The President Wants Us to Think Collapse Is Normal
Everything unleashed by the Trump Regime is a test.
“Many people are petrified by the Radical Left, but I’m not, they keep getting me, and other Republicans, elected!” -Donald Trump, Truth Social, October 27, 2025
This isn’t just an unhinged attempt at a brag. It’s a blueprint.
Trump is telling us out loud what the rest of the authoritarian playbook quietly assumes: fear works. Demonization works. Turning Americans against each other works. And as long as we allow it, he’ll keep pushing.
Because everything they do is a test.
They cross an outrage line. Break a norm. Violate a law. And then they wait to see who notices. Who protests. Who defends the rule they just shattered?
They cut a program. Fire a watchdog. Flood the official White House website with propaganda and lies, and see whether any institution pushes back hard enough to matter.
The experiment is always the same: how far can they push the needle before we either stand up and stop them, or stay silent and let them take it all?
Even after the administration purged dozens of inspectors general, the independent watchdogs tasked with exposing waste, fraud, and abuse, we thought this was the moment. Because that kind of purge isn’t symbolic. It’s tactical. Remove the eyes that watch the powerful, and you clear the way for unchecked control.
It’s what Hitler did in the first six months of 1933. He removed political opposition from the courts, gutted oversight, and created the “Special Courts” system, bodies that no longer answered to judicial norms, but to party loyalty. What followed wasn’t just fascism. It was normalization. The laws were still there. The institutions still stood. But they had been emptied, repurposed to serve only him.
That’s what this is. A repurposing. A quiet turning of public institutions into private weapons.
Now they are testing how long they can shut down the government, not to save money or negotiate policy, but to kill healthcare subsidies and permanently strip away food assistance. SNAP benefits are already set to run out in just a few days. Maybe they’re seeing if they can end them for good.
Because as much as Republicans claim there are no funds left, that “the well has run dry,” it’s propaganda. It’s a lie. The truth? There’s approximately a $5-6 billion contingency fund set aside for this exact situation. A fund designed to keep people fed, even in a shutdown. Because no matter how broken Congress becomes, no matter how dysfunctional our politics are, Americans should never face starvation.
Feeding people is the most basic, the most foundational function of a healthy society.
Because every public program they destroy is another dollar they can redirect to Trump’s enablers, to private contracts, luxury projects, tax breaks for the rich, and personal empires. This is not fiscal policy. It’s a transfer of wealth from the many to the few.
They want to return us to a nation where the top 0.1% holds everything, and the rest of us live paycheck to paycheck, with just enough to survive.
Because we’re easier to control that way.
And they continue to test the military too, deploying the National Guard to states without invitation, without need, without permission. Not for emergencies, but as a show of force. It’s a dry run for election season. Because they know Trump will be even more deeply unpopular in 2028. They know he cannot win a free and fair election.
So they’re testing what it looks like to police the streets before ballots are even cast, so few will vote, and those who do will vote for him and his party alone. This isn’t about security. It’s about submission. He is already laying the groundwork to stay in power for as long as he’s alive. And he’s daring anyone to stop him.
They are even testing our memory, by destroying the places that anchor our identity. Trump literally tore down the East Wing of the White House for a ballroom larger than the West Wing.
Maybe that feels like yesterday’s news now, but that doesn’t change how barbaric it was. It’s unprecedented. And it is a test, to see what else he can destroy. To see how much of our history he can erase before we forget who we are and how we got here.
That is the point of all of it. Not just to rule, but to reshape the entire country in his image.
What we don’t always see is that they’re testing whether our neighbors will turn on one another. The ICE tip line is not only real, it’s being promoted. The government is encouraging people to report each other, turning suspicion into civic duty.
This isn’t just about catching someone. It’s about seeing how easily trust can be broken. How quickly fear can replace community.
They are testing whether our global commitments can be shrunk without consequence. Abandoning partnerships, closing lifesaving clinics, and walking away from established channels of humanitarian aid, they are learning how quickly we would forget. How quietly we would stop fighting for the people left behind.
They’re testing the rule of law by turning justice into a political weapon. This isn’t about one case or one decision; it’s a larger test: will the law remain an independent check on power, or will it serve only those who hold it?
Just look at what’s happening now: a wave of indictments, James Comey, Letitia James, John Bolton, not for crimes, but for refusing to be loyal. Trump isn’t hiding it. He’s on a retribution tour, using the justice system to punish his critics and intimidate everyone else. And now that it’s working, he’s testing how far he can go, whether he can use the threat of future indictments to force people into submission.
This isn’t new. In 1933, the Reichstag burned, and emergency decrees followed, stripping citizens of civil protections and consolidating executive power. The Nazis didn’t begin with the worst atrocities. They began with incremental tests: boycotts, registration, exclusion from civil service, neighborhood reporting. One step at a time. Each step normalized the next.
I use this analogy not to equate suffering, but to highlight the pattern. The pattern is what matters. Because it is that slow erosion, that creeping normal, that makes catastrophe possible.
But every test is also an opportunity.
When ICE agents surround people, neighbors have stepped up and nonviolently fought back. They livestreamed everything. They documented every movement. And the agents left empty-handed. The test failed.
While the government tries to erase or rewrite facts, scientists, park rangers, weather officials, and ordinary citizens have created alternate channels to protect what’s true. When the courts have been tested, we’ve seen judges refuse to bend. When neighbors organize, protests remind us that we are not alone, and that this country is still worth fighting for.
In Amsterdam in 1941, when the Nazis tested whether Dutch citizens would accept deportation, hundreds of thousands walked off the job in protest. In Denmark in 1943, ordinary people hid their Jewish neighbors and ferried them to safety before the roundups began. Those tests failed because people refused to accept the new rules.
We can force these tests to fail, too. We can document everything, every raid, every warrantless stop, every executive order. Screenshot before it’s deleted.
Show up. When agents arrive in your neighborhood, be the person who forms the human chain. When books are banned, create community reading groups and mobile story hours. When someone’s right to exist is questioned, stand in public with them.
Build networks now. Phone trees. Signal groups. Rapid-response legal contacts. Mutual aid for families who suddenly lose food or housing. Know which neighbors have extra beds. Know which lawyers will take a call at 3 a.m. Institutions can be hollowed out, but human networks can’t be erased by executive order.
Protect the people who remain inside the institutions. Support auditors, public defenders, social workers, foreign-aid officers, scientists, and teachers who still do their jobs. Their courage is a bulwark against collapse.
Refuse to normalize. When someone says, “It’s not that bad,” say: “It’s unacceptable.” When they say, “It can’t happen here,” say: “It already is.” Use history not as a weapon, but as a warning.
And if this all seems like it might be overboard, let’s hope it is. But let’s plan just in case. Because the signals are there. The tests are happening. And we must make sure they fail.
Let them look back on this day and see it was a test. And that it failed miserably.
I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather