Trump Is Coming For All of Us

“The first time President Obama met with his US Attorneys, he told us, ‘I appointed you but you do not serve me. You serve the American people. And I expect you to act with independence and integrity.’ None of us ever forgot that.” Joyce Alene Vance 7:59 PM, 12/28/17

Vance, an American lawyer who served as the US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2009 to 2017, was one of the first five U.S. Attorneys nominated by President Obama.

That is what leadership sounds like. That is what respect for the law looks like. A president who understands that prosecutors do not shield him, they do not carry out his grudges, and they do not bend the law around his ego. They serve the public. They serve the truth. They serve the Constitution before they serve any one person.

Today that kind of leadership is a distant memory because the current president has no respect for the law.

Because on September 20th, 2025 Trump wrote the following on Trash Social:

“Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam Shifty Schiff, Leticia? They are all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done. Then we almost put in a Democrat supported U.S. Attorney, in Virginia, with a really bad Republican past. A Woke RINO, who was never going to do his job. That is why two of the worst Dem Senators PUSHED him so hard. He even lied to the media and said he quit, and that we had no case. No, I fired him, and there is a GREAT CASE, and many layers, and legal pundits say so. Lindsey is a really good lawyer, and likes you, a lot. We cannot delay any longer, it is killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me five times, OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW.”

This is the stark difference between a leader who respects the rule of law and a leader who believes he is above it. There is no separation of powers here. There is only one man and his need to retaliate and invoke fear in anyone who dares to cross him.

Because Trump posted that message right after federal prosecutor Erik Siebert resigned. Siebert stepped down because Trump said he wanted him to for refusing to prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James over claims of mortgage fraud. Siebert had already told senior Justice Department officials that their investigations had not found enough evidence to charge her. That used to matter in this country. Evidence was the foundation. In Trump’s world, evidence is optional as long as the target is someone he hates.

After Siebert refused to give him the result he wanted, Trump replaced him with Lindsay Halligan, a Trump loyalist who had never prosecuted a case in her life. He put her in as acting U.S. Attorney, and she eventually brought charges against James.

And this is only the top layer. The real story is in the pattern. Trump speaks and acts as if the justice system belongs to him. As if prosecutors are employees in his private business. As if loyalty is worth more than law. He even said it out loud. “I am actually the chief law enforcement officer,” he told reporters on August 22, 2025.

A president who sees himself as the law does not recognize limits. He does not recognize democracy as anything other than an obstacle. The Constitution is just a piece of paper to him.

Obama told his attorneys they did not serve him. Trump tells his attorneys they had better serve him. Obama expected integrity. Trump expects allegiance. Obama trusted the system. Trump wants to own it.

This is not a small difference. This is the difference between a democracy and whatever we are living in right now.

And it is not just prosecutors or the courts. It is something far more dangerous. Because this evening we learned that Trump’s Justice Department secretly wrote a memo saying that American forces who carried out deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific were immune from prosecution. No investigation. No accountability. No questions from Congress. Nothing.

Approximately 57 people were killed in those strikes. Some may have been cartel members, but we’ll never know. There’s no list of names. No evidence released. No public accountability. The only thing we’ve been told is that the president said the killings were legal and justified. And we’re supposed to take his word for it?

These were human beings. Fathers out fishing to feed their families. Sons and husbands who never made it home. And we’re just expected to accept that they had to die, without charges, without trials, without even a single piece of proof that they committed or planned a crime.

Since when is drug smuggling punishable by airstrike? Since when does our president get to act as judge, jury, and executioner? Democracies don’t survive unchecked power.

This memo claims the United States is in something called a non-international armed conflict, which is just a way of saying Trump declared his own private war and then gave himself the power to decide who counts as an enemy and should be shot dead. Under this label, he can order lethal force without going through Congress, and then protect anyone who carries out those orders from prosecution.

