Trump’s authoritarianism in plain sight…

Would Nigel Farage hesitate to do the same here?

Dear John,

The media coverage of the Los Angeles protests has shown burned out cars, masked activists in the streets, and buildings in flames.

The White House has taken to the airwaves to decry “illegals”, “foreigners”, "instigators” and “insurrectionists”, painting a picture of what Trump calls “a rebellion against the authority of the United States government.”

But all of this started with students, clergy, and trade union leaders peacefully petitioning for the release of hundreds of undocumented migrants recently detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Many people in the States are resentful of ICE – which has seen its powers and personnel drastically increased – raiding schools, hospitals, workplaces, homes, and communities across the country – taking away friends and family members, often while ignoring the democratic right to due process in their desperation to meet Trump’s deportation quotas.

Those protests were met with a brutal state crackdown, as Trump sent in federal troops against the consent of California officials. Journalists were detained and deliberately shot with rubber bullets. Tear gas and flash-bangs were deployed against people simply standing up for their friends, families, and neighbours. To all of us onlookers, it’s authoritarianism in plain sight.

“This is meant to punish people who are standing up for their rights,” one clergy leader at the protests told reporters.

*Warning: Graphic Content*

The Path to Martial Law

Trump’s intervention only served to escalate the situation. In addition to further politicising the military (forcing them to take partisan sides) and calling for the extrajudicial arrest of California Governor Gavin Newsom, Trump has created fertile ground for martial law in the United States.

The language the White House uses is important. Trump aide Stephen Miller called the LA protests “an insurrection”– a term he pointedly refused to use for the violent MAGA-led assault on the Capitol in 2021.

These “insurrection” designations could easily provide Trump with sweeping legal authority to deploy more federal forces, building the scaffolding for an American police state. It’s hard to say, but the worst could still be to come for our friends in the United States.

Silence Speaks Volumes

While all this unfolds, Nigel Farage is preparing his own blueprint for a British mass deportation regime. A plan that would very likely require the same kind of invasive surveillance, state violence, and authoritarian suppression of dissent. His silence on what’s happening in the States right now says it all.

There’s the question no one in the media is asking: if Reform UK were to take power – as polls suggest they could if a general election were held today – would they hesitate to crush protests that stood in their way?

Nigel Farage is keen to keep his distance from Trump, and understandably so. But that’s hard when you’re running on a very similar platform, and when you’re unwilling to call out the authoritarianism that everyone here in Britain can plainly see.

All the more important that we make Farage fight fair. That he’s pressed about his connections to the US’ would-be dictator. That the lies he spreads on social media don’t go unanswered for. And that he doesn’t sweep our broken FPTP electoral system with under a third of the vote.

All the best,

Matt

Matt Gallagher

Communications Officer

Open Britain