The Gangster State

By Jessie Seigel / June 22, 2025

ICE thugs in masks, employed by the U.S. government, have been kidnapping people off the street. These hired goons wear no badge, hide their identities, and ignore requests for a judicial warrant or reason for arrest. They then hold those they have taken without explanation or charge, without access to a lawyer or family members, without trial. No doubt their orders on how to conduct their so-called immigrant raids came from the Trump regime, probably Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, Stephen Miller, and/or Secretary of his Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. But "thug" and "goon" are the only proper words to describe Miller, Noem, and those who would agree to follow such flagrantly illegal orders.

Within less than a fortnight, there have also been detentions and/or arrests of elected officials: California Senator Padilla; New Jersey Congresswoman LaMonica McIver; Newark mayor Ras Baraka; and New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. All were man-handled. Senator Padilla was thrown first to his knees and then to the floor, flat on his chest, while three burly officers handcuffed his hands behind his back--all that for having had the temerity to ask Kristi Noem a question at a public press conference in a public building.

The regime later claimed that these elected officials were impeding federal officers in their duty and that they assaulted officers (in some cases, ICE, in others, the FBI or Secret Service).

Videos of the encounters tell the opposite story.

McIver, Baraka, and Padilla were attempting to perform duties related to their jobs, and the federal officers were impeding and assaulting them.

Lander was merely asking whether ICE had a judicial warrant for the immigrant Lander was escorting from a courthouse.

All but one of these elected officials were ultimately released, most with no charge, no explanation, and no apology. Mayor Baraka was initially charged with trespassing, but the charge was dropped. Baraka is suing administration officials for malicious prosecution and defamation of character. The others should sue as well. And to the degree a state can bring charges against federal officials, state attorneys-general should prosecute them for assault, false imprisonment, etc. of these citizens. The defenders of democracy should set the example that law enforcement must obey the law in how they do their jobs.

Each and every one of these assaulted officeholders is a Democrat. One, LaMonica McIver, has been indicted. Clearly, Trump and his lackeys are trying to make an example of McIver--and the rest--so that others will fear to challenge their regime in any way.

Add to all that the assassination of Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota, the assassin's list of 70 more Democratic targets, and the Republican right-wing's efforts to belittle the deaths and blame these murders on the left and on the victims.

Mike Lee, Republican senator from Utah, made nasty cracks about the matter on social media.

Noting that the shooter had once been appointed to a state commission in Minnesota, Trump ally Laura Loomer tweeted of Tim Walz, Minnesota’s Governor and former Democratic Vice Presidential nominee: “Tim Walz's goons are now assassinating law makers who support legislation Walz opposes.”

These right-wing Trump operatives are the actual goons, deliberately projecting as usual. In this instance, they are doing so to preempt criticism and twist the obvious fact that the violent rhetoric and threats of Trump and his minions set his opponents up for physical attack.

Meanwhile, not only has President Trump pardoned the politically violent January 6 convicts, he is considering pardoning those involved in the thwarted conspiracy to kidnap and kill Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. The stoking of violence against Democrats is coming from the very top.

Then there are the 4000 National Guard troops now sent to Los Angeles (LA) despite the express opposition of California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, and Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass. Plus the deployment of 700 marines in violation of Posse Comitatus, an act prohibiting the military from action on U.S. soil except under very narrow circumstances.

Kristi Noem has heralded the act of pitting the National Guard against the civilians they should protect as a "liberation" of LA. One must query, liberation from what? From the governor and mayor democratically elected by the people of LA? Trump now threatens to liberate, in similar fashion, other Democratic cities across the nation.

A marine at a checkpoint in Los Angeles

The marines and the Marine Corps have been dishonored by their presence in LA. Marines even detained and handcuffed a veteran heading to the Veterans Administration. Granted, marines find themselves between a legal rock and a hard place if they must, on short order, make their own judgment on whether a particular order is legal or illegal. But LA clearly is not in a state of invasion or rebellion. Officers up the chain of command should have refused to follow the illegal order to deploy their men on U.S. soil.

