*** “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds…to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves…” [ Abraham Lincoln; Second Inaugural Address ]
Well, Trump has officially done it – admitted he thinks some American citizens are “disloyal,” must be rooted out, jailed, perhaps exiled or executed. He, of course, won’t do the dirty work, as usual, he’ll have somebody else do it, in this case, the U.S. military – on American streets…….
1]. “president Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed using American cities as training grounds for the armed forces and spoke of needing U.S. military might to combat what he called the “invasion from within.” [“Trump urges military brass to quell ‘invasion from within'”; Ben Finley Konstantin Toropin, Evan Vucci; Assoc. Press.; 10/1/25]
*** “The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence.” [Adolf Hitler]
2] “It’s a war from within,” [Trump] said. In that moment, the president again pitted himself against the wishes of the country’s founding fathers, historians and former military leaders say. Mr. Trump’s suggestion hat ‘we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military” is in tension with a core principle that the country’s armed services have long sought to preserve – that the military should be nonpartisan.”
“This principle, with its deep roots in American democratic traditions, is meant to ensure that the standing army initially feared by the country’s founding fathers serves the nation as a whole, and not one political party or leader.” [Helene Cooper: “Trump’s Military Goals Contradict Nonpartisan Roots”; New York Times; 10/3/25]
***. “May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.” [General, 34th President – Dwight Eisenhower]
Note; for perspective – research details on the May 4, 1970 tragedy at Kent State for context of what could happen if U.S. troops are called out to deal with ‘the enemy within.”
*** “Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear – kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor – with the cry of grave national emergency.” [ General Douglas MacArthur ]
3] “I don’t understand the reasoning of several recent letter writers who have protested use of the term “fascist” to describe the behavior of the Trump administration.”
“Merriam-Webster describes ‘fascism” as “a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime…that is associated a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition.”…
“Trump has violated and disregarded the law, condemned legal decisions he disagrees with, attacked individual judges and launched criminal investigations of attorneys who pursued cases against him. With his draconian cuts to federal spending, he has usurped powers reserved for Congress. he violated the Posse Comitatus Act when he deployed the national Guard to Los Angeles, D.C., Memphis and now Portland, and again when he directed 600 military lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges. Trump has targeted universities, journalists, corporate executives and governors. unable to stomach an election loss, he incited an angry crowd to attack legislators and law enforcement officers at the Capitol, then pardoned all who were convicted of these offenses. Now Trump has urged military officers to use U.S. cities as ‘training grounds’ and to suppress ‘the enemy from within.” [J.N.: letter to the editor; Minnesota Star Tribune; “This ‘enemy’ talk should make you nervous”; 10/2/25]
*** “{The tyrant} is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.” [ Plato ]
FOR CONTEXT: research the 1940s-60s McCarthy era “Red Scare,” when the power of “our” federal government was used to persecute innocent people accused of being “communists” [the enemy within]. Thousands had their lives ruined, lost their jobs, were blacklisted, were required to take “loyalty oaths.” Griffin Fariello’s oral history, “Red Scare,’ called it ‘the American Inquisition.” And/or – read David Caute’s “The Great Fear.”
Make sue YOU research attorney Joseph N. Welch, who’s question to Senator McCarthy lives on in American history as one of our “finest hours.” During the 1954 McCarthy-Army hearings, Mr. Welch, in exasperation, said to Senator McCarthy: “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?”
This won’t work with “our’ president, because Donald J. Trump has NO sense of decency or shame – BUT – we are waiting for somebody to ask him precisely that.
***. “It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.” [ Benjamin Franklin ]
NOTE: We will post more shortly on Nazi Germany 1933-38. What YOU need to know now: Hitler used government power against German citizens; people were required to pledge “loyalty” to Der Fuhrer; independent sources of power were eliminated/controlled. Sound familiar????????????
***. “I do not fight fascists because I will win. I fight fascists because they are fascists.” [ Chris Hedges ]
