The Trump administration has already signaled its openness to a growing surveillance state through Trump’s chosen friends and alliances. For example, Trump’s Vice President, JD Vance is essentially bankrolled by Peter Thiel, founder of Palantir, a data mining firm thoroughly linked to the CIA. Thiel is a longtime advocate of a federal surveillance state, and now Trump proposes appointing Thiel’s protégé, Blake Masters, as head of the BATF.
So much for draining the swamp. Vance = Pence =
In September, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison happily reported that “Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.” It’s not mentioned if non-citizens will be on their best behavior too, but it’s clear that citizens are going to be targeted every bit as much as any immigrant.
01/03/2025 • Mises Wire •Ryan McMaken
https://mises.org/mises-wire/new-hysteria-regime-pivots-russians-immigrants
The debate over immigration is working out perfectly for the deep state. Donald Trump is calling on the CIA and the FBI to “get involved” in domestic policing. At the same time, MAGA conservatives are begging the US government to impose a vast new surveillance state on Americans in the name of stopping illegal aliens.
For at least four years, Russiagate hysteria has been used to promote more police statism, spying, military intervention, and government spending. Now, the incoming president Donald Trump will help the US regime seamlessly pivot from Russiagate hysteria to hysteria over Islamists and immigrants. The result will be the same: more growth in the federal police state and the further erosion of the Bill of Rights. This will be welcomed by MAGA conservatives who weeks earlier claimed to be suspicious of federal power and opponents of federal spy and police agencies.
Trump’s Foreign Bogeymen and His Allies at the CIA
On Thursday, Trump posted on X/Twitter demanding that “The CIA must get involved, NOW, before it is too late,” presumably in reaction to the New Orleans New Years Eve massacre, which rightwing activists have declared to be an act of terrorism committed by an Islamist from an immigrant family. In the same post, Trump says “This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS,” tying the issue of immigration to terrorism, and then demanding that the CIA become more active in domestic spying.
Trump has already given a number of hints as to what will be used to justify the continued drumbeat for police statism under his second administration. Just prior to his post calling for an expanded CIA, Trump declared that “Radical Islamic Terrorism, and other forms of violent crime, will become so bad in America that it will become hard to even imagine or believe.” This is Trump’s version of the “communists under your bed” hysteria of the 1950s, which, of course was used to justify the growth of the American security state during the Cold war.
The Trump administration has already signaled its openness to a growing surveillance state through Trump’s chosen friends and alliances. For example, Trump’s Vice President, JD Vance is essentially bankrolled by Peter Thiel, founder of Palantir, a data mining firm thoroughly linked to the CIA. Thiel is a longtime advocate of a federal surveillance state, and now Trump proposes appointing Thiel’s protégé, Blake Masters, as head of the BATF.
All the evidence points to an incoming administration that is very comfortable with helping the deep state get bigger and more powerful. After all, during Trump’s first administration, Trump immediately betrayed his promise to make the six-decade-old JFK files public, instead siding with CIA and FBI bureaucrats. Trump apparently believes that the taxpayers still must not be allowed to view basic historical records from the days when your grandfather was still hoping to move up to middle management at Studebaker Corporation.
Moreover, during his first term, Trump issued an order giving more independence to the CIA, making it easier for the agency to conduct cyber attacks without oversight from the civilian government.
Who can be surprised that he’s now calling on the CIA to do more?
Using Immigration to Justify the Panopticon
Be seeing you
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