Turdinator 2: Days of Reckoning

Donald Trump’s 2024 re-election has plunged the United States into economic turmoil and a constitutional crisis, marked by authoritarian policies, a contentious battle with the Supreme Court, and a dangerous slide toward dictatorship. Trump even shared a video claiming he’s ‘purposefully crashing the market,’ but then insisted ‘he doesn’t want anything to go down.’ His administration’s actions—ranging from mass deportations to defiant executive overreach—are either a catastrophic display of incompetence or a deliberate strategy to destabilize the economy and democratic institutions, serving not only his own power-hungry ambitions but also the interests of tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, and seemingly aligned with the agendas of foreign autocrats like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.

Police state: “one where government institutions exert extreme control over civil society, with little distinction between law and executive power, and internal security forces dominate governance,” says Wikipedia, which continues, “The United States has been described as a police state since the election of President Donald Trump in 2024, particularly due to the mass deportations of activists—including green card holders such as Mahmoud Khalil—and immigrants without due process or transparency, alongside unidentified ICE detentions.[45]” The footnote refers to an April 2 New York Times article by Masha Gessen, titled “Unmarked Vans. Secret Lists. Public Denunciations. Our Police State Has Arrived,” which details the abduction of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate student and green card holder, by unidentified ICE agents. Khalil’s wife, recording the incident, pleaded for the agents’ identities and agency, and was met with silence—a chilling hallmark of authoritarian regimes. Literary scholar Marianne Hirsch, who grew up in Communist Romania, told Gessen the event rekindled memories of arbitrary arrests, where “every time the doorbell rang, I started to shiver.”

Since Trump took office, reports have emerged from US border points of tourists being detained and interrogated, people with work permits sent to ICE detention centers, and even US citizens told to leave the country—besides the hundreds of legal residents who have been abducted and sent to the CECOT concentration camp in El Salvador.

This atmosphere of fear has economic consequences. The U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office reported an 11.6% drop in overseas visits in March 2025 compared to the previous year. On April 20, a traumatized woman who had just flown from Aruba to Miami made a TikTok video about having been met, on the skybridge between the plane and the terminal gate, by a gauntlet of 30 ICE agents, who interrogated the passengers and searched their bags. On April 18, a British couple canceled their Boston trip, unwilling to fund Trump’s USA. A 39-year-old Dutch civil servant with a Peruvian background, subjected to a “very angry” interrogation and search of his computer and books by border officials during a layover in Miami, said, “I think it was intimidation for its own sake,” he said. “In all honesty I’m quite scared to travel to the US.” These incidents, far from isolated, signal a deliberate strategy to intimidate, driving away tourists and investors, and costing the economy billions.

The rollback of banking oversight has fueled speculative bubbles, contributing to an 8% drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in Q1 2025. Trump’s erratic messaging has eroded investor confidence, with the dollar losing 5% against the euro after the abrupt dismissal of 20% of the Federal Reserve’s economic analysts in February 2025, replaced by Trump loyalists.

Mass deportations, targeting not only undocumented immigrants but also legal residents, have disrupted labor markets. Industries such as agriculture, construction, and hospitality face severe shortages, driving up costs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported inflation at 6.2% in March 2025, partly due to these disruptions. GDP growth slowed to 1.1% in Q1 2025, down from 2.5% in 2024, per the Commerce Department.

Trump has placed himself above the Supreme Court and the law, all but declaring himself a dictator…wait, he did that. On February 19, following a letter issued by his transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, to the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, that ended the transportation department’s agreement with New York over a new congestion pricing program for Manhattan, he tweeted: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” 

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority, including three Trump appointees, historically expanded presidential power in the 2024 Trump v. United States immunity decision, which granted presidents broad immunity for official acts. Vice-President Vance has openly challenged judicial authority, invoking Andrew Jackson’s defiance of the court, stating, “The chief justice has made his ruling, now let him enforce it,” undermining the rule of law. Successful defiance of the Supreme Court could leave public protest as the only barrier to dictatorship.

Trump’s admiration for autocrats like Putin, Xi Jinping, and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán is well-documented, and his policies reflect this mindset. He has sought to control independent agencies, firing officials who challenged mass firings. His executive orders have been criticized by judges as violating federal law, yet the administration defends them aggressively. The dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which supported democracy abroad, aligns with Putin’s interests, with Russian propagandist Margarita Simonyan praising the move.

Trump’s foreign policy further underscores his dictatorial leanings. A Washington Post article from April 1, 2025, describes his administration as the first in modern times to “openly side with dictatorship over democracy,” citing his pause on military aid to Ukraine, alignment with Russia at the UN, and invitation for Putin to rejoin the G8. His public berating of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling him a dictator while praising Putin’s reliability, is well-known, and the list of “times Trump did what Putin wanted” has grown since February 21, when Politico put the number at 29.

