Authoritarian regimes throughout history have used tragic events as a pretext to clamp down on dissent and opposition to their rule. Some crappy dictator-to-be loudly and repeatedly proclaims that the country is in crisis and only he is strong enough to save it. But to do so, he is being forced to suspend civil liberties and the rule of law, but only to keep the citizens safe. Trust him, that is really the only way to save the country1 from impending extinction.
Their extremist hyperbole is often a dead giveaway of their bad intentions.
Here in the U.S., authoritarian President Donald Trump has implemented inflammatory, divisive and even illegal policies in the hope of creating an instigating event that he can use to further his authority. Trump has unconstitutionally sent armed military troops into Democratic cities, he has sent anonymous, masked ICE thugs to kidnap non-white people from their workplaces, farms and even off the quiet streets of America, and his law enforcement cultists have forced people onto planes and disappeared them to other countries, all while blatantly flaunting federal court orders to not do those things.
Trump, and his Secretary of White Nationalism, Stephen, “Goebbels” Miller, have been hoping that this environment of fear and violence, that they themselves created, would culminate in a tragic incident that they could use as the trigger for their final solution.
Ironically, Trump and Miller’s hoped-for instigating act appears to have dropped in their laps not through their own despicable policies and actions but through the actions of a young man named Tyler Robinson, who allegedly murdered MAGA bigot Charlie Kirk on Sep 10.
Coups in democratic nations have happened many times throughout history. To be clear, Donald Trump is not particularly smart or original. He is however entirely shameless and very likely a mentally ill sociopath because he has absolutely no empathy whatsoever for anyone other than himself. These two traits, combined with his innate ability to deceive and manipulate people are the perfect recipe for a dictator bent on achieving totalitarian power in what used to be the greatest country on earth.
People don’t want to believe a coup could happen in the United States. People in 1930s Germany didn’t think it could happen to them either. If we truly want to save America, we need everyone who loves this country, progressives and conservatives to wake up to the danger. One way to do that is to explicitly expose the stark parallels between Trump’s ongoing attack on all Americans with one of the most severe authoritarian takeovers in history, by Adolph Hitler.
German Reichstag Fire / Kirk Murder
On February 27, 1933, a mere four weeks after Adolf Hitler was legally appointed Chancellor by Germany’s president, the Reichstag2 in Berlin was set ablaze by an arsonist. A Dutch communist, Marinus van der Lubbe, was found inside, arrested and later beheaded by guillotine for the crime. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime immediately attributed the attack to a broader communist conspiracy aimed at overthrowing Hitler’s fledgling government. Despite scant evidence of a coordinated plot, Hitler declared it the opening salvo of a "Bolshevik revolt," and framed communists as existential threats to Germany.
Does this sound familiar?
On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA and a high-profile MAGA influencer, was fatally shot during a speaking event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The alleged shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson is a young white Christian male from a conservative, Trump-supporting family. Robinson was arrested on September 12 after confessing to a relative.3
Despite his conservative Christian upbringing, Robinson allegedly sent messages related to leftist memes and role-play communities. There are reports that his romantic partner is queer and might be trans. Kirk’s hateful and bigoted rhetoric toward the trans community, much like Hitler’s rhetoric blaming Jewish people for all of Germany’s perceived problems4, might have contributed to sending Robinson over the edge.
Nazi Response to the Instigating Act
Hitler's public statements amplified the public’s fear. He reportedly shouted at the fire scene about "sub-humans" in "mouse-holes," while Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels orchestrated a narrative of communist terror.5 Hitler used the Reichstag fire to justify the suspension of civil liberties through the Reichstag Fire Decree which suspended key civil liberties under the Weimar Constitution including freedom of speech, the press, the right to assembly, and habeas corpus.
The Reichstag Fire Decree gave the German government sweeping powers including warrantless arrests, indefinite detentions, and the dissolution of opposition parties. In addition to communists, the Decree also targeted Social Democrats, pacifists and journalists. Hitler justified the Decree as a "defensive measure against communist acts of violence endangering the state.” Crucially, he used the Decree’s power to have over 4,000 communists6 arrested and thrown in jail.
The imprisoned included all KPD (Communist Party) Reichstag delegates, which ended their electoral participation. The crackdown paved the way for rushed parliamentary elections on March 5, 18 days after the instigating fire. The Nazis secured a plurality (43.9%) and fewer than three weeks later, on March 23rd, the newly-formed Nazi-led Reichstag (similar to our House of Representatives) rubber-stamped the Enabling Act that granted Hitler dictatorial powers to rule by decree without any further parliamentary oversight. The Act effectively ended democratic opposition.
