As the New York Times has reported, on Saturday, a Federal judge ordered that Trump should not expel Venezuelans from the USA using an 18th-century wartime law.
Yesterday he did so in defiance of the order, saying the court had no right to rule over his exercise of foreign policy.
Clearly the judge thought that they had.
Trump did not wait to find out: he went ahead anyway.
A President who respected the rule of law would not have done that.
Trump is a president who does not respect the rule of law. That law is for others, apparently, but not for him.
The result is a situation where the law cannot be relied on in the USA. The application of the law is now claimed to be solely dependent on the political whim of the President.
I received an invitation to attend a meeting at the World Bank on Friday, in New York. I will not be going. The risks are too high. Visiting a country where the president thinks he can act in the way Trump is doing is to put oneself in harm's way. I am not willing to do that.
People in the USA do not have that choice: they have to now live in a lawless country.
It is that, or they need to get some politicians who will stand up to Trump, which those in Congress, who must know they should be doing, are refusing to do.
And so, the USA descends into fascism. And it seems that the political will of the neoliberals who are meant to prevent this happening does not exist, which tells us all we need to know about the neoliberal power hierarchy in both the USA and elsewhere. It is neo-fascist adjacent, which has always been apparent to those of us who bothered to study it.
Look at Friedman.
Look at Hayek.
Look at Rand.
Look at Buchanan.
This was always the direction of travel. All that has changed now in the USA is that the pretence has been given up.
Now look at parliament in the UK. Then ask, how many would object there when right now they can't even stand up for people with disabilities?
Who next won't they stand up for?
Then one day they might come for you, and me.
It's all so inevitable.
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Alas, this would seem to be ‘it’ – the moment when Trump’s regime in a publicly obvious, even flagrant, way demonstrated that they will defy the courts. If this blatant abuse of the law is not reversed, there is no final barrier left. No limit. Just the ‘will’ of one man and the enforcing action of his chosen lackeys. RIP.
Thank you, Richard.
As that news came out, American friends who returned to Chicago from London after a quarter of a century said that in 2009 an American student at SOAS was deported after organising cleaning, catering etc. staff into a union and asking for better conditions.
Why doesn’t that surprise me?
Agreed.
But what Trump does by fascist lawless dictat, Labour are doing “constitutionally” – the close policy parallells between Trump & Labour are scary.
Labour boast about record deportations.(19,000?)
Labour hit the disabled with deeply damaging welfare cuts that will kill people.
Labour slash the overseas aid budget – that will kill people.
Labour abolish whole public sector bodies like NHS England. That will kill people.
Labour completely abandon any pretence that they have a green policy. Drill baby drill – Great British Equity etc, Rosebank R Us. That will kill people.
Labour centralise power and money, while decentralising responsibility. Local authorities go effectively bankrupt. That will kill people.
Labour protect private companies as they poison us with sewage, allow the power grid to disintegrate, and dismantle our transport network. That will kill people.
Labour punish dissent through authoritarian control of the party, inside and outside parliament, they repress protest on the streets and in universities, they restrict free speech, they target independent journalists, they are protected by client journalists.
Labour demonise the chronically sick, the disabled and the unemployed. They tell the mentally sick that there is nothing wrong with them and starve them into the dole queue.That will kill people.
Labour shape every public policy to extract money from the poor to pay for the increasing privilege of the very very rich. That will kill people.
Of course, when they DO have to break international law, they get on with it, just like Trump – assisting, and failing to prevent, genocide in Gaza & W Bank.
Trump is a lawless fascist. Of course he is, he always was.
But Starmer is his mini-me, and trails ineptly in his wake.
It seems that the only way he can be stopped, short of public insurrection (which I am NOT advocating, officer), is by his own MPs. If they cast their minds back to 2016-19, perhaps they will remember how EASY it was for a group of MPs to destroy a popular, decent, honest Labour leader by character assassination, smears, lies, resignations, and new alignments.
This time, the target is a deceitful, dishonest, UNpopular leader who threatens all of us. All the MPs have to do is tell the truth and follow their conscience. If they have one.
If they remain silent, then they are complicit, and we know their names.
“What did YOU do to stop Britain going fascist, under Keir Starmer, Mummy/Daddy?”
“Oh, I just kept quiet and covered my a*s*.”
I still have a lot of hope for America – the flyover states will drag them down, but the coastal states may end up being some sort of bulwark.
They also have an equalising factor in the U.S. – universal access to guns!! Might the NRA get pissed off if the Republicans demand that Democrats relinquish their right to bear arms?
A bit tongue in cheek this but you never know these days. But Americans are a strange lot, they do not like to get pushed around even by those that represent what they aspire to be. And it is not the the Neo-lib haven it is portrayed as either.
In the UK, I think that they been coming for us for a long time – it’s not an event anymore Richard, ‘coming for us’ is a process now, and I’m afraid that our tormentors are very patient.
I also have hope for America, but it’s not their guns that are their main weapon, it’s their visibility. It’s easy enough to destroy the career of one or two highly visible people, but hundreds, thousands? In Russia and China, as big and globally important as they are, the world is not watching them 24/7, and they have never been known for freedom of speech. Their authoritarianism is taken as a standard. Hopefully, this will allow resistance to Trump. If I start seeing certain YouTubers, comedians, and news reporters disappear, I’ll worry. They are my canaries. Not to diminish those already deported or targeted, but the more high visibility targets will be a testament to Trump’s power.
