A Racist Regime: Trump Exploits Fear to Divide, Distract, and Dominate

Authoritarianism does not arrive with a bang. It seeps in, one city at a time.

Last week, I wrote about Trump’s military occupation of Washington, D.C. We are now approaching 30 days of the deployment, and the administration is signaling an extension through December. All signs point to Chicago as the next target.

Trump began in D.C. for a reason. Washington’s unique legal status makes it the perfect testing ground. By normalizing military presence in the capital, he hopes to dull public outrage so that when the time comes for troops to roll into Chicago or New York, the shock has worn off and resistance is fractured.

This is how authoritarian leaders defeat democracy today. Not with tanks seizing parliament overnight or violent coup d’états, but with slow, deliberate erosion of norms. Leaders push the boundary a little further each time, counting on citizens to grow weary, numb, or distracted.

Trump is using these planned “Salami Tactics” to slice away democracy one piece at a time, city by city. With every new international threat, every life-saving research project defunded, every cruel deportation, the absurd becomes ordinary— we become desensitized and democracy bleeds out.

And this is not only happening in the United States. Around the world, authoritarianism is resurgent in places like Belgium, Portugal, France, and the UK. In 2024, global freedom declined for the 19th straight year, with far-right parties gaining ground across Europe. Trump’s dismantling of U.S. soft power only fuels this trend. Russia, Hungary, El Salvador, and Venezuela all applauded. The Trump-Musk-induced collapse of USAID also prompted Georgian authorities to introduce new legislation targeting media and civil society.

At home, Trump is borrowing directly from the playbook of Authoritarian leaders in Hungary and Poland: weaponizing race and fear. His rhetoric of “urban crime” is a racist dog whistle, scapegoating Black and brown Americans while criminalizing immigrants. The message is clear: white Americans are insiders, everyone else is an outsider, and the military is here to enforce this order.

The human cost is real. In D.C., residents have lost possessions and vital documents in more than 50 forced sweeps of homeless encampments. At least 251 people have been arrested under suspicion of being undocumented. Families are being torn apart. Communities are being destabilized. This is targeted racism that is causing real suffering and is tearing up the fabric of our democracy.

But here’s the hopeful truth: we know this playbook, and we know how to combat it. Civil society, local media, faith communities, grassroots organizers, and the courts all have critical roles to play. And we are seeing action.

Just this week, Washington, D.C. filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, charging that the deployment of the Guard without the mayor’s consent violates the city’s autonomy under the Home Rule Act. A federal judge recently ruled Trump’s June deployment in California illegal. These are positive steps, but we are still far from true accountability.

Organizers and lawyers in Illinois and New York need to be ready. Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson has already issued an executive order pledging resistance to federal overreach. More leaders must do the same. We need to stand firm and say—not in our cities, not in our states. We will not allow our military to be used against us.

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Personal note:

There isn’t a new podcast episode this week, but I want to encourage you to lean into the spiritual disciplines and practices that sustain us and our work. One of my own daily practices is using the Lectio 365 app. Today, it reflected on Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones being brought back to life—a timely reminder in this moment that what feels lifeless and beyond hope can be revived by the Spirit of God. May we hold fast to that promise as we press on together.

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