Mar-a-Lago and the Siege of Minnesota

Let us speak plainly about it: The president declared war on Minnesota last week. 

To be more precise, he has laid siege to it. There are now more federal goons than local law enforcement officers in the greater Twin Cities, with more on the way. This goon squad has disrupted economic life, impeded the roads, caused a shutdown of schools and forced people to remake their lives on the fly, either to avoid potential lethal confrontation and unapologetic property destruction, confront it head-on or provide support for those who have to hide from it. This is what a siege is for.

By now, we know that the people in charge of the ethnic cleansing of the Twin Cities — from Trump to Stephen Miller, to Kristi Noem to Greg Bovino to the lowliest softest pinkest wannabe-merc ICE head case — lie about being in danger and lie about their victims. The goons on the ground get annoyed and have little tantrums and knock phones from hands, knock people down, pepper spray and tear gas them, bystanders and themselves. They ram cars with abandon and without reason, throw flashbangs “hot as lava” and chemical agents into cars full of children, barrel unsafely down narrow streets and abandon damaged vehicles, and they destroy people’s front doors like they think they’re going to find rare swords and range weapons behind them while leveling up their XP. They abduct parents and guardians, and in the process abandon minor children and infants, exposing them to the elements and any bystanders. They beat people who annoy them, shoot people who annoy them and kill people who annoy them. That they annoy them is predicate enough, but just to be sure, the president went on the air and codified for the Republican Party that disrespect of law enforcement is a capital offense and imminent threat. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

As with any medieval siege, there are a limited number of outcomes. But where a besieging medieval king is exposed to noble revolt or external attack, Trump is blessed with one party of unprincipled co-conspirators and another party of unprincipled cowards. This leaves him mostly exposed to the problem of funding: How many days can the rest of America sustain paying a bunch of violent shitheads to board their dogs, rent at the Hertz, maintain a military blockade of Prairie Home Companion and sleep at the La Quinta? For Trump, keeping a siege in place until everyone’s teetering on the edge of bankruptcy is fine, even if not as optimal as the captive population turning all local Latinos, Arabs, Somalians over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement with bindings just loose enough that they can be plausibly killed while attempting escape. 

We know that this was never about violent crime because we heard how Republicans talked and whistled about this issue — while also watching the percentage of detained immigrants who are violent offenders plunge to a single digit — but it is very helpful to see, on live TV, that no, it was never really about that. It’s helpful for every American from the population of the Others who’ve been dying to tell you this war’s been going on for a long time — and waiting for you to show up. It took a sudden, indiscriminate geographic expansion of its scope to get your attention, but here it is, in high-definition: nonwhite legal American residents disappearing into a snake pit of white tatted arms or a van, or into the system only to be spit out bruised and terrified later, amid an absence of warrants. 

Given that we are a union, the United States, one would hope that this obvious economic, social, racial and kinetic warfare on one of the states would be treated as an attack on all. As have all other communities targeted by the Department of Homeland Security, the people of Minnesota understand this very well, already knitting into emergency groups to protect their neighbors and their children and keep them connected to a community even if not the outside world. They just can’t do much about someone walling off the state except for occupation troops.

Trump’s already launched one half-assed war in Venezuela and seems determined to half-ass one with Iran and NATO in between peace prizes, so he may never bring this particular one to your town. A red-state governor or critical local industry might spare you, besides. But it’s worth asking why he would stop at making war on Minnesota if no one tried to make him stop. A man who embargoes and extorts one state learns only that he can embargo and extort them all.

In that light, and in this time of retrospective appreciations for those dismissed as the Cassandras of the Trump era, it might be best to go back and look at the grimmest apprehensions of what Donald Trump’s tariff regime and the presidency mean to Donald Trump. The latter, the Supreme Court has gone to great lengths to assure him, exists as a kind of supranational force, harnessing all the powers of the United States while bound to zero of its laws. Tariffs, meanwhile, conjure free money at no cost to him or you and extort free money as a treat, all of which is his to do with as he will. The hecklers get the boot, and if they disrespect the boot, they get the bullet. 

Minnesota is being besieged because of the usual grab bag of psychological problems that amount to Donald Trump. He didn’t run for this gig to have to hear the word “no” ever again, for one thing, and an entire political apparatus from the Supreme Court to increasing chunks of TV and media reinforce his belief that things change when he says they do. It is being targeted because Tim Walz is really good at making fun of him, and people like it, even though he’s not rich or thinner than Trump. Ilhan Omar’s even better at ridiculing him, much thinner, Black and born in Somalia. Add being a woman and smarter than he is, that’s six strikes. Minnesota has never voted for him. They send him only four House Republicans. Mostly, it’s that another minority community in a perceived “Democratic area” gave him another excuse after D.C., L.A., Chicago and numerous others. Everything else, down to the roots, is just ethnic cleansing.

How Donald Trump makes war on this country only expands. He attacked our civil service and regulatory state to keep us from measuring how deeply he is wounding us. He has attacked people’s welfare and economic security. He’s attacked our character. Now he’s brought our long, low war on the underclass home to people of all ages and colors. Whether any latter-day Cassandra could have predicted an “embargo on the United States to create a slush fund for its own paramilitary occupation” is for another day.