Besides aligning with the agendas of Putin, Xi and other de facto dictators, Trump is rapidly advancing the interests of tech billionaires like Musk and Thiel. Musk has transformed X into a MAGA megaphone, amplifying disinformation. Both he and Thiel have secured billions in government contracts, the latter for Palantir, profiling migrants for ICE, and investing in private security and smart-city projects, aligning with a vision of decentralized, tech-controlled governance. Thiel’s 2009 declaration that “freedom and democracy are incompatible” and his support for far-right causes reveal a long-term strategy to dismantle democratic norms. Musk’s endorsement of Germany’s AfD and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, both sympathetic to Moscow, suggests a convergence of interests with Putin’s agenda. The Atlantic’s February 28, 2025, article warns of the “Putinization of America,” with Trump imitating Russian tactics like propaganda and justice system weaponization. Putin benefits from Trump’s weakening of NATO and democracy-supporting programs, while he and Xi gain from reduced U.S. global influence.

While this fusion between corporate interests and American authoritarianism proceeds, the MAGA base remains largely oblivious. They view Trump’s actions as a patriotic crusade, as he rails against “elites” while aligning with Musk and Thiel. At rallies, he frames deportations as job protection and deregulation as freedom, ignoring their economic costs. Disinformation on X reinforces this narrative, with supporters cheering policies that will disenfranchise them in a tech-dominated future. When economic indicators worsen, Trump deflects blame to immigrants or the media, keeping his base loyal despite rising inflation, falling markets, and sluggish growth. Whether through incompetence or a deliberate plot to serve himself, tech broligarchs, and foreign autocrats, the outcome is dire, namely, a police state.

The Trump administration has prioritized aggressive immigration enforcement, with policies that could set the stage for targeting officials who resist. A Reuters report from January 23, 2025, notes that the administration directed prosecutors to investigate officials who obstruct immigration enforcement, signaling a willingness to pursue legal action against state and local leaders. This follows Trump’s campaign promises of mass deportations, with ICE reporting 32,809 enforcement arrests in the first 50 days of his term, surpassing the entire fiscal year 2024’s at-large arrests. Policies include rescinding Biden-era limits on arrests near schools and churches, expanding deportation powers, and invoking the Alien Enemies Act, which has raised concerns about overreach.

Trump advisor Stephen Miller has listed potential charges against mayors and governors of sanctuary cities. Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar,” has reportedly suggested detaining officials in sanctuary cities. These statements indicate a strategy to pressure local leaders, potentially through legal or coercive means. Historical precedent exists from Trump’s first term. A 2018 Truthout article reported discussions of mass arrests of mayors in sanctuary cities, though no such actions materialized. The current administration’s escalation—coupled with a more loyal Justice Department and weakened institutional norms—suggests a higher risk now.

Musk’s role in DOGE and Thiel’s Palantir contracts with DHS position them to profit from surveillance and detention infrastructure. Their support for deregulatory policies and decentralized governance, influenced by figures like Curtis Yarvin, would align with a weakened federal system. Sanctuary cities like Chicago and New York have vowed resistance, with officials like Senator Dick Durbin condemning Trump’s actions as unconstitutional. A major crisis, however—real or false-flag—such as a terrorist attack blamed on immigrants, would give Trump the excuse to “go nuclear,” as it were.

Tony Schwartz, Trump’s co-author for The Art of the Deal, says that, from the moment he met him in Trump Tower in 1985, “the image I had of Trump was that of a black hole... a hurt, incredibly vulnerable little boy who just wanted to be loved. What Trump craves most deeply is the adulation... Trump’s need for unquestioning praise and flattery also helps to explain his hostility to democracy and to a free press – both of which thrive on open dissent... He reacts rather than reflects, and damn the consequences. This is what makes his access to the nuclear codes so dangerous and frightening... The more he feels at the mercy of forces he cannot control... the more resentful, desperate, and impulsive he becomes.”

Thomas Singer, MD says, “What makes Trump’s narcissism so dangerous is that it plays to the unholy marriage of self and the aggressive, hateful, and violent elements in the collective psyche... [giving] permission for shadowy thoughts, feelings, and actions on behalf of the self. This underlying group dynamic explains the comparison of Trump to Hitler... [who] mobilized the most shadowy forces in modern history in the so-called service of that self-image... there is great danger of violence, tyranny, and absolutism – especially with an authoritarian leader and a citizenry responsive to authoritarianism.”