Anyone who attended high school probably remembers their world history teacher talking about countries that militarized their law enforcement to make what is referred to as a police state. Examples taught should have included SS members of Nazi Germany (1925-1945), the secret police—NKVD—of the Soviet Union (1934-1946), the military regime of Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), and the apartheid-era (1948-1994) of South Africa.
On April 28, President Donald Trump issued an 879-page executive order (EO) commanding Pam Bondi and Pete Hegseth to work with Kristi Noem and other agencies to “increase the provision of excess military and national security assets in local jurisdictions to assist State and local law enforcement.”
The Legal Defense Fund states Trump’s EO directs federal resources to “promote aggressive policing tactics and further militarize local law enforcement agencies, make it more difficult to hold officers accountable for misconduct and wield the power of prosecution as a threat.” Writer Jim Jordan opines in a June 14 essay that Trump’s EO “calls for a militarized police service in the US, one that essentially operates under martial law” (CommonWealth Beacon).
Stephen Miller and Project 2025’s Police State Proposal
It should be no surprise that Trump’s EO is rooted in Stephen Miller, the far-right anti-immigration policy advisor to the Heritage Foundation on its creation of Project 2025, the playbook for Mr. Trump to implement in the first 180 days of his presidential administration. And, behold, July 19 was Trump’s 180th day in office.
One of the key components of the 922-page Project 2025 playbook for Donald Trump to follow was mass deportations, increasing border enforcement, and changing America’s long-revered asylum system (Project 2025 is a threat to democracy, June 4, 2024, The Fulcrum).
Trump’s aggressive actions
Most people know that ICE, DHS, FBI, and DEA conducted coordinated raids across Los Angeles, targeted workplaces, and arrested people suspected of being undocumented immigrants. On June 24, CBS News reported that of the 59,000 immigrant detainees, fewer than 30 percent have been convicted of crimes. The Washington Post’s July 3 story confirmed this data.
Ten different independent and reliable sources document how Trump 2.0’s administration is systematically dismantling democratic safeguards that rely on civil governance.
They include: 1) police in riot gear dispersing protesters who are using their First Amendment rights to oppose ICE raids, 2) National Guard troops being deployed to quell peaceful protests, 3) framing citizen protests as an “insurrection” and a “national security threat,” 4) federal agents arresting citizens whose immigration-related cases have been dismissed by judges, 5) expanding and creating detention camps, 6) heavily armed and masked men abducting individuals without warrants or identification, 7) providing police with military-grade equipment, 8) closing down the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and 9) eliminating the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.
When Trump signed the “Big, Beautiful Bill” into law on July 4 (opposed by all Democrats and approved by all Republicans except five), it wasn’t a celebration of Independence Day but the ramping up of America’s unchecked executive power and militarized policing. The law provided roughly $170,000,000,000 for immigration enforcement, including the hiring of 10,000 new ICE officers.
Hope on the Horizon
While deporting undocumented immigrants—a key tenant of Trump’s 2025 presidential campaign and Project 2025—was supported by a majority of voters, July 11 Gallup poll data found that: A) 62 percent of Americans disapprove how the Trump administration is handling the deportation issue, B) 78 percent of Americans now favor offering pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and C) 79 percent of Americans say immigration is a good thing; the percentage should be considerably higher since 97.1% of people live in America due to immigration by their original settler family.
Twenty-seven different religious groups—including major Christian and Jewish denominations—oppose Trump’s police state-like actions (NBC News, Feb. 11).
A Call to Conscience
Citizens now recognize that Trump’s militarization strategy mirrors the early stages of a police state development. But, unlike historical regimes (Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, Chile, and South Africa), the U.S. still retains independent courts, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, a free press, and elections.
It’s time to ask your elected delegates to the U.S. Capitol to retake a high school world history class, reflect on the documented examples of the similarities of Trump’s actions to police state endeavors, and act—legislation wise—before the situation gets any worse.
Citizens must continue to exercise their First Amendment rights, especially those of free speech, free press, and assembly, against Trump’s shift toward unchecked executive power and militarized policing.
Finally, Nov. 3, 2026, should be a `Save the Date’ as that’s when 33 U.S. Senate seats and all 435 House seats are up for the elected delegates to represent our wishes versus those of a particular party and/or anti-immigration influence groups.
Steve Corbin is a professor emeritus of marketing at the University of Northern Iowa, and a non-paid freelance opinion editor and guest columnist contributor to 246 news agencies and 48 social media platforms in 45 states.Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Rep. Jim Jordan rather than the writer Jim Jordan.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.