American politics took another dark turn this week. U.S. PresidentDonald Trumphas launched a full-frontal assault on democratic norms.

For years, DrMartin Hirsthas resisted officially designating Trump a fascist. The last two weeks have changed his mind.

FIRST, they came for the late-night talk hosts and I thought, This isnt funny anymore.

Next, they came for the former head of the FBI and I thought, Surely this cant be serious.

Then they came for the anti-fascists and I thought, Fuck, thats me!

It was a bit of a shock just how quickly the American TV networks buckled to the threats from Trump and his Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Parteigenosse,Brendan Carr. It was a relief that the wholedramaaroundJimmy Kimmeldied down after his television colleagues backed him up.

But Trump hates the media when it mocks him or calls out his constant lying. Hes already suedThe New York TimesandThe Wall Street Journaland collected over US$30 million (AU$45.4 million) inshakedown money. There will be more attacks on journalists and the networks.

Already, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) are facing hugeincome cutsas federal funds are withdrawn. Several universities inside the Ivy League and out are also under threat of funding cuts as Trump ramps up his war on woke.

Following the Administrations threats to seek revenge against its perceived domestic enemies, it wasnt the least bit shocking that just a week ago, Trump sicced his woefully under-qualified attorney and former aide,Lindsey Halligan, on ex-FBI chiefJames Comey.

Halligans indictment is that Comey lied about some trivial shit. The legal consensus is that the charges will be dropped because Trump wont want to be deposed and cross-examined on his wild exaggerations and wacky conspiracy theories about the stolen 2020 Election andHillary Clintons servers.

While these incidents can be shrugged off as the demented lusts of a mad king, its hard perhaps impossible to ignore the assault on free speech now underway in AmeriKKKa.

Trumps attacks are a direct assault on political activity itself. Speech is only effective when it leads to action, and the Trump Administration is moving to criminalise political speech activity that challenges its hegemony. Not only does Trump want to silence his critics, he wants to completely demobilise any political opposition to his, now undeniable, project to turn the USA into a fascist autocracy.

This is more than an attack on free speech; Donald Trumps supporters haveopenly called forthe arrest, beating and killing of left-wing and progressive activists.

The rot starts at the head. Trump himself called for radical left groups and individuals to be put in gaol and threatened tofind each and every oneof the supposed activists who he says, without a shred of evidence, contributed to the killing of right-wing influence-peddlerCharlie Kirk.

Close Trump confidant andcloset Nazi,Stephen Miller, called left-wing groups avast domestic terror movement. Millers eulogy at the Charlie Kirk memorialgrift-a-thonon 21 September was cribbed from a similar speech by Nazi propaganda chiefJoseph Goebbels.

Nazi-salutingSteve Bannonproclaimed Kirk acasualty of warand wants mass arrests, particularly of college and university students who stand up for Palestine. Trump seems happy to oblige.

Fox News waste valveJesse Wattersalso used a war analogy,sayingthey (the Left, allegedly) are at war with us. By us, Watters means stupid White men like him. Again, no evidence has been presented for the war claim.

AllegedWhite supremacistand fascist-loverElon Muskhas promised even more violence if the Left wontleave us in peace. He has labelled the Left asthe party of murder.

Musks definition of us is the same one used by Jesse Watters and other fatuous Fox bobble-headed Faschistenknecht.Right-wing podcasterMatt Walshdescribesliberals and progressivesas demonic forces from the pit of Hell.

Antifa is now the designated target

This is not just free speech by these authoritarian Abschaum and wannabe Braunhemden, it is incitement to action. It is a loud dog whistle to the MAGA baseProud Boysand other fascist gangs that they will soon be off the leash.

Whats particularly notable, and dripping with unintended irony, is the Trump Administration claiming that the Left wants to shut down freedom of speech while Miller and co simultaneously move to destroy the civil rights of anybody outside the increasingly unhinged and shrinking MAGA faithful.

The signs are clear. On 22 September,Trump declaredAntifa a terrorist threat and a militarist, anarchist enterprise in a wide-ranging executive order that authorises federal agencies to target anybody claiming to act on behalf of Antifa. Of course, this can be widely derided as a pointless exercise as Antifa is an idea it simply means anti-fascistbut in the fevered puddle of warm snot that passes for the collective MAGA brain, Antifa is simply them.