The last time this Act was used was to inter Japanese Americans during the Second World War. Interestingly, its use in that situation was ruled unconstitutional and reparations paid under Ronald Reagan, who said it was a stain on the federal government.
As usual on these issues, Rachel Maddow has a fascinating segment of her show telling the story of how two boy scouts (a Japanese and European American), who subsequently became US politicians, put the Act together to address this ‘disgraceful chapter in American history’.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
But of course, the more disgraceful something is the more Trump and his minions love doing it. So here we are, and long will it continue given Congress has given all its power to the Executive (Trump), and the Senate is cowed and spineless. And so there are now no ‘co-equal’ branches of government – only King Donald.
By the way, you’re right not to go to the US, I think. My understanding is that there are currently several German and at least one UK citizen who have been caught up in raids on ‘illegals’ and are currently sat in detention centres with their families desperately trying to reason with the US authorities. In the case of the UK citizen and the Germans, all people who were on hiking tours (again, info I’ve picked up from OSINT people but that’s not being reported widely).
Thanks
UK citizen – story reported in Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/mar/10/british-tourist-detained-us-authorities-10-days-visa-issue
She tried to enter on a tourist visa, should have had a working visa.
DE Citizens in Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/11/german-tourists-ordeal-reportedly-ending-returned-from-us-detention#:~:text=German%20tourists'%20ordeal%20reportedly%20ending%20as%20they%20are%20returned%20from%20US%20detention,-Jessica%20Br%C3%B6sche%20to&text=A%20German%20tourist%20detained%20by,eight%20days%20in%20solitary%20confinement.
Also NYT
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/world/europe/german-tourists-detained-deported.html
Not raids, caught whilst trying to cross the border, however, does highlight the clamping down of US authorities and the risks of going to US. I would not even consider transiting through, at the moment!
In the case of the British tourist – its simple enough – pick 5 random Americans (preferably Trump supporters) & chuck em into Dartmoor. Easy enough to think up something. Mango wants to play games, two can do that. Only a mad person would go to the USA now.
L’etat, c’est Trump.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27%C3%89tat,_c%27est_moi
“BOSTON, March 16 (Reuters) – A Rhode Island doctor who is an assistant professor at Brown University’s medical school has been deported to Lebanon even though a judge had issued an order blocking the U.S. visa holder’s immediate removal from the country, according to court papers.
The expulsion of Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, is set to be the focus of a hearing on Monday before a federal judge in Boston, who on Sunday demanded information on whether U.S. Customs and Border Protection had “willfully” disobeyed his order.”
And from the New York Times:
“There is a shortage of American doctors working in Dr. Alawieh’s area of specialty, transplant nephrology. Foreign-born physicians play an important role in the field, according to experts”. The US Consulate in Beirut had issued her with an H-1B visa which allows highly skilled foreign nationals to live and work in the US
You’re right not to go to New York.
As for the UK Parliament – they didn’t stand up for children living in poverty, they removed the Winter Fuel Payment from the elderly, they didn’t compensate WASPI women, they allow shit to freely enter water courses and the sea and on and on and on.
As for the NHS ..?
Victorian Britain here we come.
Regarding Dr Alawieh she allegedly left the US for the purpose of visiting family. She then re-entered the US on her return on a different visa than the one she exited the US on. If she had stated that the purpose of leaving the US was to obtain a new visa type then you’re going to be more sympathetic but she hadn’t said that. On her return to the US her ‘phone was examined and contained photographs and also recoverable deleted photographs of Hezbollah. Lebanon does have its own official military of course so why would someone carry photos of the terrorists from her home country. So what’s border control supposed to do to keep the USA safe?
There’s a couple of morals for people planning to go the USA – be truthful about the purpose of your trip. And don’t show support for Hamas or Hezbollah on social media.
Be safe Richard and I hope you follow that invitation up and end up going.
With people like you in the world? Are you kidding?
Your post reveals how poorly you understand the history, politics and culture of the Middle East, how poorly you appreciate the nuances of a word like “terrorism”, and how little you value international law.
Perhaps you could reflect on what international law says about resisting occupation?
Compare Ukraine launching drone attacks on Moscow with Lebanese resistance to invading forces? Or Palestinian resistance to occupying forces?
Sorry, but it’s complicated, and by using words like “terrorist”, you are making it sound simple.
Or maybe you DO understand these things, and are being deliberately provocative?
After all Netanyahu visits America, yet he is an indicted person already on trial in his own country for corruption, and the subject of an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes. How come HE gets over the border into USA?
Mandela used to be called a terrorist. The Tories here wanted to hang him a few decades ago. Then of course there were those people who blew up the King David hotel, in Jerusalem, and hanged British soldiers about 80+ years ago. But we mustn’t mention them. And that nice man Ariel Sharon, and the Sabra & Shatila massacres (in Lebanon).
It’s complicated alright.
I think the post was disingenuous.
Follow ups were trolling.
Don’t ever go near the USA, Richard.
Remember that Khashoggi thought he was going to be on safe territory.