Morning all. In recent months my good friend Greg Sargent has been doing great work reporting on Trump’s escalating efforts to build a national partisan police force and with it, an oppressive police state. Greg is a staff writer at The New Republic, and hosts a daily podcast there, the Daily Blast. Here is his most recent exclusive report on Trump regime efforts to bring the Pentagon more directly into police state fantasies, “Trump’s Domestic Use of Military Set to Get Worse, Leaked Memo Shows.” It is harrowing stuff.
I asked Greg to come talk to us for this month it’s become clear that our unhinged, unpopular and increasingly desperate felon-in-chief is going for it - he’s going to try to build an oppressive police state here in America. A recording and transcript of our informative and timely discussion is above.
Consider:
The enormous increase in ICE funding, creating a masked, unaccountable domestic force loyal to Trump with more funding than the US marines or the Russian military.
The revocation of Home Rule, and the wild escalation of Federal law enforcement and now national guard troops from six states in Washington, DC, an escalation built on lies, confabulations and an extraordinary abuse of power.
New reports that the FBI’s central mission will now become fighting “violent crime” and “illegal immigration,” essentially folding the FBI into the broader, supersized DHS mission.
Greg’s new reporting suggests that Trump is not satiated with a supersized ICE; a new, coordinated DHS/FBI/other Federal agencies targeting of “crime” and “illegal immigration;” the outrageous deployment of red state National Guard into blue cities; and the one off deployment of the Marines. He wants more…..
President Donald Trump has already enmeshed the U.S. military in domestic law enforcement operations involving immigration to an unprecedented degree. He has authorized a major military buildup at the border. He has maximized the use of military planes for deportations, complete with the White House pumping out imagery of migrants getting frog-marched onto souped-up military aircraft. He sent the National Guard into Los Angeles amid large-scale protests there—and then sent in the Marines.
But an internal memo circulated inside the Department of Homeland Security suggests that Trump’s use of the military for domestic law enforcement on immigration could soon get worse. The memo—obtained by The New Republic—provides a glimpse into the thinking of top officials as they seek to involve the Defense Department more deeply in these domestic operations, and it has unnerved experts who believe it portends a frightening escalation.
The memo lays out the need to persuade top Pentagon officials to get much more serious about using the military to combat illegal immigration—and not just at the border. It suggests that DHS is anticipating many more uses of the military in urban centers, noting that L.A.-style operations may be needed “for years to come.” And it likens the threat posed by transnational gangs and cartels to having “Al Qaeda or ISIS cells and fighters operating freely inside America,” hinting at a ramped-up militarized posture inside the interior.
“The memo is alarming, because it speaks to the intent to use the military within the United States at a level not seen since Japanese internment,” Carrie Lee, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, told me. “The military is the most powerful, coercive tool our country has. We don’t want the military doing law enforcement. It absolutely undermines the rule of law.”
As Greg reports team Trump does not believe having this supersized DHS/ICE/DEA/ATF, National Guard, and newly redesigned FBI - all with far looser rules of engagement and a fascistic DOJ behind them - is enough. They want more:
The primary goal of the meeting (between DHS and the Pentagon), the memo says, is to foster “new ideas for how the two departments can better plan for national security and illegal immigration.” Then it adds this:
The U.S. military leadership (the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and NORTHCOM) need to feel—for the first time—the urgency of the homeland defense mission. They need to understand the threat, what’s at stake, and the political importance the administration has placed on this issue.
This extraordinary effort to build a police state here in America must be seen as another Trumpian step towards Putin and Putinism. For rather than focusing on defending Ukraine and Europe from Russian aggression, Trump is attempting to use the full force of a newly supersized DHS and the most lethal and capable military ever built against America not Russia; and in the process functionally turn America into a Putinist police state.
I am not usually an alarmist but I am alarmed by what has happened this month in America while Congress has been away. In his decline and desperation, and as his powers ebb, Trump has been escalating and spiraling out of control on many fronts. Trump dramatically, impulsively increased his illegal and unconstitutional tariffs against our allies and trading partners, acts that are without question the greatest abuse of power in our history; he came out of the closet as a Putinist last Friday, doing everything he possibly could to send a signal to the world of his love and admiration for one of the most reviled men in modern history; he fired the BLS Director and continued his unyielding assault on the independence of the Federal Reserve; he launched a wild campaign to steal Congressional seats and has opened-up a multi-front campaign to undermine the integrity of our elections (again); and we now have what has to be understood as a hostile and unwanted Federal takeover of the nation’s capital, the bluest and most globally significant of all American cities.
Here is that infamous moment Greg and I discuss from last week when Trump advisor Tom Homan said words that can never be uttered in a democracy:
Homan: President Trump doesn’t have a limitation on his authority to make this country safe again. There is no limitation on that
Look at this image of Trump from yesterday. This is our leader. It you could capture the seven deadly sins in one image I think this could be it.
We are here now. We understand where this is going. People need to stop looking away, telling themselves it cannot happen here, finding excuses to enable their cowardice and complicity. We need, my friends, to fight as if our democracy and our futures are on the line - for they are.
