The Trump administration is smashing the domestic and international order the U.S. set up after the Second World War. It is attempting a full scale authoritarian, nationalist transformation of our society, the U.S. state, and its position in the international order.<\/p>\n
But it has faced mounting opposition from the majority of the U.S. population. Having lost the consent of the governed, Trump has turned to coercion to advance his far right agenda. He has seized on the assassination of Charlie Kirk and used his funeral to launch a McCarthyite witch hunt<\/a> against the Left and liberal organizations, particularly the NGOs that have been central to the resistance.<\/p>\n Despite the loss of popular support, and amidst a slowing economy, with growing class inequality and intensifying oppression, the Trump administration is more, not less, dangerous. It has made clear its intent to turn to even more dictatorial means to impose its agenda. Remember, Trump promised to be a dictator on \u201cday one<\/a>\u201d of his presidency.<\/p>\n Faced with this assault, the Left must argue for a united front of unions, social movement organizations, and political groups to defend all those under attack. We should be actively seeking opportunities for this type of organizing. For example, the Left should be supporting the call of the May Day Strong<\/a> coalition to hold conferences to educate, train, and organize for mass disruptive actions, including political strikes to protect our democratic rights, along with our jobs, wages, and benefits.<\/p>\n Before Kirk\u2019s assassination, Trump\u2019s regime was headed into a crisis. His attempt to implement Project 2025\u2019s program ran into growing opposition, not from the Democrats and corporations, but in opinion polls and mass protests.<\/p>\n Overall, 57 percent disapprove<\/a> of Trump and 62 percent<\/a> think the country is headed in the wrong direction, record lows for a president at this point in their term. Majorities even oppose him on his two signature issues\u2014immigration<\/a> and the economy<\/a>. They also disapprove of Trump\u2019s tariffs<\/a>, his support of Israel’s genocidal war<\/a>, and his abandonment of Ukraine<\/a>. That mass opposition in sentiment has driven people into mass protests, from Hands Off! to May Day, No Kings, Labor Day, and mass mobilizations against ICE and the National Guard in cities across the U.S.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, Trump has gone full speed ahead in implementing his authoritarian agenda. Abroad, he has trashed the so-called rules-based international order<\/a>, treating both friends and foes<\/a> in a transactional manner and imposing tariffs supposedly for the benefit of U.S. capital. He also sold Ukraine down the river to Russia, while he has greenlit Israel\u2019s genocide in Palestine, all while lobbying for a Nobel Peace Prize<\/a>.<\/p>\n At home, Trump has purged the U.S. state of liberal bureaucrats, weaponized its retooled structures against workers and oppressed groups, and launched an all-out class war: cutting taxes for billionaires, shredding regulations on businesses, and gutting programs for workers and the poor. That has made a mess of an already crisis-ridden society of gilded-age class and social inequality with all their attendant maladies.<\/p>\n The combination of tariffs, mass deportation of migrant workers, and wild policy swings has produced the predicted results\u2014labor shortages, increased prices, a drop in manufacturing investment, and a slowing economy at risk of recession. The nightmare of stagflation<\/a> that plagued U.S. capitalism in the 1970s looks set to return.<\/p>\n The administration\u2019s assault on the state bureaucracy threatens its competent provision of essential economic and social services. DOGE\u2019s cuts have ravaged programs like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which provides early warning of hurricanes<\/a>, putting people\u2019s lives in jeopardy amidst growing climate catastrophes. And Robert Kennedy Jr. ‘s attacks on science, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, and vaccine protocols puts millions of people\u2019s lives at risk.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s Big Beautiful Bill <\/a>threatens a fiscal crisis of the state. It will drive up spending, especially on the Pentagon and ICE, while it cuts revenues through tax cuts for the rich<\/a>. That will guarantee austerity measures<\/a> from this and future governments, no matter which capitalist party is in power.