Trump’s Fascist Game Plan: If He Can’t Tame Russia, He’ll Take Chicago

With Trump finding it impossible to play tough guy in Russia or the Middle East, he’s settled on a new target for his destructive desires: Americans, beginning with those in Chicago and other American cities. That “Chipocalypse Now” social media post on Saturday about how Chicago is about to find out why the Defense Department is now called the Department of WAR (all caps, naturally) was yet another new low. The poison that he and his people inject into the civic bloodstream on a daily basis is truly sick. He is a sick, sick man.

He walked the post back a bit on Sunday (“we’re not going to war”). But that’s what he almost always does, after the real message has been sent. So, imagine being an immigrant in Chicago right now. Someone who crossed the border illegally perhaps, however many years ago, but has been here living a decent life and paying taxes and raising kids. Or maybe even being an immigrant who came here legally. Because they’ve been snared in this net, too. They must be terrified.

That’s what Trump wants. It’s what he needs—for someone to be terrified of him. It’s at the core of fascist belief: that others must live in fear of the leader and his movement. If Putin isn’t, if Benjamin Netanyahu isn’t, if Hamas isn’t, well, then, he’ll find someone who will be. That’s why it’s crucial for Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to show zero fear. When Democrats stop showing fear, when they get right back in his face and mock him and fight back—that’s his Kryptonite. (That, and those Epstein files.) He’ll start melting down. In fact, he already has.