President Donald Trump crossed a line this week that should never be crossed in a functioning democracy, according to one of his most outspoken critics, and his MAGA allies want him to obliterate that boundary.
The president ordered active-duty U.S. Marines to deploy with National Guard troops against Americans on U.S. soil as they protest his administration's crackdown against immigrants, and former Republican strategist Rick Wilson warned on his Substack page that Trump and his supporters are eager for violent retribution.
"Donald Trump didn’t just tiptoe over that line," Wilson wrote. "He did a little YMCA cha-cha in jackboots, grinning for the cameras as the pillars of civilian control and constitutional law cracked under the weight of his ego and the schemes of his advisors."
"This is the endgame so many around Trump have dreamt of," he added, "fetishized in their revanchist spank bank."
Right-wing media and MAGA influencers have inflamed the situation by boosting conspiracy theories and misinformation showing Los Angeles as "a smoldering warzone," Wilson wrote, where slain cops are "being stacked like cordwood," which in their eyes justifies any response Trump deems appropriate to restore peace and – especially – punish his enemies.
"Let me walk you through the sleight of hand here," Wilson wrote. "The immigration raids and violent-crime hysteria are the distraction, the kayfabe of cruelty that distracts from the real game. The goal isn’t to scare off a few undocumented gardeners and housekeepers or terrify asylum-seeking mothers. It’s to normalize the idea that active-duty troops can be used on American streets against American citizens."
"Let me say it louder for the people in the back: the normalization is the point," he added.
Trump, Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon and other MAGA white nationalists are hoping for a spark to justify the cleansing crackdown they believe is necessary to impose their vision for America, Wilson said.
"They want a protester to throw a rock," he wrote. "To hurl a bottle. God forbid, fire a gun at a soldier or cop. Anything."
Miller is no doubt hoping that some Marines will feel threatened enough to squeeze their trigger finger and gun down a fellow American in the streets, Wilson said, shoving American democracy into the chasm that opened once Trump crossed the line and ordered active-duty military to train their guns on protesters.
"That’s the message they want to send: 'We can kill you, and no one will stop us,'" Wilson wrote.