Trump’s “Invasion” Theatrics: Act 1

In Trump’s executive orders it’s possible to see how he could build an authoritarian infrastructure under the guise of protecting Americans from an invasion.

Since last year, the number of people arriving at the border to seek protection has continued to plummet, largely owing to Mexico’s enforcement. But even if people are seeking asylum and employment in the United States, this does not constitute an “invasion.” That didn’t stop Trump from declaring a national emergency at the border last week. It was act 1 of Trump’s border invasion theatrics.

It began with the acting defense secretary, who instructed all military departments to cease making social media posts. An exception was made for the Department of Defense’s border security operations, according to Military.com.

On Friday, the White House released on social media a video of the U.S. Marine Corps landing Ospreys and offloading Marines near Otay Mesa, California. It also disseminated photos of shackled Guatemalan men being loaded onto U.S. military planes.

As is the case with so many of Trump’s strongman theatrics, the real story is buried beneath the bluster. As the White House wagged the dog, Marines were diverted from helping firefighters battle the devastating wildfires in California, including a fire along the border in San Diego County known as the Border 2 fire. A map made by my colleague Jack Sapoch, at Lighthouse Reports, shows that military aircraft bypassed the nearby aerial response to the Border 2 wildfire to land at the border wall for the White House–produced video. (In the Department of Defense briefing, a senior official said FEMA had released the 500 Marines from its fire-relief mission; this took place just as Trump threatened to abolish FEMA.)

In short, the border is literally on fire, but the Trump White House opted to divert much-needed federal resources to produce a video about “border security.”

Additionally, Trump deported people in massive U.S. military cargo planes, even though Immigration and Customs Enforcement already has a fleet of commercial planes, which have been making deportation flights for years. Using the cargo planes was not only a waste of taxpayer money, but it also unnecessarily antagonized neighboring Mexico and other Latin American countries with long memories of U.S.-led invasions and coups. This is why, unsurprisingly, a U.S. military plane bound for Mexico, without prior notification to Mexican officials, was denied permission to land.

From the Invasion Election to the Invasion Presidency

The Trump administration, which is still taking shape, is stacked with loyalists who spread the border invasion propaganda that helped him win the election. The rogues’ gallery includes Department of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem, who as governor of South Dakota was the first to deploy the National Guard to the Texas border, and Tom Homan, who fronted Border 911, a dark money group of former law enforcement officials; leading up to the election, they crisscrossed the country on Trump’s behalf, warning of an invasion. Homan is now Trump’s “border czar” overseeing the mass-deportation initiative. Rodney Scott, a Border 911 member and former Border Patrol chief, is head of Customs and Border Protection, whose agents, my sources tell me, have been instructed to use the word “invasion” in their public messaging. And Border 911 member Derek Maltz will run the Drug Enforcement Agency.

With these functionaries in place, the administration is poised to make its show of force. This is not about the U.S.-Mexico border region or fixing our broken immigration system. Instead, it’s about consolidating power and making a profit while distracting us with intimidation and fearmongering. In Trump’s executive orders we can see how his administration could build an authoritarian infrastructure under the guise of protecting Americans from an “invasion.”

We only have to look as far as his executive order titled “Protecting the American People against Invasion,” which starts off with a histrionic Mad Libs of lies about “millions of illegal aliens … committing vile and heinous acts against American citizens.”

The executive order directs Noem and Trump’s attorney general Pam Bondi, a former lobbyist for the private prison GEO Group, to create a Homeland Security task force in every state with an operational command center, staffed by their two agencies, to oversee them. The task forces will consist of “federal law enforcement officers, or agencies with the ability to provide logistics, intelligence, and operational support, and it will also include representation from relevant state and local law enforcement agencies.”

Under this EO, the goal is to find all “unregistered aliens” and levy enforcement and fines against them. Detention space, meanwhile, will have to be expanded, so that the U.S. government can hold people indefinitely until “their removal from the country.”

Another dangerous EO is the “Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States,” which forces the U.S. military into a gray zone of civil enforcement and policing, to be exploited by Trump for political purposes. In the EO, Trump gives the U.S. Northern Command 30 days to create a Level 3 Plan, which is one step below a full-blown operational document for battle, according to Military.com. All to fight an “invasion” that doesn’t exist.

In a draft 2020 resignation letter to Trump, former Joint Chiefs of Staff general Mark Milley wrote, “You are using the military to create fear in the minds of the people—and we are trying to protect the American people.” Milley later called Trump “fascist to the core” and warned that if reelected, he would try to use the military to remain in power.

Divide and Conquer

In the next two years leading up to the midterm, the Trump regime will pursue an all-out campaign to purge the government of anyone but MAGA loyalists and to intimidate media into repeating the White House’s propaganda line that we are under threat from an invasion at the border.

Outlets like Fox News and Newsmax, which pumped out nonstop invasion and #BidenOpenBorders content the last four years, are already what amounts to MAGA state media, similar to outlets in Hungary or Russia, and they are eager to maintain Trump’s fictions. On Sunday, Fox News pronounced that Trump had had a “perfect first week.” This is why Trump has placed at least 19 FOX news producers, pundits, and others in key leadership positions, including former FOX and Friends Weekend host Pete Hegseth as secretary of national defense. Whatever propaganda they manufacture will be further disseminated through an ecosystem of social media influencers and content creators to persuade Americans to turn on themselves; Trump is already demanding that federal employees rat each other out over diversity policies, and MAGA allies are calling up ICE on their fellow Americans.

The good news, if there is any, is that America’s sheer size and decentralized system of state governments will be a challenge for an authoritarian takeover. This is why Trump is now bent on subjugating California, Massachusetts, and other blue states that did not vote for him by starving them of federal resources, including that reassignment of soldiers to assist in fighting the wildfires. Meanwhile, Fox News and, unsurprisingly, Bill Melugin, who was the outlet’s chief border invasion correspondent during the Biden years, is now on the national “migrant crime” beat in blue states, stoking the well-oiled MAGA propaganda machine that Democratic officials are “pro invasion.”

President Trump is citing an invasion at the border, but don’t be fooled. He’s really at war with American democracy.

For further reading

What Just Happened: Unpacking the Executive Order on National Emergency at the Southern Border

https://www.justsecurity.org/106593/national-emergency-southern-border-order/

A Guide to Emergency Powers and Their Use

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/guide-emergency-powers-and-their-use

Also for more context, check out the Substacks of historians Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Timothy Snyder, both experts on authoritarian regimes.