As in All Fascist Movements, First They Come for the Universities and Students. Trump Just Crossed That Line.

The Orange Man, just published the following on Truth Social:

All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.

And what are we to make of that?

After 1938 fascist Germany, the famous Martin Niemöller quote was,

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

In the former Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), where I live, they are very familiar with the Niemöller quote, because the same happened in 1948, when the Communist Party took over the country, and stayed for forty years.

The undefined threats in the Orange Man’s post are, illegal protests, agitators, or crime. Their danger, of course, is that very lack of definition. Those blanks are to be filled in later, presumably at the whim of the Orange Man if he declares himself president for life, or by his fascist inheritors if he dies or declines.

Thus, it was with Hitler, Mussolini or Klement Gottwald, the leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1948 until his death in 1953. Thirty-six years after Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution, those who broke away from communist domination remember, quite vividly, the steps upon the ladder of their freedom’s demise.

Fascism comes on little cat feet, an inch here, an inch there, a small and innocent edict here and suddenly the iron curtains fall. Niemöller’s warnings could not possibly happen in America, and yet Hitler came to power within the German laws of the time, and by the willing vote of the German nation.

This is a very dangerous man, this orange occupant of the Oval Office.

He is an extortionist, as proven in Columbia, Greenland, Mexico, Canada, China, the twenty-seven nations of Europe and, finally Ukraine, where he practiced the new-born theory of diplomacy by extortion. All that, in his first six weeks in office.

Disbarred and dishonored lawyer Roy Cohn was his mentor. If you are confused by his presidential decrees, simply Google the relationship of Trump-Cohn and the answers are all there to clear your head. Courts find against him and he persists, stalling by appeal as the clocks run, just as Cohn avoided jail for him, or other legal penalties in his private life.

The Orange Man has frequently criticized what he calls the "deep state" or "unelected bureaucrats."

He argues that career government officials hold too much power and undermine elected leaders. His rhetoric on this issue has been a key part of his political messaging, particularly when discussing government agencies like the FBI, DOJ, and administrative bodies he believes act against his policies or interests. In his tedious address to Congress on Tuesday, the president declared, "The days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over."

And yet, his unelected hatchet-man chainsaws his way through government bureaus, each of them established by the Congress of the United States, as if they were the defrauded business associates of his prior criminal practices.

They are not.

They are the federal glue that holds the government together from election to election, as Democrat and Republican Senators, Representatives, and presidents change like soiled laundry. It’s this continuity he hopes to destroy.

It has consequences, this madness by presidential proclamation.

International treaties and agreements are at risk, as the workers we disdainfully call bureaucrats keep the wheels of government turning.

Dedicated aid to the poor and disenfranchised of the world (as determined by Congressional law) goes undistributed. Food banks close, as well as hospitals and clinics. Hundreds, perhaps thousands die, at the whim of an elected president interfering with unelected bureaucrats.

Universities and private companies are deprived of research grants that halt clinical trials, scientific studies go unstudied, students are prevented from continuing their education mid-year, agricultural subsidies halted, and progress across a thousand areas of expertise dries up, all because of the egoistic slash of a black felt pen.

Aside from the consequences of disrupted families, and careers at risk, none of the above programs are easily put back into service.

The destruction is immense. The Muskateer claims half of the 2.2 million federal employees will be axed, perhaps misunderstanding that their total cost to the budget is no more than 4%. 1.1 million unemployed to add to a nation already unable to find jobs for its recent university graduates. A grand solution to an economy already warned that artificial intelligence will take millions more jobs.

And what of the million the Musketeer lets go? Who will pay their mortgages, educate their kids and guarantee their retirement? It seems the world’s richest man doesn’t give a damn.

Meanwhile, the military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned us about, 64 years ago, takes thirteen times that much of the budget (52%) and hasn’t been able to complete an audit since its conception.

It simply cannot account for $2.5 trillion in assets.

Don’t know where the hell it went.

Maybe the Musketeer is looking down the wrong rathole…