<\/p>\n Every social institution has been put in the regime\u2019s cross hairs, especially higher education, whose flagship institutions like Harvard that reproduce the ruling elite that staff the corporate elite and the state have been defunded and subject to political purges. And a growing number of cities starting with Los Angeles and Washington D.C. have had ICE and the National Guard deployed to carry out Trump\u2019s racist war on migrants, stop an imaginary crime wave, and act as provocateurs to justify further repression.<\/p>\n This strategy of rule or ruin has not only turned the majority of the country against Trump\u2019s regime and its domestic and international agenda. The Trump coalition has begun to splinter into factional conflicts, best symbolized by the president\u2019s bitter divorce with Elon Musk. Other divisions have started to emerge over everything from the Big Beautiful Bill to foreign policy.<\/p>\n But by far the largest conflict has been over the revelations of Trump\u2019s long-term relationship with convicted pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. All this threw the MAGA base into turmoil<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump himself fueled this madness, promising on the campaign trail to release Epstein’s so-called client list. But after his attorney general Pam Bondi told him he was named in the files, he blocked their release. Feeling betrayed, MAGA leaders like Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/a> denounced Trump, Bondi, and the addled FBI director Kash Patel.<\/p>\n The MAGA faithful even disrupted<\/a> Charlie Kirk\u2019s Turning Point USA Student Action Summit to demand the release of the client list. Desperate to divert attention from the metastasizing scandal<\/a>, Trump staged an increasing number of \u201cWag the Dog\u201d actions designed to re-galvanize his base, from state terrorist attacks on motorboats<\/a> off the coast of Venezuela to threats to deploy the National Guard in Chicago and Memphis<\/a>.<\/p>\n Amidst this crisis, the assassination of Charlie Kirk was a political gift to Trump and his regime. Trump seized on it as an opportunity to galvanize the far right\u2019s factions, turning Kirk\u2019s funeral into a far right political rally to announce a holy war to avenge Kirk\u2019s death.<\/p>\n With over 100,000 attending and millions watching on TV, Trump, Vance, and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller whipped the crowd into a frenzy. As the crowd waved \u201cNever Surrender\u201d placards, Miller declared war <\/a>on \u201cour enemies\u201d with an \u201carmy\u201d prepared to fight to \u201csave this civilization, to save the West, to save this republic\u201d and \u201cdefeat the forces of darkness and evil.\u201d<\/p>\n While Kirk\u2019s widow forgave the alleged shooter, Trump contradicted her<\/a> (at her husband\u2019s funeral!): \u201cI hate my opponent and I don\u2019t want the best for them.\u201d The last thing Trump wants is reconciliation; he wants revenge for the loss of one of his holy warriors.<\/p>\n Kirk was no run-of-the-mill propagandist exercising his first amendment rights to engage in debate on college campuses. As Ta-Nehisi Coates documents<\/a>, he used \u201cdebate\u201d as a cover to spew racism, sexism, transphobia, antisemitism, islamophobia, xenophobia, and every other imaginable form of bigotry against the oppressed.<\/p>\n He called George Floyd \u201ca scumbag<\/a>,\u201d denounced Martin Luther King as \u201cawful<\/a>,\u201d declared the Civil Rights Act \u201ca huge mistake<\/a>,\u201d championed the racist \u201cgreat replacement theory<\/a>\u201d that Democrats are replacing white people with immigrant people of color, and promised that Trump<\/a> would \u201cliberate\u201d the country from \u201cthe enemy occupation of the foreigner hordes.\u201d Kirk also proclaimed<\/a> that \u201cJewish donors have been the No. 1 funding mechanism of radical open-border, neoliberal, quasi-Marxist policies, cultural institutions and nonprofits. This is a beast created by secular Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n Kirk built his group, Turning Point USA\u2014with its $80 million budget<\/a> and 250,000 student members\u2014to intimidate and coerce people, especially teachers. It established The Professor Watchlist<\/a> and encouraged its members to document and expose instructors that \u201cdiscriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n Kirk also endorsed and organized violence. For example, he encouraged groups of men to form a line to prevent trans swimmer Lia Thomas and say, \u201cHey, tough guy, you want to get in the pool? \u2019Cause you\u2019re gonna have to come through us.\u201d<\/p>\n He demanded Joe Biden<\/a> be \u201cput in prison and\/or given the death penalty for his crimes against America.\u201d And he threatened that the new Trump administration would use state power to repress dissent, warning<\/a> \u201cplaytime is over. And if a Democrat gets in our way, well, then Matt Gaetz very well might arrest you.