Donald Trump’s speech at Fort Bragg on Tuesday was a massive escalation in his unfolding conspiracy to establish a military dictatorship under his personal control. Delivered at one of the country’s largest military bases, Trump’s hour-long fascistic and lying rant was nothing less than a declaration of war against the American people.
“Those foolish enough to challenge America’s Army have been met with unyielding strength, unbreakable spirit and unstoppable, overwhelming force,” Trump boasted. “Time and again, our enemies have learned that if you dare to threaten the American people, an American soldier will chase you down, crush you and cast you into oblivion.”
The real threat to the people comes from the White House and its cabal of conspirators. So great is the crisis of capitalism that the billionaire oligarchs, in whose interests Trump rules, require the destruction of all rights guaranteed in the Constitution and the establishment of a dictatorship.
The instrument of violent repression used by American imperialism all over the world will now be used at home, Trump declared: “Generations of army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third-world lawlessness here at home, like is happening in California.”
Describing protests in Los Angeles as a “full-blown assault on peace, on public order and national sovereignty,” he declared that they were being carried out “by rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country.” He concluded, “We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy. That’s what they are.”
Trump called Los Angeles a “trash heap” of “chaos and disorder,” and described its citizens as “animals.” Trump is using the genocidal language of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who used the same word to justify the mass killing of Palestinians. It amounts to a threat to do to Los Angeles what the Israeli military has done to Gaza.
As there is no precedent in American political history for lies and violent threats of this magnitude by a president, Trump’s diatribe may have an “I can’t believe my ears” effect. But Trump means every word. And he is backing up his words with actions.
The machinery of repression is in full motion across the country. In the latest outrage, nearly 100 immigrant workers at Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, Nebraska were frog-marched out of their workplace at gunpoint by ICE agents on Tuesday, loaded onto buses with blacked-out windows, and separated from their families.
Immigrant youth are being seized at court hearings, and there are reports that ICE is preparing major operations in Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, Northern Virginia and New York.
The focal point of the coup operation is in the capital. Military vehicles are pouring into Washington, D.C., accompanied by thousands of troops and combat aircraft, under the pretext of a “parade” to celebrate Trump’s 79th birthday. The show of force is intended as a death knell of constitutional democracy and the establishment of a de facto presidential dictatorship.
Speaking from the White House on Monday, Trump threatened: “For those people that want to protest, they’re going to be met with very big force.” He added, with absolute contempt for the First Amendment, that the “people that want to protest” are “people that hate our country.”
The actions of Trump have acquired such a blatant character that it has become virtually impossible to deny. California Governor Gavin Newsom has referred to Trump as “acting like a dictator.” A lawsuit filed by California’s state government lays out a clear legal case that Trump’s orders violate the Posse Comitatus Act, and that he has issued what amounts to illegal orders to the National Guard and the Marines.
But Newsom and the Democrats propose nothing to stop Trump’s actions, beyond appeals to the courts, which the administration has vowed to defy.
Newsom merely complains that California “didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved” and that the use of the military is “inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they’re actually needed.” He has deployed hundreds more police to assault protesters, thereby accepting the entire lying premise of Trump’s military mobilization.
The Democratic Party leadership is above all terrified that popular opposition to Trump’s coup will destabilize the whole capitalist order, which they are just as anxious to defend as the Republicans.
Trump is pouring fuel on the fire of popular anger and outrage. Mass opposition has already begun to take shape throughout the country, expressed in the demonstrations the same day as Trump’s speech.
Tens of thousands are taking to the streets of Chicago, and there are mass demonstrations in New York, Boston and other cities, along with the ongoing protests in Los Angeles.
What is required, however, is a direction and strategy. The working class must use its immense industrial and economic power. The protests must be directed toward preparing a general strike of the entire working class to bring Trump’s coup to a halt.
Workers must demand the immediate stand down of all military forces, the withdrawal of troops from American cities, the end of all immigration raids, and the disbanding of the ICE Gestapo.
The appropriate political conclusions must be drawn: those responsible for the planning and execution of the coup d’etat—including the conspirator-in-chief—must be held legally accountable for their criminal actions. Fifty-one years ago, Richard Nixon was compelled to resign for violations of the Constitution that pale in comparison to Trump’s violent and unprecedented assault on the people.
The offensive against Trump’s coup must unite all sections of the working class, across nationality, race, gender and all other divisions. No distinction must be made between immigrant and native-born. The United States is a nation of immigrants, and immigrant workers make up a huge and essential part of the American workforce. Their defense must become the cause of the entire working class.
This fight must be international. The events in the United States are part of a broader global assault on the rights of workers. Solidarity actions must be organized around the world in response to Trump’s signal for a global assault on the working class.
The initiative must come from below. The AFL-CIO trade union apparatus, thoroughly connected to the state and both parties of the ruling class, remains paralyzed and complicit. It is doing nothing to mobilize workers. But workers must act. They must demand that the resources of their unions be made available to organize the defense of their co-workers and launch a powerful counter-offensive.
The Socialist Equality Party and the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) call on workers in every sector of industry, factory and workplace, whether in unions or not, to organize rank-and-file committees, independent of the trade union apparatus. Every plant, office and neighborhood must become a center of organized opposition to this massive assault on democratic rights.