Paratroopers, Pepper Spray, and Political Theater

Trump’s Signal chats, Portland’s courtroom victory, and Chicago’s forced Guard deployment expose a presidency built on optics, not safety.

Good morning! Pour an extra-strong cup, because our lived reality under a president who thinks martial law, corporate impunity, and economic collapse are the three pillars of American greatness requires we stay alert.

Let’s start in Washington, where Democrats have finally remembered what a spine is for. After months of playing Charlie Brown to Trump’s Lucy-with-the-football routine, they’ve stopped running headfirst into compromise only to land on their backs. Chris Van Hollen said it out loud: you don’t appease a bully. And for once, the party seems to be listening. This shutdown fight has a clarity that’s been missing. Health care subsidies are the hill they’ve chosen, and for once, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are backing Obamacare, the very program they once lambasted as half a loaf. Funny what happens when the other guy is wielding a blowtorch to burn down the bakery.

Out here in Oregon, the blowtorch was aimed squarely at Portland. Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and a pack of Signal-happy aides thought it would be brilliant optics to federalize our Guard and treat downtown like Fallujah. We know this because their own leaked messages spelled it out. Anthony Salisbury and Patrick Weaver weren’t talking about credible threats to public safety; they were swapping notes about how many headlines the 82nd Airborne would generate and whether Hegseth had enough “top cover” from Trump to weather the blowback. In other words, it wasn’t about protecting Portland, it was about making Portland into a stage set for Trump’s strongman act.

Judge Karin Immergut had other ideas. In a crisp 30-page opinion, she told Trump that no, Portland is not in “rebellion,” no, you can’t turn our neighborhoods into “training grounds” for paratroopers, and yes, the Constitution still trumps cosplay martial law. Her line, “This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law”, belongs on bumper stickers. Oregon leaders called it what it was: an attempt to normalize troops in our streets, the kind of normalization you only attempt when you’ve confused optics for governance. We won through peace, as Mayor Keith Wilson put it, though the federal agents still lobbed chemical irritants into the night air just to remind everyone whose masks and badges don’t come off.

But if Portland was the dress rehearsal, Chicago was the next act. Trump federalized 300 Illinois Guard troops after issuing Gov. JB Pritzker an ultimatum worthy of a mob boss: call up your people, or we will. Pritzker’s response? Outrage, disbelief, and a reminder that yanking Americans out of their jobs to harass immigrants is not “public safety”, it’s authoritarian theater. Within hours, Border Patrol agents had already shot a woman in Brighton Park, then doused angry protesters with tear gas and flash-bangs. Federal spokespeople spun a tale about cars boxing in agents, a gun in the mix, and defensive fire. Activists on the ground saw a crash, panic, and federal officers escalating against their neighbors. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth called it what it is: a dangerous, un-American abuse of power. Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton cut to the chase: “Our city is not a sandbox for Donald Trump to play dictator.”

While troops are marching, universities are collapsing. DePaul University in Chicago just announced immediate budget cuts after a 30 percent drop in international enrollment this fall. Johns Hopkins has already axed 2,000 jobs after Trump slashed $800 million in research funding. Northwestern and USC are bleeding too. Why? Visa roadblocks, surveillance of students’ social media, and a government more interested in blacklisting foreign talent than welcoming it. The U.S. has long been the world’s campus; now it’s the country students warn each other to avoid. The projected loss: nearly $7 billion to the economy this year alone. Trump frames it as protecting “spots for American kids.” What it really does is gut universities, bankrupt research, and export the next generation of scientists to London, Toronto, and Melbourne. Congratulations, Mr. President, you’ve managed to turn America’s greatest export into a self-inflicted import crisis.

At the DOJ, Todd Blanche and his cronies have written love letters to corporate America disguised as memos. White collar prosecutions? Forget them. Companies can self-report, pay a fine, and promise to “learn from their mistakes.” It’s corporate detention without detention, the criminal justice equivalent of writing “I will not defraud shareholders” a hundred times on the chalkboard. Public Citizen counts at least 160 corporate cases already dismissed. If you’re undocumented, Trump’s ICE will throw you on the pavement and call you a terrorist. If you’re a CEO, you get to confess, cut a check, and catch a flight on the company jet. It’s the two-tiered justice system spelled out in black and white.

Looming above it all, the economic Jenga tower of Trump’s tariffs sways in the wind. Farmers are reeling as China and other markets walk away, so Trump promises them a shiny $10–14 billion bailout, using tariff revenue as the slush fund. Except those very tariffs have already been ruled illegal by lower courts, and now the Supreme Court is about to weigh in. If SCOTUS agrees, the whole house of cards collapses: tariffs struck down, bailout money gone, farmers left holding the bag, and Trump’s central boast, tariffs as “free money”, exposed as not just a con, but also unconstitutional. The chaos would be staggering, but don’t worry, he’ll be ready with another Epstein files distraction: probably more troops in another city, or maybe a press conference about windmills.

So here we are: Democrats finally stiffening their resolve, judges reminding Trump the Constitution still applies, governors refusing to play dictator’s pawn, universities bleeding billions, corporations pocketing free passes, and the tariff time bomb ticking at the Supreme Court. The dystopia plays out in real time, and there is no Guy Fawkes mask or orchestral crescendo to rescue us. Just ordinary people, activists, state leaders, and the occasional federal judge holding the line while Trump lights more fires.

Remember, we are the cavalry!