Letter to the editor: The fever breaks

First published in the Brunswick Beacon, 12.04.25

At 2,700 “No Kings” protests last month, over 7 million Americans rejected authoritarianism, exemplified by Trump’s illegal use of troops in American cities. More than 170 American citizens have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by federal troops. At least three pregnant citizens were detained — one had the door of her home blown off while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched. Masked, armed troops arrested an American citizen in Los Angeles, seized his car and drove off with his one-year-old child, also an American citizen, in the backseat.

Gregory Bovino commands Operation Midway Blitz, the military invasion Trump launched with this post: “ ‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning’ … ‘Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.’ ” Trump included a photoshopped image of himself dressed as Robert Duvall’s air cavalry officer with Chicago ablaze beneath helicopter gunships and the caption, “Chipocalypse Now.”

Federal Judge Sara Ellis rejected prosecutors’ claim that Chicago was “in a vise hold of violence, ransacked by rioters and attacked by agitators” as “simply untrue.” Ellis ruled that Bovino lied when he denied using force and “lied about whether a rock hit him” before he teargassed protestors. Ellis said Bovino’s “use of force shocks the conscience.” Two other federal judges rejected Trump’s use of troops in Portland and Los Angeles as illegal. One, appointed by Trump, rejected Trump’s claims as “untethered to the facts.”

Grand Juries have rejected Trump prosecutors’ indictments an unprecedented six times. One Grand Jury rejected felony charges against a man who lobbed a sandwich at an armored federal agent in Washington, DC. When prosecutors tried him on misdemeanor charges, which don’t require a Grand Jury indictment, the trial jury rejected the charges by acquitting him.

The most emphatic rejection came from voters on Nov. 4, when Democrats swept every key race. Judges, juries, and the American body politic are rejecting the infection that is Trump’s un-American authoritarianism.

Michael Rush

Leland