The courts are somewhat feckless as well. A number of district courts and appellate courts have found a multitude of the Trump regime's actions illegal. Yet they are fearfully slow to attempt enforcement when Trump defies them.

In addition, some appellate courts are giving Trump unwarranted deference.

A District Court temporarily enjoined the Trump administration from deploying California's National Guard in LA. It directed the government to return control of the guard to Governor Newsom. But a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals put a temporary hold on the District Court's ruling. The three-member panel then granted the Trump administration's request to keep the hold on the district court's injunction in place while litigation on the issue proceeds. It looks like that panel of judges is adhering to the non-legal proverb that possession is nine tenth of the law.

And of course, six members of the Supreme Court deliberately set the nation up for Trump's burgeoning dictatorship by giving the felon-president immunity. The Court pretended to limit that immunity to "official" acts. But Trump, as anyone could have predicted, is treating anything he does as an official act. And the Supreme Court is mostly going along with him.

The Bottom Line

Criminals have taken power and are abusing the nation's legal apparatus to conduct war on anyone who opposes them, including the American people at large. That is gangsterism. How can it be stopped?

What doesn't work: calls like that of former Democratic Missouri Senator Claire McCaskell for all sides to say political violence is not acceptable. This won't work because, as The Bulwark's Tim Miller recently noted on MSNBC, "There is one political party that does not play by those rules."

Proving Miller right, Trump responded to the Minnesota assassinations by attacking Governor Walz. And Mike Lee, Elon Musk and right-wing MAGAs are conducting another of their ruthless disinformation campaigns, this one to spread ludicrous lies that the assassinations were by left-wing Marxists.

However, Trump is the reason assassins feel free to act. Trump has consistently and deliberately incited violence. And if he pardoned the January 6 convicts, why wouldn't this alleged assassin gamble that he can get a pardon if he is convicted?

Minnesota Senator Tina Smith confronted Senator Mike Lee over his callous cracks about the assassination on social media, appealing to his conscience. It was good that she confronted him. But appealing to his conscience--or to the conscience of any public figure backing Trump--is a waste of time. They have no conscience, or they would not be participating in Trump's march toward an authoritarian dictatorship. In any case, both Trump and his crew interpret any appeal to their humanity as a sign of weakness.

My view? Stop trying to reach their non-existent compassion. Instead, call them out in strong plain language at every opportunity.

Like Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin, the mild-mannered, constitutional scholar who called them what they are: a gangster state.

Like centrist Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, who pinned Secretary of Defense Hegseth to the wall on whether he would obey an order to have the military shoot civilians.

Continue to challenge them--in a legal manner--at every turn. Like Indivisible's peaceful No Kings protests that garnered as many as five million participants across the country.

Understandably, Minnesota law enforcement asked that citizens not attend the Minnesota No Kings protests because the assassin of their lawmakers was still at large. It was not known who or where he might strike next.

Despite that danger, the citizens of Minnesota came out to the protests in force.

That is courage. That is a show of strength demonstrating that the people of the United States will not be cowed by Trump-inspired violence--whether by assassins or ICE hoodlums.

No Kings protesters in St. Paul, Minnesota gathered despite warnings after the assassination of state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the shooting of lawmaker John Hoffman and his wife.

The spirit of the protests is strong. Hopefully, it will continue and expand. But even that is not enough. Because although Trump does not have authority for his actions, he does have power. Backed as he is by the Republican-controlled congress, the Supreme Court, and ostensible command of the military, protests alone are not likely to stop the deeds of Trump and his henchmen. They will continue to do what they want to do. If they appear to back off, it will be a temporary strategy. They'll wait until things quiet down a little and slip their autocratic changes in through the back door.

On MSNBC last Monday, Rachel Maddow showed videos of the innumerable No Kings protests in cities large and small. The number of them was heartening. But Maddow also seemed to recognize that the protests are only a beginning. She posed the questions: what's next? Where do we go from here?

Other than prodding our leaders and the tall order of getting a congress that will restore our democracy, I wish I knew. Does anyone out there have ideas to offer? If so, send them my way.

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