WASHINGTON – Not quite a full year since his return to the White House, Donald Trump has created a de facto “papers please” secret police force evocative of autocracies past, which he is now using to terrorize cities where he is unpopular, experts warn.
“Trump has created his own police force,” said Jason Stanley, an American studies professor at the University of Toronto and a scholar of fascism. “It looks like Trump is organizing a militia beholden only to him, with an enormous budget, reminiscent of the ‘Sturmabteilung’ in 1930s Germany. They seem to lack any kind of legal accountability.”
Fiona Hill, who served on the National Security Council in Trump’s first term, said he seems to be emulating Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
“In Russia, you have a whole host of forces, including the OMON and the National Guard and the president’s protection service,” she said. “Trump is clearly looking for forces he can deploy federally that don’t have the same checks and balances as the National Guard and the military.”
Trump, during his campaign to regain the presidency, spoke frequently about empowering the agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol to ramp up deportations of illegal immigrants — but also claimed he would focus on those with criminal records.