MAGA Response to the Instigating Act
As with van der Lubbe, Robinson had no known ties to organized groups, leftist or otherwise. Nevertheless, Trump, in a September 11 Oval Office video and in subsequent remarks, blamed the "radical left" for inciting the violence through "hateful and despicable" rhetoric. He compared Kirk to victims of "left-wing purveyors of political violence" and vowed to "beat the hell out of … radical left lunatics." Trump said he would posthumously award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom and he ordered flags lowered to half-staff. Although Kirk was a hateful and bigoted man who only pretended to be reasonable, Trump is now cynically turning him into some kind of “hero” or saint to justify his authoritarian actions.
Trump’s instigating act is ongoing and we cannot know with any certainty how exactly he will use it to advance his coup. We can however look at the ways he has already violated or pushed the boundaries of the Constitution and federal law to get an idea of where this is headed if Americans on all sides do not stand up and oppose him.
This year, Trump deployed the military7 against American civilians to test how far the courts and the country will let him go. FBI Director Kash Patel and Stephen Miller have suggested that federal forces would target “Antifa networks” (whatever those are) in urban areas, which usually means Democratic strongholds like Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, or Washington, D.C. Trump sycophants like Border Czar Tom Homan have called to deploy federal resources, including ICE and potentially the National Guard, to cities perceived as “soft on leftist violence.”
The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the military from enforcing domestic laws without either congressional approval or an invocation of the Insurrection Act but that has not stopped Trump at all. Look for him to continue to use the military in illegal ways or to eventually invoke the Insurrection Act as cover for using the military to actually support his rule.
While the active use of the military against American civilians is the most dangerous of Trump’s violations, there are many, many more examples:
Ending Birthright Citizenship – Trump signed an executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship for children of non-citizens in violation of the 14th Amendment which grants citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Legal scholars, including Laurence Tribe and Erwin Chemerinsky, called this “blatantly unconstitutional.”
DOJ Investigations into Political Speech – Attorney General Pam Bondi has launched investigations into Democratic lawmakers for their public political speech, claiming they are “criminal threats.” The DOJ also threatened law schools to end DEI policies or face repercussions, sued law firms to end DEI programs and took funding away from universities deemed too liberal or anti-Trump. These are all clear violations of the First Amendment’s right to free speech, and the Fifth Amendment’s right to due process.
Using Federal Agencies to Censor American Media – Trump used the FCC to threaten ABC with a loss of their broadcast license over comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes about Kirk and Trump. The Walt Disney Company, owner of ABC, capitulated within a day and “indefinitely” removed Kimmel’s show from the air. Stephen Colbert was similarly forced off the air by CBS after he criticized parent company Paramount’s settlement of a nuisance suit brought by Trump.
Penalizing Law Firms Who Opposed Him – Trump issued a series of Executive Orders against prominent "Big Law" firms he accused of "weaponizing" the legal system against him. The EOs aimed to punish the firms for past representation of clients or lawyers who had opposed the thin-skinned Trump, such as those involved with the special counsel investigations led by Robert Mueller and Jack Smith. The punitive measures included:
Suspending the security clearances of attorneys.
Terminating government contracts with the firms.
Restricting employees' (attorneys’) access to federal buildings and officials, thereby making it impossible for the lawyers to represent their clients.
Firing of Federal Prosecutors, Inspectors General, and Civil Servants – The administration fired dozens of federal prosecutors, 17 inspectors general (independent watchdogs investigating waste and fraud), and thousands of career civil servants, often without cause. Trump targeted people who were involved in prior investigations that he did not like, such as those related to the January 6 MAGA Capitol riot that Trump instigated.
The firings violate federal civil service protections under laws like the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which requires cause for termination of career employees. The removal of inspectors general without notice or rationale to Congress breaches the Inspector General Act of 1978. Targeting personnel for past investigative roles is clearly retaliatory and violates their free speech and association rights under the First Amendment, but MAGAs clearly only care about the Constitution when it benefits them.Dismantling of Independent Agencies (e.g., USAID) – Trump tried to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), established by Congress in 1998, without legislative approval. Closing an agency created by statute without congressional consent violates Article I, which reserves legislative authority to Congress.
Courts have ruled that the executive cannot unilaterally dismantle agencies, as it violates the separation of powers. Trump has cut all funding instead (see above), effectively ending the agency and he has taken a similar approach to other areas like the Department of Education.Misuse of the Alien Enemies Act – Trump invoked the 1798 act to justify immediate deportations and detentions without evidence of a “declared war” or “invasion” as required by the statute. He has also floated the idea of deporting U.S. citizens to El Salvador which is obviously illegal.
