Donald Trump isn’t just running the federal government — he’s weaponizing it. Across Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Charlotte, ICE and Border Patrol agents have been deployed like a personal army, carrying out the president’s will with little oversight and even less accountability.
“Trump has created his own police force,” said Jason Stanley, University of Toronto professor of American studies. “It looks like Trump is organizing a militia beholden only to him, with an enormous budget, reminiscent of the ‘Sturmabteilung’ in 1930s Germany. They seem to lack any kind of legal accountability.”
Fiona Hill, former National Security Council official, said Trump is clearly modeling himself after autocratic leaders like Vladimir Putin: “He is looking for forces he can deploy federally that don’t have the same checks and balances as the National Guard and the military.”
Trump campaigned on cracking down on criminal illegal immigrants, but his actual strategy is to deploy massive numbers of federal agents to cities where he is unpopular. DHS has called the Minneapolis deployment potentially the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history, with roughly 2,000 agents. The public can see the results: officers pepper-spraying, shoving, and assaulting civilians. On Jan. 7, ICE fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good during a traffic dispute — an action defended by the administration despite clear violations of standard police protocol.
“Hitler had the SS and Gestapo, Trump has Noem, Bagman Homan, DHS and ICE,” said Ty Cobb, former federal prosecutor. “They will cover up any crimes, including murder, committed on Trump’s behalf or during the execution of his demented, narcissistic, racist, revenge-based policies. Fascists all.”
White House deputy chief Stephen Miller, the anti-immigration aide Trump uses to organize, embolden, and defend this paramilitary force, told ICE agents on Fox News that they have “federal immunity in the conduct of your duties” and that city or state officials, protesters, or “illegal aliens” who interfere could face criminal consequences, to ensure agents know where their loyalty lies.
This militia operates brazenly. “East Germans did not know who worked for the Stasi. Even without name badges, the sheer visibility of ICE suggests that they are not hidden,” said Gary Bruce, East Germany expert. Videos show agents marching in military gear, stopping Somali residents, intimidating protesters, and using vehicles as weapons. Civilians filming these actions are assaulted and detained.
Minnesota’s attorney general and the ACLU have sued the federal government, alleging suspicionless stops, warrantless arrests, and racial profiling, underlining that this force operates outside accountability — all at Trump’s direction.
Trump has also deployed symbolic intimidation. DHS and the Department of Labor posted slogans like “One homeland. One people. One heritage” — echoing fascist and white nationalist messaging — and glorifying Trump himself. Civil liberties experts warn these tactics are designed to terrify immigrant communities.
Finally, Trump has openly threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces into Minneapolis, signaling that federal power will enforce his will, no matter local laws or constitutional limits.
Trump has built a personal militia, visible and brutal, operating without accountability, loyal only to him, with Stephen Miller acting as the enabler.
