Becoming a diverse, truly democratic society has always been America's most desired goal – and its greatest challenge. Over the centuries, people have fought and died to expand voting rights and protect civil liberties in order to ensure equal justice— because most of us believe in the American experiment. Donald Trump’s goal is to destroy every bit of the progress we’ve made solely for the purpose of benefiting himself.
People come to this country for many reasons. Sometimes they’re seeking better job opportunities or political asylum; sometimes they’re escaping horrific conditions in their countries of origin. Once they get here, immigrants overwhelmingly become vital members of their communities.
Since its founding, we have been a country of immigrants. My great-grandparents on my father’s side were immigrants; so was my grandmother, my dad’s mom. Donald obviously knows this piece of family history, just as he knows that it is easy to divide us over the issue of immigration if he focuses his vitriol on and weaponizes his hatred against immigrants of color. It’s obvious that Donald doesn’t always know what he’s doing, but he knows this.
Since 2022, according to NPR, Donald has made 100 specific threats to prosecute, imprison, or punish Americans whom he sees as his enemies. He explicitly calls Americans "the enemy from within" and threatens to use military force against perceived political enemies and those who belong to groups he reviles. When asked about these statements, Donald’s running mate, JD Vance defended them. Donald was just "speaking from the heart,” he said, which, I guess, is the Nazi version of “he tells it like it is.”
Yesterday, The New York Times published a series of remarkable interviews with John Kelly, Donald's longest-serving Chief of Staff. Kelly had more access to Donald on a daily basis than almost anyone else in his inner circle, and his revelations confirm the worst of what many of us have known and been warning about for years.
"He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government," Kelly said. "He never accepted the fact that he wasn't the most powerful man in the world — and by power, I mean an ability to do anything he wanted, anytime he wanted."
In private conversations in the White House, Donald declared his desire that American generals be "more like Hitler's generals." Kelly has now confirmed that this wasn’t just empty rhetoric—Donald repeatedly praised Hitler, saying "Hitler did some good things too." When confronted with these comments, he tried to deflect by saying, "I've never read Mein Kampf" as if that his ignorance justified his admiration of the man who committed genocide against six million Jews and who murdered millions of others.
It needs to be emphasized at every opportunity that the Republican currently running to be president of the United States is on the side of the Nazis whom we sacrificed so much blood and treasure to defeat in World War II. It’s devastating that this tragic truth is not enough to render Donald unacceptable to every single American—or, indeed, no elected Republcans.
None of this is new, of course, but Donald’s fascistic rhetoric is worsening in terms of both its intensity and extremism. This, I would argue, is in large part because Donald keeps getting away with it. We’ve gone from 2015, when his campaign sent out materials featuring SS soldiers; and 2017 when he instituted the Muslim ban and called the Nazis who marched on Charlottesville “very fine people;” to 2024 when Donald, again without any significant pushback, has called immigrants “vermin” while also claiming they’re “not even human” and are “poisoning the blood” of white America. Let’s not forget that Donald is also touting plans to round up millions of immigrants, either to deport them or to place them in internment camps.
Kamala Harris just addressed John Kelly’s comments and said “Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable. And in a second term, people like John Kelly would not be there to be the guardrails against his propensities and his actions.”
Kelly has described a visit to Arlington National Cemetery during which he and Donald stood among the graves of fallen soldiers – including Kelly's own son. Donald asked this question: "What was in it for them?"
That tells us everything we need to know about who Donald is. He has never understood the meaning of sacrifice, or the impulse to serve one's country. My father, after participating in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) in college, became a 2nd Lieutenant in the National Guard. Donald and my grandfather had nothing but contempt for his service.
We saw this same pattern after Donald met with the family after Army Private Vanessa Guillén's murder. On camera, Donald, after praising Private Guillén's service, promised her grieving mother that he would help pay for her funeral. But when he saw the $60,000 funeral bill, he pitched a fit. According to his staff who witnessed his outburst, Donald said "It doesn't cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican! Don't pay it!" This is who Donald really is when the cameras are off. But this is increasingly the man people now see when the cameras are on.
When Kelly had to explain to Donald that military officers swear loyalty to the Constitution, not to him personally, Donald was genuinely shocked. Considering that he’s never read the Constitution that shouldn’t surprise us, but it should disqualify him.
Here's what Kelly said in response to whether or not Donald Trump is a fascist: "A far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy. So certainly, in my experience, those are the kinds of things that he thinks would work better in terms of running America.
“Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”
This isn't speculation or hyperbole anymore. This is the assessment of Donald's own Chief of Staff, which has been echoed by General Milley, chairman of the joint-chiefs during the Trump administration, who said Donald is "fascist to the core" and "the most dangerous person to this country." To this country, not inthis country.
When Donald talks about using the military against his domestic opponents, when he praises dictators, when he explicitly states his plans to be a dictator "on day one,” he's telling us exactly what he intends to do with his power if we are reckless enough to bestow it upon him.
And it's why Milley has installed bulletproof glass in his home—he knows exactly what Donald plans to do to anyone who stands, or has stood, in his way.
The Republican candidate for the presidency cannot comprehend doing anything—whether for his country, or for his family, or for the American people—that doesn't directly benefit him. It’s actually worse than that. Donald has no interest in democracy, or equality, or justice (except as it applies to him) at all.
We know what happens when authoritarian leaders broadcast their intentions and we pretend they don’t really mean what they say, or dismiss their very real threats as hyperbole. For the last eight years we’ve deluded ourselves into believing that our institutions would hold, and time after time—from the DoJ to the Supreme Court—our institutions have failed us.
The question isn't whether we know who Donald Trump really is, or what he plans to do. We know this—we have always known this. He’s telling us every single day. The question is whether we're ready to do whatever it takes to stop him.
Democracy isn't a goal, it’s a process, and we have to fight for it every single day. And I have to tell you that I don’t think that anything in our lives has ever been more important, or as important, as the fight we’re in right now.
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