Impoundment of Congressionally Appropriated Funds – Trump issued executive orders to illegally freeze or withhold billions of dollars in congressionally appropriated funds in violation of the Impoundment Act. He attacked or eviscerated public-good programs affecting Medicaid, childcare, housing subsidies, and education.
Granting DOGE Access to Sensitive Government Systems – Elon Musk’s DOGE was given access to Social Security data and even the Treasury Department’s payment systems which includes tax refund data. Musk then posted about specific payments, which is a violation of the Privacy Act of 1974 as well as numerous other laws.
There are many more examples, but this article can’t list them all or it would turn into a 500-page encyclopedia of abuses. However, there is one more egregious action taken by Donald Trump that should scare all Americans on the left and the right because it resulted in deaths.
On two or three occasions in early September, Trump ordered the U.S. Military to murder 15 or more civilians in the Caribbean Sea by blowing up the small boats they were on. Trump labeled the victims “narcoterrorists” from the Tren de Aragua gang whom he claimed, without presenting any evidence, were transporting drugs.
These murders were war crimes under both U.S. and international laws.
Extrajudicial killings are unambiguously illegal:
The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of federal military forces for domestic law enforcement even when it occurs outside the U.S. Preventing the smuggling of illegal drugs from a country we are not at war with is explicitly a law enforcement responsibility. The Coast Guard has decades of experience interdicting drug smugglers at sea and they could have been legally ordered to stop and search the boats. Never before has the U.S. blown up suspected civilian criminals with missiles fired at them by the military.
Under Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, only Congress has the power to declare war and to regulate the military. Trump asserts Article II commander-in-chief powers and claims the murders advance “national interests” and do not constitute “war.” This is a specious claim but one which the current Supreme Court’s MAGA majority will likely rubber-stamp anyway.
Congress did not authorize the strikes. Instead, Trump issued a secret executive directive in July that designated certain cartels as terrorist organizations. Legal experts say that no plausible domestic legal authority supports the U.S. Government targeting drug traffickers as if they are enemy combatants. U.S. law simply does not give him that authority at all.
There are federal laws against extrajudicial killings if any victims were American. No one knows who the victims were, or their nationalities since they were blown into little pieces. That’s awfully convenient for Trump.
The killings violate the laws of armed conflict which makes them a war crime under 18 U.S.C.§2441. In fact, one Pentagon official anonymously called one of the strikes a “criminal attack on civilians.”
The attacks violate a number of international laws, including the UN Charter and Use of Force and the International Human Rights and Maritime Laws. Perhaps most importantly though, the strikes are war crimes under the Geneva Convention.
SO IS THIS REALLY WHAT YOU VOTED FOR, CONSERVATIVES?
Adolf Hitler overturned the rule of law and was given dictatorial powers through the Enabling Act of 1933, which was passed by a majority vote of the German Reichstag after a campaign of intimidation and a purge of opposition lawmakers.
Donald Trump is right this minute overturning our rule of law by outright ignoring the laws he doesn’t like or which get in his way of accumulating power. The courts, backed by the six Supreme Court justices who gave him “absolute immunity,” along with sycophantic, power-hungry GOP legislator bootlickers are doing nothing to stop him.
Hitler openly killed his opponents, beginning with communists, before moving on to gays, gypsies and ultimately murdering over six million Jews.
Trump’s era of directly killing Americans might be just beginning, but make no mistake about his ability to do so without remorse. He callously ordered people killed when he could just as easily have ordered them captured and tried in court if they were in fact smuggling illegal drugs into the U.S.
Donald Trump crossed his very last moral redline and that should scare the hell out of everyone, right, middle or left. Being MAGA today is not going to save you tomorrow when his narcissistic, syphilis-addled, sociopathic brain decides on a whim that you just aren’t loyal enough, or that you crossed him, or that you offended him.
Heed the warning, America, before it’s too late.
The citizens all cheered when Dear Leader came for their enemies.
By the time he came for them too, it was too late.
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Or make it great again
The Reichstag is Germany’s Capitol Building where the Bundestag (Federal Assembly) meets.
Much is still unknown about Robinson’s motives and views. I have tried not to speculate and to only report objective facts. I apologize for any errors that might be revealed by new information as the case moves forward over the next year or two.
In fact, much of Germany’s economic problems in the 30s were related to World War I which they also started.
You can see why so many people compare Stephen Miller to Goebbels.
It was only later that Hitler shifted his focus to Jews as a much more vulnerable target because anti-semitism was rampant in Europe and there were far more Jewish people than communists to attack.
The National Guard is under states’ control, but when federalized as Trump has done, the troops become part of the United States Military and thus subjected to the Posse Comitatus Act.