Fascism advances.

MAGA’s reaction to the Minneapolis killings is a submission to authoritarian control

MAGA, swept up in the narrative that Trump will save us from illegal aliens, is ready to let the government kill with impunity.

In the past three weeks, federal officers have shot and killed two Americans in Minneapolis:

• Renee Good fled an ICE detention in her vehicle, recklessly accelerating near officer Jonathan Ross and either narrowly missing or swiping him. Ross shot her through her windshield and driver’s side window.

• Alex Pretti intervened in a scuffle between a Border Patrol agent and a female protester. Agents pepper sprayed Pretti, pulled him to the ground, beat him, discovered and removed his concealed handgun, and shot him.

The Trump administration rushed to defend both killings with a disorganized flood of propaganda and lies.

Karoline Leavitt called Renee Good a “leftist insurrectionist.”

JD Vance wrote, “Do you think this officer was wrong in defending his life against a deranged leftist who tried to run him over?”

Trump preposterously claimed that Good “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE officer,” and doubled down with, “She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over.”

DHS described Pretti as having “approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun,” omitting that the gun was concealed, holstered, and removed from Pretti before he was shot. DHS concluded, without evidence, “this looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

Kristi Noem called both Good and Pretti “domestic terrorists.”

Stephen Miller called Pretti “an assassin.”

The shootings are not “fascism” in and of themselves. MAGA’s fervent support for the shootings, however, is.

Fascism is a specific pathway to authoritarianism. Skeptics argue that Trump is not a fascist because America hasn’t reached Robert Paxton’s final stage of fascism, where a broken and disenfranchised citizenry is controlled by an unpopular dictator. But that static end state is identical to any other authoritarian system, and paradoxically no longer fascistic at all.

Fascism is a process: the willful, enthusiastic ceding of democratic power, driven by hate, fear, and maybe most of all, excitement. The usual tools of fascist leadership—fabricated nostalgia, vague promises of a victorious future, xenophobia—create the permission structure for citizens to gleefully sacrifice their own autonomy.

Tim Pool’s rapturous celebration of the Minneapolis killings perfectly encapsulates the fascist pledge:

You misunderstand. It’s my boot. It’s mine. I voted for them. I’m wearing the boot. I’m stomping on the ground. […] And anybody else who’s cheering, who voted for it, too, we’re all wearing the boots. You’re the one crying.

Through a cultish identification with the state, the fascist citizen perversely experiences the loss of individual power as an all-consuming euphoric empowerment.

The First, Second, and Fourth Amendments, traditionally dear to conservatives, are all under threat. Instead of demanding transparency and accountability, MAGA is cheering.

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“Fuck around and find out” (FAFO) is fascist logic

As a rhetorical and psychological strategy, FAFO avoids moral and legal questions by issuing an ostensible warning that smugly and gleefully endorses violence.

FBI Director Kash Patel: “You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines, to any sort of protest that you want, it's that simple. You don’t have that right to break the law and incite violence.”

Lauren Chen: “Pretti didn't have to die. Do not interfere with law enforcement, and especially do not do so while being armed.”

US Attorney Bill Essayli: “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you. Don’t do it!”

Megyn Kelly: “I know I’m supposed to feel sorry for Alex Pretti, but I don’t. Do you know why I wasn’t shot by Border Patrol this weekend? Because I kept my ass inside and out of their operations. It’s very simple.”

As Umberto Eco pointed out, thoughtful analysis of any kind is threatening to a fascist program. MAGA doesn’t merely justify the killings—they frame them as so uncontestably righteous that critical thinking itself is offensive.

I’m not accusing MAGA of deliberately evading reality. They seem, for the most part, to be genuinely caught in the orgasmic throes of fascism.

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The victory lap regarding Trump’s pullback from Minneapolis is misguided

ABC ran a story yesterday with this headline: “White House distances Trump from provocative claims by Noem, others on Pretti shooting.”

The story describes the following:

• Trump told the Wall Street Journal that his administration was "reviewing everything and will come out with a determination” (although yesterday he said, “You can’t have guns. You can’t walk in with guns.”)

• Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt backed off the “terrorist” label.

• Trump sent Tom Homan to Minnesota to take over ICE operations, replacing Greg Bovino and Kristi Noem.

• Trump said he had “a very good call” with Tim Walz, and that they “seemed to be on a similar wavelength.”

In response to these events, yesterday’s left-wing opinion headlines claimed that democracy had notched a victory over authoritarianism:

Rachel Maddow: “Americans flex democratic muscles to show that, together, they’re stronger than Trump”

The Guardian: “White House avoids Minneapolis tirade as signs suggest Trump backing down”

The Atlantic: “Donald Trump Can Be Stopped”

The Bulwark: “The Opposition Is Winning in Minneapolis — The killing of Alex Pretti has forced the White House to retreat.”

Matthew Yglesias: “A turning point in Minnesota — You can’t just kill people and then lie about the victims.”

Framing this episode as a net win for democracy is a sign of our extreme disorientation. Trump’s gaslighting is so effective that we can’t remember what the world was like just three weeks ago.

His fascist program has made significant progress on several fronts:

• He openly sanctioned the killings of two of his critics with little consequence. Even if he later criticizes the killings, this will be understood by MAGA as political lip service. Compare his rhetoric around Good and Pretti to his pardoning of 600 Jan 6 rioters. The message is clear: those who oppose Trump are expendable and their deaths should be celebrated.

• The Trump administration’s blatant propaganda defines reality by loyalty rather than truth. Whether they get to author the final narrative or not, they’ve further normalized the requirement of dishonesty or delusion from MAGA.

• The killings probe the limits of Trump’s authoritarian grasp, effectively polling the public on whether the government can murder its critics and distort reality. This information is well worth the minor political costs he’s incurred.

• Trump’s initial burst of support establishes and strengthens partisan alliances with law enforcement.

• The MAGA base is excited and aroused, thirsty for more violence and destabilization.

• Outrage on the left will likely lead to more protests and rioting, and thus more government violence.

But most of all, the ecstasy of Trump’s cult has reached a new fever pitch. With the administration’s branding of Good and Pretti as terrorists, MAGA is free to endorse, celebrate, and vicariously participate in the killings. They now view leftist protesters as enemy combatants and violent federal officers as their avatars.