s vulnerable. If others—other Americans, other human beings—can lose it, so can I. I can become the enemy.
America is an armed and frightened country. We believe—at least at the level of political leadership—far more in force, military or otherwise, than in understanding. We’ve waged hellish wars throughout my lifetime, killed or enabled the killing and suppression of millions of people. Why shouldn’t this come home?
I have no doubt that I am part of Trump’s “enemy from within.” So are you, in all likelihood. How far could this go?
Let me grab a single news story that I read Wednesday morning—no big deal, no complex analysis, just a brief NBC News account of a meeting convened recently by Pete Hegseth—secretary of the Department of War—summoning some 800 of the country’s highest-ranking military officers to Quantico, Virginia, from posts all across the planet.
Hegseth talked about how the officers needed to “lead with an eye on more lethality and less on wokeness.” America’s military must toughen up. That apparently was the essential message, and anyone who disagreed had only one option: Get the hell out of here.
After Hegseth, Trump himself spoke, boasting about the new America he’s creating. He told the generals and admirals about “the successes he believes he’s had in sending the military into American cities, and a potential preview of more to come.”
Reading this sentence in the article is when I first felt that stab of vulnerability. My God, Trump is simply accessing the power at his disposal. He isn’t inventing something new. Rule by force is already fully present in the American infrastructure. But apparently it’s now being turned on a larger segment of the American population, i.e., everybody.
I can feel Nazism emerging from the social margins. Suddenly the word isn’t merely a metaphor. This is reality, at least in an early stage, manifested by federal troops and masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. There’s an ever-expanding list of enemies from whom America has to be protected. Not just immigrants, not just brown-skinned Americans, but “the left” itself,” problematically pulsating in all those blue cities: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland. Where is this headed?
Trump said, “I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, National Guard but military, because we’re going into Chicago very soon.”
He also noted: “Last month, I signed an executive order to provide training for quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances. This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room, because it’s the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control.”
You know, before it votes Trump out of office. I have no doubt that I am part of Trump’s “enemy from within.” So are you, in all likelihood. How far could this go? Asking this question opens my soul. This planet’s human occupants have not transcended their addiction to rule by force. Kill thy enemy and all will be better. This goes beyond Trump. This goes beyond politics.
And I find myself back where I started: Words fail me. But I will write them anyway, because I have the freedom to do so... for now and, by God, forever. No matter who’s watching me.
- Alarm Bells Sound as Trump Gets to Work on 'Extreme Authoritarian Agenda' ›
- 'Cruel and Dangerous': Trump Ends Protected Status for Afghans and Cameroonians ›
- Making America Powerless Again: How Trump Is Robbing America of Its Greatest Strengths ›
- 'All Are Now Vulnerable': Legal Scholars Alarmed as DOJ Begins Push to Denaturalize Citizens ›