Here are the four things I think we need to be fighting for now:
Fight For Democracy And Freedom - We will fight for democracy, for Ukraine, for Europe, for NATO, for our own national security and sovereignty, for maintaining American leadership of the global rules-based order that our party imagined and built after WWII. We will oppose Putin, the selling out of Ukraine and the West, of Trump’s tearing down of the American-led rules based “Four Freedoms” global order and his abandonment of the Constitutional order here in America.
End The Inflationary, Destructive And Illegal Tariffs - We will fight to end Trump’s terrible tariffs that are raising prices on every day Americans, slowing the US and global economies, shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to all of us, harming our farmers and small businesses, angering our allies and dramatically undermining the American-led rules based global order. While doing harm these tariffs are also illegal and unconstitutional, the greatest abuse of power by an American President in our history. Together, we must roll them back.
Block The Creation Of An Unaccountable Political Police Force Loyal To Trump - We will fight to block the rancid and dangerous expansion of ICE and Trump’s illegal use of the military to forge for himself an unaccountable domestic political police force loyal to only to him and not the Constitution. Need to be all in on this one peeps.
Stand Up For Science, Higher Ed, Our Public Health - We will fight to stop the ongoing assault on science, higher education, and our public health. We will oppose the escalating attacks on our universities, the gutting of our global scientific leadership, the dangerous undermining of vaccines and preventative health, and the cutting of the ACA and Medicaid. These authoritarian attacks are making our country poorer, our companies less able to compete, are dramatically undermining the health of the American people and violate our cherished First Amendment rights.
And here are the candidates who need our help today:
Our Must Win/Everyone In Races
Mikie Sherrill NJ Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $53k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interview with Rep. Sherrill
Abigail Spanberger VA Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $171k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interview with Abigail Spanberger
Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $26,000 raised- Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interviews with Gov. Cooper and NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton. We hit our $25,000 Labor Day goal yesterday - great work everyone!
Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $50k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer
Hopium House 7 (2026) - $250,000 goal, $183k raised - Donate | Learn More, Volunteer, Watch My Interviews With Our Intrepid Incumbents
Our updated fundraising goals are now for the end of the year, December 31st, except for the 2025 races, which are now for Election Day, 2025. As background learn about 1) our big recommendations to the family coming out of the 2024 elections 2) the many important wins we had together last cycle 3) my latest thinking on where we are and the path forward for the Hopium community.
And We Have Our Recommended Actions - We are prioritizing three actions today. You can get our full list of recommended actions here. Let’s get to it:
1 - Call Your Senators and Member Of The House And Demand They Act Upon Our Four-Part Agenda - While it is recess we need to be loud this week, very, very loud. Make the case for our our emerging four part agenda, and demand they 1) Stand with Ukraine and work to block Trump’s selling out of the West to Putin 2) Roll back Trump’s terrible tariffs 3) Block the expansion of ICE and the use of the military on our streets 4) End the war on science, higher education and the public health of the American people, and demand the removal of Bobby Kennedy (aka “the quack) from the leadership of HHS.
2 - Bring “Resolutions Of Condemnation” To Your Community - Inspired by the tactics of our Founders learn about how Hopium members are advancing “Resolutions of Condemnation” in their communities across the country and consider bringing this initiative to your state, country or city/town.
Remarkably, members of this community are now advancing 63 (!!!!) resolutions projects in 20 states. Can we get to all 50 states by the fall election?
Our newly updated Resolutions page includes a new chat for folks to report in on their progress or seek counsel from those interested in launching a resolutions project in their community. This is one way to fight back against Trump’s unprecedented abandonment of our Constitutional order.
Congratulations to Hopium community member Sarah Marshall whose resolution, “Town of Amherst Resolution in Support of Democracy and Calling for a Return to the Constitutional Principles that are the Foundation of our Republic,” passed the Amherst, Massachusetts town council last night. Here is a screenshot of the resolution being voted on and passing.
Great work Sarah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3 - Grow Hopium And This Wonderful Community Of Proud, Plucky, Patriots - We’ve set a goal of trying to grow the Hopium community from the 152,000 we are now to 175,000 by Election Day, 2025. Do what you can to encourage your friends, family and colleagues to become a summer subscriber to Hopium, free or paid. If each current paid subscriber brings in just one new subscriber this summer and fall we will hit our goal.
To encourage the growth of our community annual paid subscriptions are 10% off through Labor Day. Use that link to buy gift or group subscriptions, and join our new referral rewards program too. A further note - if you want to up your support of Hopium a powerful way to do it is to buy group or gift subscriptions for others.
Finally, please self-report your activities to our daily paid subscriber chat. These reports help inspire all of us to do more and fight harder! Been impressive to see how many of you remain involved in local, in person protests of all kinds in your communities. Keep it up!!!
Watch my interview with Greg, share it with others you think might be interested, and keep working hard all. We have a lot of important work ahead of us and need to keep fighting - Simon
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