\u201d<\/p>\n He embraced racist vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two and wounded another in a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha Wisconsin. Kirk called him \u201ca hero to millions<\/a>\u201d at the far-right conference, AmericaFest.<\/p>\n On top of that, he threw support behind Trump\u2019s attempt to overturn the 2020 election on January 6th. He boasted<\/a> that Turning Point was \u201cSending 80+ buses full of patriots to D.C. to fight for this president.\u201d<\/p>\n Kirk was more than ideological hitman and organizer for Trump; he was an ex officio member of the regime<\/a> deeply integrated into the daily operations of the White House. Trump looked upon him as a loyal consigliere who stood by him after<\/a> the failed insurrection, helped attract 46 percent of the youth vote, and assisted him in winning the presidency for a second time. J.D. Vance even credited Kirk with securing his appointment to the Vice Presidency<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump has held the \u201cradical left\u201d responsible for political violence and even Kirk\u2019s assassination. It is not. In reality, as even the CATO Institute documents, the far right, including both organized and unorganized individuals, is the main source of political violence. But Trump cynically ignored such facts, not even mentioning attacks on Democrats, including the murder of two politicians in Minnesota<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s claim to be combatting political violence reeks with the stench of hypocrisy. His regime is, to borrow a phrase from Martin Luther King, \u201cthe greatest purveyor of violence in the world today\u201d; he has inked a $1 trillion Pentagon budget, launched state terrorist attacks on Venezuelan boats, greenlit and armed Israel\u2019s genocide in Palestine, hired thousands of new ICE agents to detain and deport migrants, and deployed troops to repress Black and Brown people in L.A. and D.C.<\/p>\n Even before Kirk\u2019s assassination, Trump had launched a purge of institutions and workplaces of the Left and liberal organizations. In doing so, Trump is building on the work of the Biden administration, liberal university bosses, and corporations who had initiated the New McCarthyism<\/a> by repressing Palestine solidarity activists on campuses and in workplaces across the country.<\/p>\n Trump has escalated the Democrats\u2019 attack, sending ICE agents to arrest, detain, and attempt to deport activists like Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, and Mohsen Mahdawi. He has used the cover of charges of antisemitism to defund universities, compel them to suspend and fire faculty, and re-write their curriculum to conform to his far right agenda. After the assassination, Trump has thrown this McCarthyism into overdrive.<\/p>\n The hypocrisy of these attacks boggles the mind. In his inauguration speech<\/a>, Trump promised to \u201cimmediately stop all government censorship and bring free speech back to America\u201d and announced that \u201cnever again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite this promise, Trump has declared war on the left<\/a>, threatening to \u201cbeat the hell out\u201d of \u201cradical left lunatics,\u201d whose \u201crhetoric is responsible for the terrorism we\u2019re seeing in our country today.\u201d He promised, \u201cwe\u2019re going to get that problem solved.\u201d He strangely singled out antifa, which is not a group and barely exists even as a movement, and designated<\/a> it a terrorist threat as a prelude to an attack on all progressive organizations.<\/p>\n Stephen Miller went so far as to claim the Left<\/a> is behind \u201ca vast domestic terror movement,\u201d and threatened, \u201cwe are going to use every resource we have . . . throughout the government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks.\u201d<\/p>\n Vice President J.D. Vance expanded the target list<\/a> to include liberal organizations, especially those backed by the Ford Foundation and George Soros<\/a>, which he alleged get \u201cgenerous tax treatment.\u201d He raged, \u201cwe\u2019re going to go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates and engages in violence.\u201d<\/p>\n Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared <\/a>that \u201cvisa revocations are under way\u201d for visitors, workers, and international students who are \u201ccheering on the public assassination of a political figure.\u201d He warned those found guilty by his personal star chamber, \u201cprepare to be deported. You are not welcome in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n On Charlie Kirk\u2019s podcast<\/a>, Vance called on people to spy on and report one another to the state and their bosses. \u201cWhen you see someone celebrating Charlie\u2019s murder, call them out,\u201d he raged. \u201cAnd hell, call their employer. We don\u2019t believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility, and there is no civility in the celebration of political assassination.