Elias: Deconstructing Trump's Plan to Use the State to Crush Dissent, Free Speech and Fair Elections

A leading pro-democracy lawyer breaks down the strategy of the regime to crush political opposition and make "Thought Police" government our stark new reality.

By Marc Elias /Democracy Docket

Ever since Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2024 election, I have warned that he would use every tool and level of government to target his political opponents.

Eight days after he took the oath, I wrote that “across agencies and departments, political appointees and career officials would be asked to harass those who opposed him — through denials of government contracts, slowed services, IRS audits and, in the most sinister instances, criminal investigations and prosecutions.”

What followed has proven me right.

We have seen a steady drumbeat of the exact behaviors I predicted: threats and intimidation directed at elected officials, attacks on journalists and institutions and prosecutors and agencies bending toward political aims. Law firms, universities and media organizations have been offered ways to buy favor — or risk being punished.

Many have gone along. Some have joined his effort and become full-scale collaborators. Far too few have stood tall and fought back. Most have stayed silent and hoped to be spared.

State power attacks free speech. On Monday, senior administration figures publicly signaled a new phase: an explicit campaign to go after left-leaning groups and institutions.

Major legacy news outlets reported that the White House is discussing measures that include revoking tax-exempt status for nonprofits, deploying anticorruption statutes and using federal agencies to target organizations the administration deems hostile.

Those reports are striking both for their specificity and their openly political aims.

The New York Times wrote that “Senior officials in the federal government have taken over a conservative media entity to talk about a crackdown on anti-conservative thought and speech.” The Wall Street Journal claims that the White House’s latest plan could get rolled out as soon as this week as they hope to “draw younger voters ahead of midterm elections.”

The idea of an explicit government crackdown on thought and speech would have been unthinkable in the past. A president doing so as part of an election strategy would have been so extraordinary at any other time in our nation’s history it would have led to calls for impeachment.

It’s as close to Orwellian as we’ve come. The “Thought Police” is no longer a fictional warning, but our new, stark reality.

Trump is quickly changing the nature of politics from adversarial contests to weaponized governance.

A president using the power of the state to punish critics — or to condition basic government services on political fealty — is not merely rough politics. It is aimed at crushing dissent and free and fair elections.

This is Trump’s ultimate goal — to use the power of the federal government to prevent a political opposition from gathering strength and popular support.

Having gained immunity from prosecution, gutted the government of watchdogs and dominated the Republican-controlled Congress, Trump knows that the greatest threat — perhaps the only threat — to his misuse of power is Democrats taking control of Congress in the midterm elections.

That is why Trump is insisting that Republican governors and legislatures redraw their maps. It is why he is trying to undermine voting rights through illegal executive orders, and it is why he and his administration are now set to crack down on progressive groups and organizations.

This is the new reality those of us in the pro-democracy movement face.

It is only eight months into Trump’s term, and we are already seeing tears in the fabric of democracy, holes in the rule of law and gaps in the guardrails defending free and fair elections.

And it is going to get worse — much worse.

Why pro-democracy coalition must stand together. Soon we will see the targeting of donors, organizations and individual opposition leaders. The goal will be to tell a story about each that makes them seem uniquely bad and not worthy of our collective support. Much of this will be fabricated lies — aimed at dividing an already fragile movement.

We cannot allow that to happen. We must treat an attack on any Democratic campaign, party or group as an attack against them all. We must understand that dividing one progressive group from another is an act of tyranny, not discernment. We must all stand together, or none of us will be safe.

Donald Trump’s attack on free and fair elections has only just begun.

It is not only his biggest target, but also his greatest vulnerability. We must protect them at all costs.

If we succeed, we will likely survive this dark period with democracy weakened but intact. If we fail, we may not have a democracy to come home to.

Marc Elias, the most influential and effective pro-democracy attorney in the nation, is the founder of Democracy Docket. You can subscribe here.

Image: True Muth Media.