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.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.