Trump’s “law and order” campaign is built on false flag theatrics meant to justify authoritarian force.
The Insurrection Act hangs as the thread between democracy and martial law.
The MAGA Justice Department has replaced law with performance — power sustained by spectacle.
Humor, not outrage, may be democracy’s last defense against fascist theater.
Rick opened this week’s Strategy Session with a five-minute clip from Andor — because, as he put it, “there are moments where art intersects with life.” The imagery of an empire silencing a dying planet was more than science fiction; it was metaphor made literal.
Miles Taylor, a former national security official under both Trump and Bush, drew the line clearly: The administration’s deployment of National Guard troops into American cities is not about safety, it’s about spectacle. “They want to provoke violence,” he warned, “to create the thing they claim to be fighting.”
What Trump is testing, Miles explained, is how far the Insurrection Act can be stretched before it snaps democracy in half. Governors like Gavin Newsom are already sounding alarms, but the greater danger lies in the quiet normalization of military force on American streets. Trump doesn’t need a formal declaration of martial law if he can simulate its effects — soldiers as political theater, repression dressed as order. That legal framework, fused with a compliant DOJ and defense leadership, is how soft dictatorships take root.
Outrage isn’t enough anymore; the new resistance has to make power absurd. From Portland’s naked bike rides to the hollow pageantry of “Meal Team 6,” laughter itself has become a form of defiance. When propaganda becomes the law, ridicule is the last act of truth.
Tune in to this urgent conversation between Rick Wilson and Miles Taylor.
DONATE TO MILES TAYLOR’S LEGAL DEFENSE FUND AGAINST TRUMP AND HIS EXECUTIVE ORDER AGAINST TAYLOR HERE! THIS ISN’T JUST A FIGHT AGAINST TRUMP, BUT ANY OTHER PRESIDENT WHO WANTS TO PERSECUTE PRIVATE CITIZENS! HELP END PRESIDENTIAL REVENGE!
The Autocrat’s Rulebook
There is a playbook.
Autocrats don’t improvise. They divide, they distract, and when needed — they destroy. They fracture societies to build personal power. They distract from failures by manufacturing enemies. And they destroy norms, institutions, and truth itself to keep control.
