Donald Trump knows his days are numbered

Earlier today, an angry and physically deteriorating Donald Trump sat slumped forward at the head of the Cabinet Room table, his shoulders sagging and his eyes so swollen they struggled to stay open as live cameras aired his twelfth Cabinet meeting. Marco Rubio sat stiffly to his right while Pete Hegseth watched from his left, both men wearing the tense, uneasy expression of people realizing that the president was once again slipping off course in front of the world. Several times, they tried to pull him back from another one of his rambling spirals, and each time they failed. Because even with reminders and redirections, Donald Trump seemed unable to fully follow what was happening around him. The entire time, he appeared far more interested in reliving imaginary victories, talking about how much people supposedly love him, and obsessing over Barack Obama than addressing the reality facing the country.

But much like he always does, he tried to hide what was really making him so angry and unstable. He was asked whether the economic pain Americans are feeling from the Iran war, the high gas prices, and the rising cost of travel gave him any urgency to reach a deal. And he immediately lashed out and brought up the midterms all on his own, admitting that others believe he will lose power after the elections before snapping back at the question: “I don’t care about the midterms.” His reaction might have been the clearest sign yet of just how consumed he actually is by them behind closed doors. Because underneath all of it, the confusion, the performance, and the endless attempts at appearing strong and in control, today’s meeting had one purpose and one purpose only: to distract from the unraveling of his presidency and to serve as cover for the dangerous things his administration is doing away from the cameras.

And here is what they were hoping we would miss while the cameras stayed fixed on a president who could barely keep his eyes open. Yesterday, WIRED published an investigation based on more than 1,000 pages of unpublished documents from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and fusion centers across the country, obtained through public records requests. Fusion centers, the sprawling intelligence-sharing hubs where federal, state, and local law enforcement quietly pool information and circulate it between agencies, were at the center of the investigation. And what those documents reveal is chilling. Our own government has now invented an entirely new category of domestic threat that could be used to investigate, monitor, and potentially criminalize ordinary Americans for their political beliefs and online speech. They are calling it “anti-tech violent extremism.” It is a phrase that appears nowhere in publicly available DHS or FBI extremism frameworks or threat assessment guides. They created it themselves. And now they are already using it to monitor Americans.

So who counts as an anti-tech extremist? On one end, the documents point to a genuinely dangerous fringe group tied to violence. That is the example they lead with, because it makes the whole thing sound reasonable. But on the other end, and this is the part we should be deeply concerned about, fusion centers are tracking ordinary people showing up at town halls and budget committee meetings to object to data centers being built in their neighborhoods. One report from the New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau warned that “the chaotic atmosphere that may result from emergent AI technology in the next five years may fuel large-scale protests that devolve into civil unrest and anti-tech violent extremist activity, especially in large urban areas such as New York City.” They are not describing a crime that happened. They are predicting protests and pre-labeling the people who might show up as extremists before anyone has done anything at all.

And the activities they flagged as suspicious are a new level of authoritarian overreach all on their own. According to the documents, the behaviors that drew attention included photography, observation, and what the reports vaguely refer to as “implied threats.” Taking a picture. Watching. Standing somewhere and paying attention. Civil liberties experts pointed out the obvious: this is the exact same conduct as peaceful, constitutionally protected protest. There is no clear line here between a threat and a citizen exercising the First Amendment. And the blurring of that line is the entire point.

Because this did not come out of nowhere. It sits on top of something Trump signed back in September called National Security Presidential Memorandum 7. That directive instructs the Justice Department to investigate and disrupt networks built around what it calls “anti-American,” “anti-Christian,” and “anti-capitalism” beliefs. Not actions. Beliefs. It treats an idea in your head as an indicator of terrorism. Stephen Miller, Trump’s propaganda architect, called it “the first time in American history that there is an all-of-government effort to dismantle left-wing terrorism.” And in May, Trump’s counterterrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka formally named left-wing extremists a top-tier threat, ranking ordinary American political opposition alongside narcoterrorists and foreign Islamist groups. The “anti-tech extremist” label is just the newest thing they have decided to use to potentially criminalize people who recognize the grave danger we are in with Donald Trump as the president.

And we have to be clear-eyed about who benefits. This is the same administration that has handed the tech and AI industry nearly everything it has asked for. In December, Trump moved to block states from regulating AI. He has cut red tape, shielded the industry, and treated its executives like partners. And now the same government that protects those companies is treating the people who criticize them as a security threat. The documents describe efforts to direct federal resources to protect AI executives and AI infrastructure. So follow the logic all the way down. The dissent being criminalized is dissent against the very industry that is propping up this administration. Silencing the critics protects the enablers. The two things are the same thing.

