“We’re slipping down into a police state,” Joe Trippi warns, before correcting himself — “it’s not even slipping anymore.” The troops in the streets, the federal intimidation of critics, the targeting of judges and governors — all the nightmare scenarios the right once used as scare tactics have become reality under Trump himself.
Stuart Stevens notes the bitter irony: “This is what Alex Jones said was going to happen,” only it’s being carried out by the same people who built their careers mocking those fears. Wilson pushes it further, pointing out the selective outrage — “if this were Obama, the Republican Party would have burned Washington to the ground.”
Instead, Trump deploys a compliant Justice Department to chase enemies and fire independent officials, while his supporters cheer. The old rulebook is useless; Democrats who insist on playing by “Queensberry rules” are outmatched.
"I still think the Democratic Party believes it's fighting a party,” Wilson says. “It's not fighting a party; it's fighting an autocratic movement. And the only way to defeat that movement is for the Democratic Party to forget about being a party and lead a pro-democracy movement to fight back."
And then there’s the subplot of ambition — J.D. Vance. Trippi argues his sudden ubiquity isn’t an accident but a plan hatched by Peter Thiel and the tech barons who “put him there for this purpose.” Stevens calls Vance “a special kind of weirdo” — a man railing against the 14th Amendment while married to someone whose family benefited from it.
Just look at the Lincoln Project’s infamous “Snake” ad from last year and the parallels feel even sharper: Trump clutching someone who will eventually bite him.
They stress the need for protests that are visible but peaceful, movements that don’t take the bait of violence Trump craves to justify more repression. “You cannot fight that by trying to compromise with it,” Trippi insists.
Tune into this week's Strategy Session for a warning you need to hear before it’s too late.
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