Trump’s “Border Czar” Tom Homan recently said that ICE was going to “triple down” on the Gestapo raids they are carrying out across the country (see below). In fact, tripling down is what the Trump regime and MAGA fascists are doing overall as they rush forward to consolidate their power over government and society. 

Here is some of what they have done recently (go here for our roundup last week):

Trump Claims Sweeping Power to Ignore Laws

Last year, Congress passed a law that labeled the app TikTok a “national security risk” and barred companies from distributing it to U.S. customers unless control of the app was taken away from its Chinese owners. Shortly after inauguration, Trump issued an executive order suspending enforcement of the law. And now, there are reports of newly uncovered letters sent by Trump’s attorney general Pam Bondi to Apple, Google and other tech companies saying they could ignore the law without fear of prosecution. Bondi’s advice to the companies, as the New York Times put it, was “based on a sweeping claim that President Trump has the constitutional power to set aside laws.” 

In the letters, Bondi told the companies that Trump decided the law shutting down TikTok interfered with his “constitutional duties” and “core presidential national security and foreign affair powers.” She said the companies could continue to deal with TikTok, even though that went directly against the law passed by Congress, “without any legal liability.” 

Bondi’s claims go way beyond the question of this particular law relating to TikTok. What this comes down to is Trump and his fascist regime blatantly asserting, “The law is whatever we say it is!”

Florida Congressperson on Immigrants at “Alligator Alcatraz”: “They are essentially packed into cages…”

“Alligator Alcatraz” is the immigrant concentration camp that Florida’s fascist governor Ron DeSantis recently opened, with full backing from the Trump regime. They gave it that name because it’s located in the middle of the Everglades, surrounded by wildlife like alligators and pythons. After touring “Alligator Alcatraz” last week, Trump promised more such camps across the country.

After being repeatedly denied entry into the camp for inspection, Democratic Congressperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other officials were finally let in for a limited tour—and what they saw horrified them. Schultz, who called the place an “internment camp,” said the immigrants “are essentially packed into cages, wall-to-wall humans, 32 detainees per cage.” She said, “There are three tiny toilets, that are toilet units that have a sink attached to it, that they get their drinking water, and they brush their teeth, where they poop in the same unit. The showers provide no privacy at all.” She said the food provided to detainees was meager, and the temperature inside was 85 degrees.

In a phone call from inside the camp, Leamsy la Figura, a reggaeton artist being held there, described the conditions of torture: “There’s no water here for people to bathe. It’s been four days since I showered. There’s nothing here for people to brush their teeth. They don’t let us outside, even for a minute, to get some air. They give us food only once a day, food that has even been infested with worms. The lights are never turned off. They’re on 24 hours a day. The mosquitos are the size of elephants. 

According to an Associated Press report: 

Insider accounts in interviews with The Associated Press paint a picture of the place as unsanitary and lacking in adequate medical care, pushing some into a state of extreme distress.

“The conditions in which we are living are inhuman,” a Venezuelan detainee said by phone from the facility. “My main concern is the psychological pressure they are putting on people to sign their self-deportation.”

The man, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, characterized the cells as “zoo cages” with eight beds each, teeming with mosquitoes, crickets and frogs. He said they are locked up 24 hours a day with no windows and no way to know the time. Detainees’ wrists and ankles are cuffed every time they go to see an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, accompanied by two guards who hold their arms and a third who follows behind, he said.

“Border Czar” Declares ICE Will “Triple Down” Against Sanctuary Cities

In a July 8 interview with the Fox Business channel, Trump’s “Border Czar” Tom Homan was asked about anti-ICE protests in Portland, Oregon and statements by the Chicago mayor and the Democratic candidate for mayor in New York City about not cooperating with ICE raids. Homan answered with threats of intensified ICE terror in these and other “sanctuary cities” that have put some limits on cooperation with ICE: “I’m gonna head to Portland. I’m going out there. They’re not gonna bully us… We’re gonna do the job. We’re gonna do it in Portland, but for the mayor of New York and Chicago, President Trump made it clear two weeks ago. We’re gonna double down, triple down on sanctuary cities.”

