Donald Trump's birthday this weekend will feature a North Korean-style military parade, costing tens of millions and coinciding with ongoing protests against his immigration crackdown. As protests grow, Trump appears to leverage the situation to divert attention from various political issues, including the stalled tax bill and tensions with Elon Musk. Critics, like California's Governor Gavin Newsom, equate Trump's strategies to those of authoritarian regimes targeting vulnerable populations. Underlying his actions is a deeper agenda aimed at amplifying fear of undocumented migrants, and suppressing dissent, thereby consolidating his own power.
Mr Trump has diverted attention from his rift with Elon Musk, the stalling of his big, beautiful tax and spending bill, the court-ordered return of the wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, rightly described this as an assault on democracy, noting that authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves.
Mr Trump's tactics are familiar in both the broad and narrow sense; dangerous words like emergency signal the oldest trick in the playbook for suspending freedoms.
Underlying the manufactured crisis is a deeper agenda: reigniting fear of undocumented migrants, delegitimising protest, and expanding his power.
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