And the reason this memo even came to light when it did is most likely because Trump was under pressure. By law, he couldn’t just keep bombing boats. Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, a president has 48 hours to notify Congress when U.S. forces are sent into hostilities, and only 60 days to continue those operations without explicit congressional approval. If he wants 30 more days, he has to put that request in writing.

This memo looks a lot like an attempt to dodge all of that. Instead of going to Congress, Trump just pulled a legal shortcut from the shadows, one that lets him keep killing, skip the oversight, and avoid the part where anyone tells him no. Because asking permission would mean admitting limits. And this president doesn’t believe in limits.

I keep going in circles trying to figure out how any of this ends well. Because even if the people Trump targets win in court, what is the cost? Their life savings? What’s left of their peace?

And when I don’t know what happens next, I look to the past for answers. I wondered if anything like this ever happened before? Has a president ever twisted the justice system this far just to serve his own ego? The answer is simple. No. Not in American history. Not even close.

Presidents have pressured the justice system before, but no president has ever abused the Justice Department and the courts the way Donald Trump is doing now.

Look at Richard Nixon. He tried to block the FBI from investigating Watergate and pushed the Justice Department to fire the special prosecutor. That was called the Saturday Night Massacre. But even then, the attorney general and the deputy attorney general refused. They resigned. The system fought back. Until Trump came around, Nixon was our black sheep. He was the corrupt president. Trump is making him look like a Boy Scout now.

Look at Ronald Reagan. The Iran-Contra scandal involved secret deals and illegal arms sales. His administration misled Congress. But Reagan did not order prosecutors to attack political enemies. He did not claim he personally controlled law enforcement. He did not turn the courts into a loyalty test.

No president has ever done this. But other leaders have. Just not in free societies.

Trump is walking a path other leaders have taken when they no longer feared the law. He is working his way through the authoritarian playbook.

Look at Mussolini. Before the march on Rome, he stacked the courts with loyalists and pushed out judges who ruled against him. Prosecutors who tried to hold fascists accountable were removed. Independence died quietly, long before democracy did.

Look at Hitler. One of his earliest moves was to fuse the police, the courts, and the intelligence services under his personal authority. He created special courts to handle cases against his enemies, and the judges who remained were pressured to rule in line with the party’s demands.

Look at Vladimir Putin. When he rose to power, he did not begin with war. He began with the justice system. Prosecutors were purged. Judges were reassigned. Loyalists with no judicial background were elevated because loyalty mattered more than merit.

The pattern is not subtle. They are all leaders who believe they are the law. They reshape the justice system to protect them. They cast their enemies as criminals.

And that is the path Trump is walking. The difference is that he is doing it here. In a country that once believed the rule of law was stronger than one man’s will. This was the place where this could never happen. This is America. And yet, here we are.

We are living through the part that future students will read about in history books. They’ll wonder why no one stopped him. Just like we couldn’t understand how Germany let one evil man destroy a country and millions of lives, they won’t understand how America let one broken, bitter man repeat what Hitler once outlined step by step.

And here’s the part I keep coming back to:

Authoritarianism doesn’t rise because one man is strong. It rises because too many people convince themselves they’re too weak to fight back. It rises because people start to believe their voice is too small, their effort won’t matter. It rises when good people grow tired and look away for just a moment. That’s all it takes.

If you think he will stop here, he won’t. He never stops. Every move is a test. Every demand for loyalty is a way to measure how far he can push. He will not stop at the courts. He will not stop at his enemies. He will not stop at all. If he is allowed to keep going, he will come for all of us in one way or another. That is what every authoritarian, every dictator, every fascist regime eventually does. The circle always widens. It always reaches people who thought they were safe.

And this is the part that terrifies him. He knows the only thing more powerful than his corruption, his destruction of our country, is our refusal to surrender. And we will never surrender.

I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather

P.S. If you’ve made it this far, chances are we see things the same way. You can help keep this work going by subscribing to my Substack; there’s a free option, or you can become a paid subscriber for just $5 a month. Paid subscriptions help me reach more people, cover more ground, and keep telling the truth about what’s happening to our country.