De-Escalation Is a Lie

Don't believe the momentary softening rhetoric toward Minneapolis. It's only meant to quiet the opposition.

Federal agents grab another protestor in Minneapolis. (Photo by Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images)

“We’re gonna de-escalate a little bit,” Donald Trump said on Fox News Tuesday.

Sounded good. But it was absolute nonsense.

This malignant sadist has zero interest in moderating the abuses of his lawless police state. He just wants to quiet some of the fury over his death squad’s murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, which was so sickening and undeniable that even a handful of Republicans criticized Homeland Security.

Yes, Trump had his Gestapo-style operative Greg Bovino, AKA the Border Patrol commander, sent out of town. But then he just replaced Bovino with his bulldog Tom Homan.

At a press conference yesterday, “Border Czar” Homan pretended to be there to moderate the situation. To talk to local officials. To seek cooperation. Not “everything that has been done here has been perfect,” he said, as if that was some kind of serious concession. “I came here to seek solutions,” Homan claimed, while also demanding that “hostile rhetoric and dangerous threats” from protestors and local officials “must stop.”

Homan also suggested there could be an agent “drawdown” if the state would provide “common-sense cooperation” and give ICE access to undocumented immigrants exiting Minnesota jails. This is another charade since, according to the state’s Department of Corrections (DOC), they already assist these “detainers and custody transfers” upon release.

In fact, the DOC has put out statements to underscore that Homeland Security is falsely insisting these routine transfers amount to arrests rather than standard procedure. Either this is incompetence, DOC Commissioner Paul Schnell said, or “it is pure propaganda” intended “to stoke fear rather than inform the public.”

The lies will keep coming. So will the violence.

You might say there was one kind of de-escalation. At Trump’s cabinet meeting yesterday, Homeland Security’s Kristi Noem was not called upon and did not say a word.

She surely said more than Trump wanted when she served up the infamous Nuremberg Defense this week: “Everything I've done, I've done at the direction of the president and Stephen [Miller].” Someone should explain to Noem that Nazi leaders who claimed they were just following orders were not spared from the gallows.

Noem may still be imagining that she is immune from the consequences of violating our nation’s laws, but her comments indicate that she’s not immune from the growing clamor to remove her. That includes demands for her to resign and more than 160 House Democrats co-sponsoring articles of impeachment.

Now that North Carolina’s GOP Sen. Thom Tillis is not running again, he’s suddenly discovered his spine. “What [Noem’s] done in Minnesota should be disqualifying,” he told reporters Tuesday. “She should be out of a job. I mean, really, it’s just amateurish.”

And when Trump called him “a loser” the next day, Tillis had a succinct reply: “I am thrilled about that. That makes me qualified to be Homeland Security secretary and senior adviser to the president,” referring to Stephen Miller.

Thanks to the brave Americans in Minneapolis who took videos of Trump and Noem’s goons, we have solid proof of these murders and other lawless acts of violence. Their bravery cannot be overstated as Trump’s operatives have worked aggressively to cover up their crimes and sabotage potential criminal investigations. Thanks also to the courage and commitment of the many thousands of Minnesotans who have braved sub-zero temperatures and opposed the daily desecrations of the rule of law and basic human decency.

Their resistance—their willingness to see, to hear, to speak out, to warn others—is an inspiration for all of us who yearn for this nightmare to end soon. As the pathological liar who occupies our White House mouths the notion of de-escalation, we must not forget that it will take millions of us acting with equal courage to stem the oppression of a fascist regime.

Let’s not soften the reality: The cancer continues to spread. While the Democrats succeeded yesterday in separating appropriations for Homeland Security from five other bills to keep most of the government open—negotiations continue about ICE reforms over the next two weeks—the goons and their sociopathic leadership remain fueled by $75 billion of already appropriated funding.

One of these sick thugs made clear that he had learned his lessons well. If “you raise your voice, I will erase your voice,” one thoroughly confident agent chillingly said on camera in Minneapolis this week.

“Are you serious?” asked an incredulous off-camera observer. “You said, ‘If I raise my voice, you will erase my voice?’”

“Yes, exactly,” the goon answered.

This after two murders. This after the rising fury. This after Donald Trump talked about de-escalation.

There will be no de-escalation for Minnesota until these 3,000 federal agents leave the state. There will be no de-escalation if Kristi Noem is not removed. There will be no de-escalation as long as a broken monster like Stephen Miller stays close to Trump and calls an ICU nurse an “assassin” and a “domestic terrorist” to justify their actions.

We can see with our own eyes that the Trump crime gang is not de-escalating. As if we needed more proof: On Wednesday, the FBI raided a Board of Elections office in Fulton County, Georgia to seize ballots and other materials from 2020.

As the leading elections lawyer and Democracy Docket head Marc Elias noted, this is not just another effort “to cast doubt on the veracity of the 2020 election” and a “further weaponization” of the DOJ against Trump’s political enemies. It also can be seen, Elias said, as “a dry run” for seizing ballots in the coming midterms to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the results and steal the election.

Even as we take strength from public protest and a rising opposition, we cannot be lulled into believing that Trump or his regime are changing their goals. We remain in the early days of a fight that will not soon end or be cooled by these anti-American extremists who want nothing less than a white nationalist state, the destruction of the Constitution and the dissolution of democratic life in America.

Note the comments of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon yesterday in response to Trump’s talk of de-escalation. “We have to hold the line. There can be no de-escalation at all. You don't need to bring down the temperature. Raise the temperature. Put them under pressure.”

Real de-escalation of the daily horrors our beloved country is facing depend on the Democrats retaking Congress and Donald J. Trump being impeached and removed from office. This is in our power. But we must keep pushing back.

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