The day before, Homan specifically targeted NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who has vowed to stop unlawful ICE arrests in the city if elected. Homan said that if that happens, “[W]e’ll flood the zone… If they don’t let us arrest a bad guy in the county jail, they’re going to arrest them in the community, we’re going to arrest them at a work site… [I]f they don’t want to help, get out of the way, we’re coming to do it.”

Trump Threatens to Take Away Rosie O’Donnell’s Citizenship

In an outrageous escalation of unhinged fascism, Trump threatened in a Truth Social post to take away Rosie O’Donnell’s citizenship. O’Donnell, who is currently living in Ireland, is a U.S. citizen, as are both her parents. She has been very vocal in her opposition to Trump. Because of this, Trump called her a “Threat to Humanity.” This follows threats by Trump and others in his regime to revoke the citizenship of others they consider enemies, including Democratic candidate for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani. 

See Sunsara Taylor rip into Trump’s absurd—but dangerous—threat against Rosie O’Donnell. And see O’Donnell’s own reply to Trump in our Voices of Resistance page.

Sacking Climate Scientists and Bringing in Climate Change Deniers

As the world is being hurled toward environmental catastrophe because of global warming caused by the system of capitalism-imperialism, Trump and MAGA fascists have been waging a war on the science of climate change and on climate scientists. Recently, Trump fired hundreds of scientists working on the National Climate Assessment—the main U.S. report on what is happening with climate change and the dangers it poses. This report comes out every few years, and the next one is due in 2028. One of the fired scientists said that “this is as close as it gets to a termination” of the National Climate Assessment. 

Around same time, the Trump regime hired three scientists who deny the reality of climate change to positions in the Energy Department. This is the latest move by Trump to replace scientists working on tackling climate change with those who reject the firmly established scientific fact that the global warming crisis has been caused overwhelmingly by the burning of oil and natural gas. 

(In)Justice Department Demands Private Medical Information of Trans Patients

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision in June giving a green light to the Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for trans youths, the Trump regime is stepping up its repressive moves against trans people. On July 9, Trump’s attorney general Pam Bondi issued subpoenas to more than 20 doctors and hospitals that provide gender-affirming care for minors, demanding that they hand over confidential patient information that is supposed to be protected under federal privacy laws. Bondi’s (In)Justice Department threatened the providers with investigations for “healthcare fraud, false statements, and more.” 

On the same day as those subpoenas, Trump’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) held an all-day workshop focused on whether providers of medical care for trans people were violating drug marketing regulations and other laws. Before the workshop, more than 150 FTC staff members issued a statement opposing the event, saying that the FTC’s job is supposed to be to regulate interstate commerce, “not to second-guess established medical standards widely accepted by experts in the field, based on their professional judgment, or to overrule clinical and familial decision-making.”

Supreme Court OKs Trump’s Mass Firing of Government Workers

In a July 8 order, the Supreme Court gave Trump the go-ahead to fire tens of thousands of civil service workers across multiple federal departments and agencies. In May, a district judge in California had blocked Trump’s mass layoffs and elimination of some agencies, saying that in order to make such “large-scale overhauls of federal agencies, any president must enlist the help of his coequal branch and partner, the Congress.” An appeals court backed the district court on this. Now the Supreme Court has overruled those lower court judgments that the Trump administration’s actions were illegal. Aside from delivering a major blow to the lives of thousands of federal workers suddenly thrown out of work, the Supreme Court has given yet further dictatorial power to Mein Trumpf to steamroll over Congress and the courts.

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What is covered here gives just a glimpse of how Trump/MAGA fascism is moving with intensifying speed and momentum toward a complete consolidation of power. This must be stopped—soon. And as revolutionary leader Bob Avakian says in his social media message @BobAvakianOfficial REVOLUTION #125, “Not the courts, and not the Democratic Party: Decent people, mobilizing massively and relentlessly, are the force that must be relied on to defeat Trump/MAGA fascism.”