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‘Lipstick on Gestapo Pigs’: Trump Sending ‘Storm Troopers’ and ‘Jack-Booted Secret Police Thugs’ to US Cities Slammed as Fascism

President Donald Trump’s Wednesday afternoon press conference, held in the same White House room where President Barack Obama announced the U.S. had killed Osama bin Laden, was quickly panned as a “last-ditch effort to win the election,” “fascism,” and an unnecessary use of force over the wishes of U.S. cities.
Trump announced he will be sending hundreds of federal officers to the streets of Chicago to arrest “murderers and violent criminals” who, he claimed, “are breaking a wide range of federal laws, we have that, it’s as wide as it can be.”
In Portland, Trump’s highly-armed SWAT teams are causing massive unrest, especially after reports that his secret police “goon squads,” as some have called them, are “proactively arresting” Americans who have committed no crimes, as Homeland Security acting Secretary Chad Wolf admitted Tuesday.
At least one legal expert wants to know under what authority can Trump take these actions:
What’s the jurisdiction? Is there any plausible authorization for this? pic.twitter.com/pBoYMbBUy4
— Anthony Michael Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) July 22, 2020
Former head of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics had a more incisive response:
Go to hell.
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) July 22, 2020
On social media many expressed fear, anger, and outrage.
I wonder if there is a word for an authoritarian form of nationalistic government that uses violence to suppress dissent… https://t.co/uYWfjmiq6Z
— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) July 22, 2020
BREAKING: trump is announcing today that his “Operation Legend” will send hundreds of jack-booted secret police federal thugs to Chicago and New Mexico.
First they came for Portland…
— BrooklynDad_Defiant Rep John Lewis! (@mmpadellan) July 22, 2020
American cities are being invaded by fascist gangs from the federal government. https://t.co/LXTNXNnkwo
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) July 22, 2020
AG Barr is putting lipstick on Gestapo pigs.
— JeremyNewberger (@jeremynewberger) July 22, 2020
anyone pretending donald trump or the rest of the gop cares about black crime victims is so full of it
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) July 22, 2020
TRUMP: We must beat groups of dangerous moms linking hands and chanting witch-like incantations in front of Federal buildings. We will gas them if need be. Maybe beat them and then gas them. Wherever a dangerous mom group gathers we will dispatch our guys to get rough.
— JeremyNewberger (@jeremynewberger) July 22, 2020
This is opposed by every former pre-Trump DHS secretary of both parties as well as US military leaders. It also exposes DHS officials & federal law enforcement to legal exposure. All to make Trump appear tough before an election he’s losing https://t.co/1voKNFyB6P
— Adam Blickstein (@AdamBlickstein) July 22, 2020
Whatever genius is advising Trump on policy – sending storm troopers to gas moms does not make you a law and order anything, it makes you a fascist. That 30 point gap with suburban woman is about to become that 50 point gap.
— Amy Siskind 🏳️🌈 (@Amy_Siskind) July 22, 2020
If you’re not getting frightened, you’re not listening.
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) July 22, 2020
Operation Legend is Trump’s last-ditch effort to win the election by manufacturing battles in American cities and claiming to be the heroic protector of terrified white people.
He will burn this country to the ground if he thinks it will save his skin.
— JRehling (@JRehling) July 22, 2020
Trump is hoping for a bloodbath.
— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) July 22, 2020
Trump is deploying armed federal officers to violently invade American cities but doing nothing to help American cities combat coronavirus
— Adam Blickstein (@AdamBlickstein) July 22, 2020
Donald Trump is a racist running for president while also invading American cities and attacking American citizens. Donald Trump is basically Jefferson Davis
— Adam Blickstein (@AdamBlickstein) July 22, 2020
Don't worry. I'm sure they'll stop at this level of fascism.
— William K. Wolfrum (@Wolfrum) July 22, 2020
Absolute, complete, unadulterated election-year hokum from a guy who’s losing: https://t.co/mEApHolkir
— Clyde Haberman (@ClydeHaberman) July 22, 2020
It isn’t a shock Trump is compulsively tripling down on his authoritarian act.
He has been exposed as an impotent buffoon at handling the pandemic and is desperate to look like less of a pathetic little weakling.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) July 22, 2020
So, in the name of that 4 year old kid who was unjustly murdered, Trump is going to send paramilitary mooks into American cities with Democrat Mayors to rough up protestors? WTF is this bullshit? Operation Legend?
— JeremyNewberger (@jeremynewberger) July 22, 2020
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