The Trump administration’s race for totalitarian control of the country is accelerating, from deals supporting Russia and police intimidation of his adversaries to the looming spectacle of a public execution, and it has everything to do with elections the MAGAs are likely to lose at the ballot box in just a few days.
Over the past few days, you may have heard about a sudden and eerie silence across social media from the far right, the apparent result of the destruction of several Russian datacentres by the Armed Forces of Ukraine — and all the troll bots that they hosted. This is likely a placebo effect caused by discussion of the attacks and a misinterpretation of the available data, as Emerald Pages explains in Why the Russian Data Center Strike Had Zero Effect on Social Media Bots, which is why I could find no empirical data to support the widespread claims. Regardless, we know that Russia has been interfering in western democracy for at least a decade.
Undermining the MAGA movement by attacking the internet’s AI-powered echo-chamber of conspiracy theories and fake news a few weeks before the American mid-terms would be the most appropriate possible response from Ukraine to Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States would violate its own sanctions to buy diesel from Russia. That such a sentence is even possible to write is remarkable.
Trump’s decision to purchase less than two weeks worth of diesel fuel from Russia, directly funding their war against Ukraine, to solve a problem caused by his own war against Iran has to be seen for what it is. The alliance between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin is no longer being couched or hidden by either dictator.
The agreement itself is doubtful in spite of the announcement. Russia is rationing fuel to its own citizens after Ukraine’s drone counter-campaign has severely curtailed Russia’s oil production. Selling the diesel, while possible, would be at the expense of his own people. With the meat grinder of the Ukraine campaign costing an estimated 50,000 Russian casualties per month, though, it is unlikely Putin has any particular interest in the well-being of his citizens.
Russia under Putin has spent much of his 27 years in office undermining western democracy while the former KGB officer turned president uses his time and power to enrich himself. Putin’s own net worth has been estimated as high as $200 billion. Like Trump’s growing fortune, that money does not come from his modest presidential salary.
Trump’s son’s ex-fiancé turned ambassador to Greece was not fired yesterday for soliciting bribes — she was fired for being caught. Her resignation was announced by Trump’s new press secretary who claims to be a lawyer, but whose response to where she passed the bar was … China. What. The American kakistocracy knows no bounds.
As with the great majority of the oligarchs we see, Putin spends his money defending his position, power, and wealth. Suspicions of Russian interference in western elections and referenda have been widespread, and funding for those activities has to come from somewhere. Britain’s latest prime minister, Andy Burnham, unequivocally confirmed last week that Russia interfered in the Brexit vote, something his predecessors have been reluctant to do. Albertans should take note.
While Donald Trump is openly calling for the ouster of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy for objecting to his deal-making with his brother-in-oligarchy Vladimir Putin, the American race for totalitarianism has been continuing at a frenetic pace.
After losing the 2020 election, Donald Trump famously led a coup against the United States government. After he returned to office four years later, he granted immunity to about 1500 of the coup’s violent participants. As I have said since, he did not do so for what they did, but for what he still needed them to do.
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s testimony before Congress two weeks ago noted that the indictments against Donald Trump for orchestrating the January 6th, 2021 coup, and subsequently taking caseloads of classified documents with him to his bathroom at Mar-a-Lago, were dropped pursuant to US Department of Justice policy. Trump had been elected president, and therefore the federal government would not pursue charges against him no matter how egregious, regardless of the gathered evidence.
This is consistent with long-standing American policy on non-interference in elections. It has been the policy of the US Department of Justice since 1973 not to prosecute sitting presidents. That policy was instituted in the midst of the Watergate scandal, coming out just a week before Spiro Agnew resigned as vice president. When President Richard Nixon was impeached and resigned before being convicted by the Senate, Gerald Ford — the only president in American history never to be elected to either the vice presidency or the presidency — granted Nixon a full and complete pardon, suggesting that his departure from office would open the door to prosecutions that could not take place while in office.
Interesting history, perhaps, but there is another reason this urgently matters. Monday morning, federal law enforcement broke a related long-standing policy known as the 60-day rule. With just three weeks left to the American mid-terms, they raided the Washington, DC, residence of progressive congresswoman Ilhan Omar, an outspoken critic of the president, although, tellingly, not her primary residence. Trump had mentioned an investigation into her at a rally the previous day, plainly showing a lack of insulation between the investigating body and the presidency.
As an outspoken Democrat, she is being harassed by Trump’s immigration enforcement forces for unspecified and unlikely crimes, especially given her arrival in the country as a 12 year old. Were she a supportive Republican, she would be in line for one of the many presidential pardons Trump has offered to MAGA-supporting congressmen rather than a government-sponsored home invasion and public intimidation.
Which takes us to the most Taliban-esque steps this US government has taken to date. US Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has announced he plans to televise an execution by firing squad later this year. Execution by public spectacle is something very few regimes in the world do, and for good reason.
There was yet another murder in the streets by Immigration and Customs Enforcement a few days ago. This time, a Dominican man was shot and killed in front of his 5 year old in New York City by ICE, which acts effectively as Trump’s private army. Apparently, ICE’s regular public executions are not sufficiently intimidating for the American people. Hegseth needs one to be scheduled and live-streamed to make the point.
Public executions were carried out by only two countries in 2025: Iran and Afghanistan. Nazi Germany, it should be noted, was also a fan of public executions. One day the term ‘Magas’ will be used in the same manner as the movement that inspires them.
Donald Trump was indicted and the indictments withdrawn for attempting a coup on January 6th, 2021. The Russian support, the social media interference, the intimidation of his opponents, the overt presentation of violence to the common people, and the pardons granted to those who supported his coup attempt will all be coming home to roost in three weeks.
The mid-term elections will be an excuse for widespread intimidation and violence and, this time, the country best have the courage to prosecute those involved, regardless of their current titles.
According to Paul Krugman's calculations and observations, the diesel purchase will satisfy only 12 hours of diesel demand. https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/arithmetic-suffers-from-trump-derangement?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=277517&post_id=220004933&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=2x45v&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Oh David, I feel we are descending into hell: public executions as an entertainment for his base. Openly supporting Russia against Ukraine etc etc…