\u201d<\/p>\n Thus, the far right, which campaigned against so-called cancel culture and used free speech as cover for their bigotry, harassment, and campaign of intimidation against oppressed groups, is now using state power <\/a>to censor, fire, and silence their opposition. Already, Trump has issued an executive order designating antifa<\/a> a \u201cdomestic terrorist organization.\u201d<\/p>\n That is just the beginning of an assault on everyone in the resistance and the entire population. All our democratic rights are now in jeopardy.<\/p>\n Against Trump\u2019s bizarre claim that the Left is to blame for Kirk\u2019s assassination, we must state very clearly that no organized group on the Left and no liberal organizations support individual acts of terrorism and certainly do not condone Kirk\u2019s murder. That is a lie that can find no factual corroboration anywhere.<\/p>\n As socialists we advocate collective organizing, protests, and strikes to advance our democratic demands. We exercise such popular power to win immediate reforms and to build confidence among the working masses to demand even more from our rulers. Socialism is fundamentally about deepening our collective democratic rights.<\/p>\n Individual acts of terror do not advance such organizing, but in fact set it back. State bureaucrats, corporate bosses, and far right zealots are all replaceable. And the established powers will use their murders to launch campaigns of repression like the one we are currently suffering.<\/p>\n As Leon Trotsky wrote<\/a>, \u201cthe capitalist state does not base itself on government ministers and cannot be eliminated with them. The classes it serves will always find new people; the mechanism remains intact and continues to function.\u201d<\/p>\n But the disarray introduced into the ranks of the working masses themselves by a terrorist attempt is much deeper. If it is enough to arm oneself with a pistol in order to achieve one\u2019s goal, why the efforts of the class struggle? If a thimbleful of gunpowder and a little chunk of lead is enough to shoot the enemy through the neck, what need is there for a class organization? If it makes sense to terrify highly placed personages with the roar of explosions, where is the need for the party? Why meetings, mass agitation and elections if one can so easily take aim at the ministerial bench from the gallery of parliament?<\/p>\n In our eyes, individual terror is inadmissible precisely because it belittles the role of the masses in their own consciousness, reconciles them to their powerlessness, and turns their eyes and hopes towards a great avenger and liberator who some day will come and accomplish his mission.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In the case of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson, had no relationship to the organized Left or liberal organizations. He was not trained by left-wing professors in radical ideas, having dropped out after one semester at one of the most conservative schools in the country, Utah State University<\/a>.<\/p>\n He grew up in a conservative Mormon family, headed by a father who is \u201cdiehard MAGA<\/a>,\u201d that was awash in the gun culture of the far right. That intolerant and violent background trapped Robinson in a horrible contradiction between his far-right political environment and his relationship with his transitioning partner.<\/p>\n That seems to have driven him to kill Kirk, admitting<\/a> \u201cI had enough of his hatred.\u201d These conditions, of course, do not excuse or justify the murder, but they do explain it. As Malcolm X argued<\/a> when asked about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in the context of U.S. imperialist war-mongering, especially in Vietnam, the chickens have come home to roost. The assassination was blowback triggered by bigotry. It had nothing to do with the Left.<\/p>\n Much of the liberal commentariat and Democratic Party politicians have capitulated before Trump\u2019s witch hunt. They accepted the right\u2019s framework that Kirk was a practitioner of civic debate, ignoring the fact that he used free speech as a cover to carry out bigoted harassment and intimidation.<\/p>\nTrump: authoritarian, incompetent, and unpopular<\/h4>\n
Unpopular, split into factions, and mired in the Epstein crisis<\/h4>\n
Kirk\u2019s assassination: A political gift to Trump<\/h4>\n
Escalating the New McCarthyism<\/h4>\n
Socialists oppose terrorism<\/h4>\n
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Liberals fall for the trap of civility<\/h4>\n