But this is bigger than data centers, and bigger than AI. Because once a government decides it can label a belief as extremism, the specific belief almost does not matter. Today, it is people worried about AI. The framework does not care what you are worried about. It cares whether your worry is aimed at them. This is a test. It is a way of finding out how far they can stretch the definition of “threat” before anyone pushes back, and whether the public will accept a world where having the wrong opinion, or simply standing in a room and watching, is enough to land you in a federal intelligence report. That is the next step. A quiet expansion of who gets to be called an enemy, until the category is wide enough to hold any of us.

We have watched this exact move before. In the regimes that history warns us about, the state never announces that dissent is now illegal. It reclassifies the dissenter. In the Soviet Union, opposition was not a political position, it was a psychiatric diagnosis, and critics were not arrested as critics, they were committed as sick. In East Germany, the Stasi did not need you to commit a crime. They needed a file, built from who you talked to, where you stood, and what you seemed to believe. The goal was never really to catch the violent few. The goal was to make everyone else aware that they were being watched, so they would police themselves and stay quiet. A surveillance state does not have to arrest many people to work. It just has to make you feel like you might be next. That is the chill. And that is what a thousand pages of documents about photography and town hall meetings are quietly building here.

And here is something we all need to really think about in this moment. This is another way to divide us. Another way to paint one side as threats and criminals by the very people who instigated an insurrection. Regardless of how we feel about AI and the tech industry, we all need to take this latest threat seriously. Because evil regimes never stop at their first targets. They will eventually come for us all. We must stand together against this.

We must fight back now and hopefully, after we take back Congress in the midterms. And thankfully, it sounds like the Democrats are already getting ready. They are preparing now. Congressman Robert Garcia, who would chair the House Oversight Committee if we take back the House in November, said this week that his team is “already preparing and gearing up.” He laid it out: “We’ve got a team on Epstein, we have a team on family corruption, we have a team on DHS and ICE.” Right now, the administration simply ignores the document requests Democrats send because, in the minority, they have no power to compel anything. But that changes the moment we flip the House. All of that groundwork, every unanswered letter, becomes subpoenas, hearings, and sworn depositions. Congressman Joe Neguse said you have to go all the way back to the Teapot Dome scandal of the 1920s to find an administration this immersed in corruption. The investigations are not a fantasy for after a win. They are being built, staffed, and readied right now, so that the day the gavel changes hands, the accountability starts. This is what we need in this moment. Not just accountability now, but investigations and safeguards to make sure this never happens again.

And California is not messing around either. Today, Gavin Newsom made an announcement about The Trump administration’s “anti-weaponization” nearly 1.8 billion dollar fund, saying that California will not let it happen without resistance, “Anyone from California that receives any of those funds, we want to tax 100% of those proceeds,” he said. “That’s an action the State of California can take. It’s an action we look forward to taking.” One hundred percent. If you live in California and you try to cash a check from this fund, the state intends to take all of it. It is a wall, built at the state level, against a federal payout designed to reward loyalty to Trump. Regardless of whether this actually happens, it sends a very clear message.

Donald Trump was angry today. He did not want to be in that meeting. He did not want to talk about anything he was there to discuss. His strategically placed protectors couldn’t keep him focused. His presidency is crashing down, and the Democrats are standing by, waiting for us to do our part at the midterms. And when we do, they are going to make every single day after that politically unbearable for Trump and the people who enabled him. That is why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.

I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather

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This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.

Picture of the day: Moving day was today, and this little one let us know exactly how she felt about it. She is a homebody through and through, and there were too many people and too much time outside the house for one day. She always bounces back fast, though, so we’re counting on our happy girl returning by morning. I’m just glad to have my office set up again, because my mind is on the midterms and I’m doing everything I can to prepare for the fight ahead.

Sources:

https://www.wired.com/story/us-law-enforcement-warns-of-anti-tech-extremism/

https://time.com/7322106/trump-nspm-7-domestic-terrorism/

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/trump-order-terrorism-network-left-leaning-nonprofits/

https://time.com/article/2026/05/06/trump-new-counterterrorism-strategy/

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-counterterrorism-plan-ignores-far-rights-gorka

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/11/tech/ai-trump-states-executive-order

https://www.ms.now/news/democrats-preparing-trump-investigations-retake-house

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/california-impose-100-tax-trumps-january-6-slush-fund-governor-says-2026-05-27/

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-05-27/newsom-trump-anti-weaponization-fund-tax

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/care-midterms-trump-makes-clear-rush-reach-deal/story?id=133357778

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/live-blog/trump-cabinet-paxton-cornyn-texas-runoffs-iran-doj-live-updates-rcna346997