Just the other day, Donald J. Trump—the same man who once described himself as “your retribution”—announced that Chicago may soon be “taken over” by the military. His stated reasoning, recited like a broken gong, is Chicago’s murder rate. Local police, he implies, are not merely failing but complicit, derelict by design. Yet scrape away this threadbare pretext and you find, as ever, not a concern for public safety but the eternal fetish of the authoritarian: control.
This is the same script he deployed when he loosed the military on Washington, D.C.—not to enforce law, but to flex his muscles over the capital itself, treating the republic’s seat of government as if it were just another casino lobby to be subdued with brute force. And now, as I write on August 14th, Trump threatens Baltimore with the same treatment—not because of crime statistics, but because the mayor had the temerity to withhold the ritual act of obeisance, the bow and the kiss of the ring.
The pattern is plain enough. Washington, Chicago, Baltimore: all blue cities. Trump swears it is mere coincidence. And perhaps, if you are simple-minded enough to believe his hair is natural, you might believe this too.
But if murder rates are really his yardstick, why not Memphis or St. Louis—perennially ranked among the most violent cities in America? Why not Little Rock or Toledo? FBI data, reported by Newsweek, shows that the nation’s most violent cities are overwhelmingly in red states, governed by Republicans more exercised about drag queens than homicide rates. Yet there are no tanks on Beale Street, no soldiers patrolling St. Louis, no helicopters circling Little Rock. In Trump’s moral calculus, blood spilled in red states is “unfortunate”; blood spilled in blue states is political opportunity.
This is not about crime. It is about power. It is about dressing authoritarianism in the drag of “law and order,” a costume change for what is in essence a creeping coup.
“This is not law enforcement—it is war against one’s own citizens.”
The facts, stubborn as they are, betray him. Both Washington and Chicago have seen crime falling in 2024 and 2025. Trump insists the opposite, but then Trump has never been on speaking terms with reality. He thrives on the spectacle: the chyron screaming “skyrocketing crime,” the reality-TV set piece of chaos, the pantomime of strength. Truth is irrelevant, provided the falsehood is loud enough to drown it out.
Pause, then, on the sheer lunacy of militarizing American cities. The military is not trained for policing. It is trained to kill, to occupy, to reduce enemies to rubble. To deploy it domestically is not “law enforcement” but war against one’s own citizens. We have already had a preview: Portland, during the BLM protests, where anonymous federal agents bundled civilians into unmarked vans. Once again, the target was a blue state.
Now compare this to Charlottesville, Virginia, where a white-supremacist thug drove his car into peaceful demonstrators, killing one and maiming dozens. No military there. No grandiloquent talk of “dominating the streets.” Instead, Trump offered his now-infamous line: “very fine people on both sides.” Red states get indulgence; blue states get occupation.
This is not incompetence. It is intent. A strategy as crude as it is dangerous: criminalize Democratic cities, militarize them, normalize the idea that opposition is disorder. Once the precedent is planted, extend it outward—Washington and Chicago today, Philadelphia and Los Angeles tomorrow—until every blue stronghold lies under martial law in all but name.
And do not say we weren’t warned. Trump himself has mused aloud: “If we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections.” A statement which, in saner times, would have been disqualifying was instead received as a joke, as if tyranny were charming when offered with a grin. Hitler, too, once joked about dictatorship before making it a reality.
The parallels are as glaring as they are nauseating. In 1924, Hitler assured a German court that once in power, he would refashion the state as he saw fit. Trump has said no less. Hitler boasted of jubilant crowds; Trump invented the “largest inauguration crowd in history.” Hitler purged officials for loyalists; Trump vows to do likewise with the “deep state.” Hitler ranted about “blood poisoning”; Trump rages that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” Hitler seized upon the Reichstag fire to justify authoritarian crackdowns; Trump toys with military occupations of blue cities and teases openly about suspending elections.
We know the end of that story. And the opening chapters sound unnervingly familiar.
What is unfolding before us is not “law and order.” It is the slow normalization of authoritarian control, one city at a time—a coup in installments, wrapped in the flag, sold with fear, and excused by those too timid or too partisan to name it for what it is.
A coup in installments, wrapped in the flag, sold with fear.”
And when it arrives—when elections are treated as optional, and soldiers are stationed in your streets—do not feign surprise. Simply remember that you were warned.
Why it Matters
Militarizing blue cities sets a precedent for treating opposition as disorder. Once normalized, it paves the way for elections to be suspended, dissent criminalized, and democracy replaced by authoritarian control. History warns us: coups don’t always arrive with tanks—they arrive piece by piece, city by city.
Key Takeaways
- Trump threatens to militarize Democratic cities under the guise of “law and order.”
- FBI data shows many of the most violent cities are in red states, yet only blue states are targeted.
- Deploying the military domestically is authoritarian by design, not accident.
- The pattern mirrors historic playbooks of creeping coups—from the Reichstag fire to authoritarian crackdowns.
Further Reading
- Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power Hardcover – Timothy W. Ryback A dramatic recounting of the six critical months before Adolf Hitler seized power, when the Nazi leader teetered between triumph and ruin. https://civilheresy.com/hitler final rise to power
- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century – Timothy Snyder
A guide to recognizing and resisting authoritarian tactics. https://civilheresy.com/on tyranny - Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present – Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Explains how authoritarian leaders consolidate control and silence dissent. https://civilheresy.com/strongmen
