tyranny in plain sight
The events of this past weekend, March 9, 2025, will forever be known as the moment that the Trump regime abandoned all pretense and concepts of being liberty driven, fully embracing its fascistic impulses and ideals. Armed agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stormed the home of a Palestinian activist, Mahmoud Khalil, forcing their way past his pregnant wife. They declared his visa revoked, only to shift their claim upon being informed that he held a green card, swiftly deciding his green card was revoked instead. Without warrant, justification, or even charge Khalil was abducted, flown secretly to Louisiana, and hidden from his lawyer and family. As of this writing, March 11, his whereabouts are not yet confirmed.
Khalil's only crime was daring to speak against the genocidal policies of Israel, he did not incite violence nor threaten harm, solely advocating for divestment from an oppressive regime. Yet, following accusations from Canary Mission, an ultra-zionist group compiling lists of dissidents, the Trump regime early adopted the age-old tyrant's strategy of “disappearing” political opponents. Such tactics echo the darkest chapters of global fascism, from Pinochet’s death squads to Assad’s dungeons. Trump himself, openly flaunting his tyranny, proclaimed on his app Truth Social: “This is the first arrest of many to come.” He labeled student protesters across universities and the country as enemies of the state, and made clear his intention to systematically crush dissent, starting with the movement for justice in Palestine.
The strategy of the regime is clear, to silence the voices of liberation, justice and international solidarity. Trump’s Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, openly discusses employing artificial intelligence to target those opposing the regime view online, and just days before Khalil’s kidnapping Columbia University saw its funding slashed by $400 million, an explicit warning to academic institutions which want to defend and preserve free speech. Colleges have been targeted and threatened with defunding or worse, merely because their perspective differs from the state’s.
The unlawful arrest of Mahmoud Khalil vividly demonstrates the shift from creeping authoritarianism we saw in the first Trump term, to overt tyranny, shattering the illusion of safety once and for all. The dream of a United States immune to dictatorship is dead, this kidnapping, conducted illegally, exposes the existential threat posed to democracy and the very soul of this nation by the Trump Regime. Mahmoud Khalil’s “dissapearing” was not a misstep, it was a deliberate act of state terror, intended to broadcast fear and to silence those who oppose the fascists in power.
Yet the regime attempts to justify these blatantly fascistic measures under the facade of “safety” for Jewish Americans, claiming that pro-Palestinian protestors threaten Jewish lives. As a Jewish American myself—one who grew up in synagogues, celebrated my Bar Mitzvah, and observes our core sacred rituals, I flatly reject this insane manipulation. Having attended protests and encampments similar to the ones Khalil is accused of “masterminding,” I can state without a doubt that our safety was never endangered by the solidarity with the oppressed. In fact, it is not advocates and heroes like Khalil who threaten my security as a Jew, but Trump and his cronies. It is the repression, state violence, and cynical exploitation of fear to further imperial ends.
This abduction should serve as a wake-up call to all. It exposes the Trump administration's intentions for all to see—to dismantle democracy, eliminate dissent, and enforce absolute domination by fear. We the people must stand firm against this tyranny, and recognize that the “dissapearing” of Mahmoud Khalil will not be an isolated incident. We must be certain in what this represents, a threat to us all. Do not be fooled, if the state can come after Mahmoud Khalil, they can, and will, come after you and I.
