Trump's secret plans unmasked as he exposes his real agenda

Recent news disclosures are only adding to our understanding that for the Trump administration, grinding away at basic democratic values is a feature, not a bug.

Any thinking that Donald Trump's mass deportation strategy, for example, was such a high priority that he would suborn Constitutional rights—including the right to a hearing before a judge before a deportation sentence—is giving way to deeper recognition that erasure of individual rights is the point, not a byproduct.

The disclosure by New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan this week that the White House actively discussed squashing Constitutional rights to a court hearing should be a frightening reminder of the fragility of our democracy under Trump, who wants complete say about treatment under the law for immigrants, citizens, protesters, and critics.

Lest anyone think that the Situation Room debate over suspension of habeas corpus rights—as required court hearings are known—was a sole attack on our republic, there was reporting that Vice President JD Vance led proposals to impose martial law with armed military on our streets through the Insurrection Act after the killing of two civilians in Minnesota by border agents.

Despite denials by Homeland Security, a letter filed in a court case shows that ICE border agents are creating a database of protesters who rally against immigration policies and operations. It seems a clear attack on First Amendment protections and follows numerous reports about repelling citizen oversight of border agents' actions in the field. In a previously unpublicized letter to Congress in April, recently departed acting ICE director Todd Lyons acknowledged the agency is collecting information on individuals suspected of potential violations of law, including interference with ICE operations or officer safety matters, and maintains records on people who were never arrested.

In the various reports, much of the pressure for the most extreme challenges to Constitutional rights seems to be coming from Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff at the White House and deportation advocate.

Outrunning the Law

The disclosures about possibly erasing habeas corpus protections for migrants are in a forthcoming book and include a confidential memo by White House staff secretary Will Scharf, a lawyer, who warned Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles that the plan to suspend hearings amounted to a warning against end-running the rule of law.

The habeas protections go back to English law and the Magna Carta and have been abridged rarely—during and after the Civil War, to justify internment of Japanese Americans in World War II, and regarding Sept. 11 detainees held in Guantanamo. Suspension is something that only Congress can order.

The Times said that "Trump and some members of his team wanted to test how far the emboldened president's authority could be pushed, setting off previously unreported internal struggles over where the limits should be."

In Substack, columnist Joyce Vance, a former U.S. Attorney, says that the habeas debate was not about right or wrong, but about how much the administration could get away with before it set off one of the other two branches of government that could counter it. She noted that Miller frequently views the law as an obstacle to be overcome rather than an essential element of American democracy.

We are seeing abundant examples of the manipulation of justice procedures by the Trump Justice Department to prosecute Trump's political enemies, to whitewash the history of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots on Trump's behalf, to grant Trump extraordinary powers to set tariffs, and toward taking over elections and voting. We have witnessed Trump's strong hand in seeking to silence late-night comedians, dominate the news, and publicly support billionaire friends to buy news outlets that have aired criticism of him.

The question all along has been whether the stomping on individual rights has been a byproduct of achieving Trump's overall goals or whether they are a goal unto themselves. The recent disclosures suggest that they are.

The issue is whether November elections can alter that course.

Countering the Slide

We got double reminders yesterday of what joy in our public lives can look like.

In New York City, thousands took to the streets in sheer joy for a Knicks basketball championship, buoyed by words from Mayor Zohran Mamdani and local officials about the unifying effects of sport to overcome all the deep divisions we otherwise suffer.

And in Chicago, the opening of the Obama presidential center devoted to public engagement regardless of party and ideology was a welcome moment for simple fealty to the ideas that we are larger than our partisan selves. Soaring words from Barack and Michelle Obama that never mentioned the current occupant of the White House by name were testimony to an appeal to our higher selves.

Hallelujah.

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