September 18, 2025
Since he took office in 2017, President Donald J. Trump has worked hard to convince Americans that they are divided into two partisan camps: Republicans, whom he defines as those people loyal to him, and Democrats, a group made up of everyone else. In his first term, when actual Republicans, some of whom he appointed himself, challenged him, he simply redefined them as Democrats. In his telling, major figures in the investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign’s association with Russian operatives, including special counsel Robert Mueller and his staff, FBI director James Comey, and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, were all Democrats.
In 2020, when Utah senator Mitt Romney voted to convict Trump on one of the charges on which the House impeached him, Trump tweeted a video calling him a “Democrat secret asset” who “tried to infiltrate Trump’s administration” while “posing as a Republican.” Romney was the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential nominee.
In Trump’s worldview, it appears, those who oppose him, those he calls “Democrats,” are anti-American and dangerous. In his first term, he insisted those people were organized as “Antifa,” for “anti-fascist.” In summer 2020, in the midst of protests after the murder of George Floyd, Trump threatened to designate “Antifa” as a “major terrorist organization.” When FBI director Chris Wray, whom Trump appointed himself, said antifa is an ideology, not an organization, Trump posted: “I look at them as a bunch of well funded ANARCHISTS & THUGS who are protected because the Comey/Mueller inspired FBI is simply unable, or unwilling, to find their funding source, and allows them to get away with ‘murder’. LAW & ORDER!”
Dividing a population into friends and enemies is a tool of authoritarians, clearly articulated by Nazi political theorist Carl Schmitt, who is enjoying a burst of popularity right now in the American right wing. MAGA figures have pushed the idea that the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk last week, apparently by a lone gunman, could be blamed on “Democrats” or “THEM.” Last night, after news broke that ABC was suspending comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s television show, the Trump administration announced it was putting the teeth of the government into this division of the world.
His social media account posted: “I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Legal experts point out that government officials can designate “foreign terrorist organizations,” but that there is no legal grounds for designating any domestic organization a “terrorist organization,” especially in light of the First Amendment that protects free speech and the right of Americans to assemble peacefully. Even if the designation can’t actually be made, though, the rhetorical division of the country into Americans and “Antifa” serves to divide the country into friends and enemies.
But the uproar over the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel brought to light a different, far more American, division in this country. Americans could divide along partisan lines so long as the guardrails of a secular, evidence-based, liberal democracy remained in place. But as the Trump administration smashes through those guidelines, it appears that rather than being divided along partisan lines, Americans are beginning to realign as “We the People” against a wannabe authoritarian.
Yesterday, Republican political strategist Karl Rove, who was a key member of President George W. Bush’s administration, pushed back against the friends and enemies distinction in the Wall Street Journal. “No,” he wrote. “Charlie Kirk wasn’t killed by ‘them.’ ‘They’ didn’t pull the trigger. One person did, apparently a young man driven by impulse and a terrible hate. If there were a ‘they’ involved, law enforcement would find ‘them’ and the justice system would hold ‘them’ accountable. But ‘he’ and ‘him’ are the correct pronouns for this horrendous act…. Using Charlie’s murder to justify retaliation against political rivals is wrong and dangerous. It will further divide and embitter our country. No good thing will come of it.”
As Trump’s popularity continues to plummet—The Economist today has his approval rating at -17%, down 2.6 points since last week—it’s becoming clearer every day that opposition to the president is not partisan. Yesterday, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Susan Monarez testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, where she explained that Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is operating according to his ideology without regard for science. Kennedy fired her after she refused to rubber stamp his plans to change the childhood vaccination schedule without research supporting such a change.
Trump appointed Monarez.
Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) warned yesterday against the panelists Kennedy appointed to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices after he purged the panel making changes to the childhood vaccine schedule. Not only Cassidy but also insurance companies appear to have little confidence in the decisions of Kennedy’s panel. They say they will disregard any changes and continue covering the cost of vaccines—a clear sign they consider vaccines beneficial to helping people stay healthy.
John Yoo, the former deputy assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush who wrote the legal justification for torture during the war on terror, pushed back on the extreme powers Trump is claiming to kill those he labels terrorists. “There has to be a line between crime and war,” Yoo said. “We can’t just consider anything that harms the country to be a matter for the military. Because that could potentially include every crime.”
Some voices on the right who, in the past, were protected by the laws and norms of democracy are now calling out its loss. Last night, after the administration pressured ABC to suspend Kimmel’s show, right-wing media host Tucker Carlson explained why a government must not be able to limit speech. “You hope that a year from now, the turmoil we're seeing in the aftermath of his murder won't be leveraged to bring hate speech laws to this country. And trust me…if that does happen, there is never a more justified moment for civil disobedience than that, ever, and there never will be, because if they can tell you what to say, they're telling you what to think. There's nothing they can't do to you, because they don't consider you human. They don't believe you have a soul. A human being with a soul, a free man, has a right to say what he believes, not to hurt other people, but to express his views.”
Today, agents from the Department of Homeland Security arrested New York City comptroller Brad Lander and public advocate Jumaane Williams along with ten other city and state elected officials near federal immigration courts when they tried to conduct oversight of people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the building.
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Notes:
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/06/trump-attacks-mitt-romney-after-impeachment-vote-111344
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/18/politics/antifa-what-is-explained
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cvgje507pn2t?post=asset%3A830a794b-16ff-462b-bb4f-72627767426a#post
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/they-didnt-kill-charlie-kirk-b161409b
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2025/09/17/rfk-jr-covid-vaccine-insurance/86203490007/
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/health/kennedy-acip-insurers-cassidy.html
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/16/trump-gop-officials-strikes-venezuela-00567212
https://www.amny.com/news/brad-lander-jumaane-williams-nyc-officials-arrested-ice/
Bluesky:
I hope the currently employed TV and cable hosts all book Kimmel on their shows. That would be a powerful show of noncooperation with Trump’s attempt to cancel him. And I pray that Heather is correct about the realignment of we the people vs the autocrat. Keep talking with everyone you know, and keep being loud in every way you can!
Let the implications of this statement sink in a bit: "....insurance companies appear to have little confidence in the decisions of Kennedy’s panel. They say they will disregard any changes and continue covering the cost of vaccines—a clear sign they consider vaccines beneficial to helping people stay healthy."