A few days later, the broader shape of the Trump Administrations attacks on freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of association was revealed in another executive order known asNational Security Presidential memorandum/NSPM-7. This is a postmodern re-run of 1950s anti-communistMcCarthyism; this time targeting non-existent radicalisation and violent intimidation.

The real Antifa: A legacy of fighting fascism

Branded a terrorist by Donald Trump, Michael Taylor wears the name Antifa as an inheritance the same legacy that once stood against fascism on the battlefield.

Of course, the actual events being hinted at here are lawful protests against theprobably unconstitutionalviolent snatch-and-grab kidnappings carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) agents in Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago and other large communities of colour.

NSPM-7 extends the crackdown on Antifa by explicitly calling anti-fascists fascists and portraying anti-I.C.E. activists as domestic terrorists waging war against AmeriKKKas fundamental liberties. NSPM-7defines these liberties and values in the following terms: support for American capitalism and Christianity, along with traditional views on family, religion and morality.

According to the drafters of NSPM-7, the anti-fascists believe in the exact opposite values: anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism and anti-Christianity. Apparently, the anti-Antifa also support extremism on migration, race and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views.

Its worth recapping that extremism on migration, race and gender translates into opposing Trumps blatant racism against Latinos and African-Americans, standing up for the fair treatment of migrants, opposing genocide and not wanting to liquidate transexual people. Trump has with Stephen Millers input, no doubt unleashed theJoint Terrorism Task Forceto seek and destroy Antifa in order to secure his version of AmeriKKKan values.

Two days after the NSPM-7 memorandum, Trumpannouncedhe would send all necessary Troops to Portland, Oregon, a city he described as war-ravaged, in order to protect the lawless I.C.E. snatch squads from outraged residents. This was a response topeaceful and determined protestsby Portland locals against the actions of I.C.E. agents, whom Trumpdescribedas under siege from attack by Antifa and other domestic terrorists.

Wir sind der Sturm

Maybe I dont need to remind IA readers that we should be worried by these developments. The stage is being carefully set for what is coming and Stephen Miller laid it out pretty explicitly in his 21 September address at the Kirk martyrdom ceremony. The similarities with Goebbels' infamous 1932 speech, The storm is coming, eulogising assassinated NaziHorst Wesselare not coincidental. EvenSnopes agrees.

Horst Wessel became a martyr to the Nazi cause and the hagiographic idolatry around Charlie Kirk has a distinct Third Reich tone.

Trump's war on anti-fascism will challenge anti-fascism to outlast him

Trumps push to brand anti-fascism as terrorismmay just encourage a global revival ofresistance.

In 1932, Goebbels said:

In 2025, Miller said:

The rhetorical devices and thematic currents in the speeches are almost identical: apocalyptic imagery, dehumanising opponents, a civilisation under siege from within, calls for mobilisation and revenge.

This is the ideological context surrounding Trumps moves to outlaw any kind of dissent, particularly public protests. Under the terms of his recentexecutive orders, peaceful protests have become organised violence, domestic terrorism and violent intimidation aimed at suppressing lawful political speech. This is clearly a signal that repression is coming.

Trumps words and actions are strong indicators of the fascist path that AmeriKKKa is now taking:

• portraying White nationalists like Charlie Kirk as a victim who should be heiled and a martyr to a racist cultural mythology;
• dehumanising the enemy Antifa are the real fascists;
• the militarisation of civil society sending troops into various cities, declaring protests domestic terrorism; and
• the expansion of surveillance and prosecutions on bogus charges.

We can no longer dismiss this as Trumps derangement and narcissism; it is now U.S. government policy.

The question we must face is a simple one: What do we do about this frontal assault on basic democratic rights? The answer is not so simple, but it begins with a recognition that speech alone is not an effective weapon for the struggle ahead. We need action of our own: large protests, strikes, boycotts, occupations and mass civil disobedience.

We must be part of the resistance and the resistance must get organised.

DrMartin Hirstis a journalist, author and academic. You can follow him@ethicalmartini.

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