The War on Terror Paved the Way for Trump’s Rise—Now He’s Making It His Own
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The War on Terror Paved the Way for Trump’s Rise—Now He’s Making It His Own
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/ March 2, 2026
The War on Terror Paved the Way for Trump’s Rise—Now He’s Making It His Own
Only the total abolition of the DHS can restore freedom.
Spencer Ackerman
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Illustration by Brian Stauffer.
This article appears in the
April 2026 issue, with the headline “Trump’s War on Terror.”
In January 2026, Donald Trump’s foreign and domestic policies achieved a certain synergy.
Following a months-long naval buildup off the coast of Venezuela, US Special Operations forces invaded the country, kidnapped its president, Nicolás Maduro, and decapitated his authoritarian socialist regime. Then Trump kept US weapons trained on Caracas to pressure Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, into giving him control over some of the world’s largest oil fields. These acts of naked imperialism were a reversal of Trump’s repudiation of US regime-change efforts as a presidential nominee. But only a few on the right, such as Senator Rand Paul, expressed any discomfort with this blatant about-face. Trump immediately let it be clear he would not stop at Venezuela. “We have a big armada next to Iran,” Trump said to reporters in late January as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln moved into position in the Middle East. “Bigger than Venezuela.” On February 28, Trump used that armada to launch alongside Israel an illegal, unprovoked war of aggression against Iran, with the aim of destroying the Islamic Republic.\
Trump has also advanced US designs on Cuba, Gaza, and Greenland. He bombed Somalia repeatedly in January, continuing an onslaught that began in 2025 and has received far less media attention. And as the administration’s foreign policy grows more openly acquisitive, its domestic policy grows more overtly aggressive as it carries out what amounts to an occupation of Minnesota.
A task force consisting of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection has invaded the Twin Cities, in defiance of state and local elected leadership. ICE and CBP agents demand that nonwhite residents prove their citizenship, kidnap children as young as 2 years old, and murder citizens who get in their way, all in the name of “law enforcement.” They have shown that they will refuse to be bound by any law or tradition that inhibits their agenda. The architect of Trump’s mass-deportation agenda, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, described Alex Pretti, a nurse whom five Border Patrol agents had subdued before a sixth shot him in the back, as a “domestic terrorist,” repeating what Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said of Renee …
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The War on Terror Paved the Way for Trump’s Rise—Now He’s Making It His Own
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Current Issue
Feature
/ March 2, 2026
The War on Terror Paved the Way for Trump’s Rise—Now He’s Making It His Own
Only the total abolition of the DHS can restore freedom.
Spencer Ackerman
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Illustration by Brian Stauffer.
This article appears in the
April 2026 issue, with the headline “Trump’s War on Terror.”
In January 2026, Donald Trump’s foreign and domestic policies achieved a certain synergy.
Following a months-long naval buildup off the coast of Venezuela, US Special Operations forces invaded the country, kidnapped its president, Nicolás Maduro, and decapitated his authoritarian socialist regime. Then Trump kept US weapons trained on Caracas to pressure Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, into giving him control over some of the world’s largest oil fields. These acts of naked imperialism were a reversal of Trump’s repudiation of US regime-change efforts as a presidential nominee. But only a few on the right, such as Senator Rand Paul, expressed any discomfort with this blatant about-face. Trump immediately let it be clear he would not stop at Venezuela. “We have a big armada next to Iran,” Trump said to reporters in late January as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln moved into position in the Middle East. “Bigger than Venezuela.” On February 28, Trump used that armada to launch alongside Israel an illegal, unprovoked war of aggression against Iran, with the aim of destroying the Islamic Republic.\
Trump has also advanced US designs on Cuba, Gaza, and Greenland. He bombed Somalia repeatedly in January, continuing an onslaught that began in 2025 and has received far less media attention. And as the administration’s foreign policy grows more openly acquisitive, its domestic policy grows more overtly aggressive as it carries out what amounts to an occupation of Minnesota.
A task force consisting of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection has invaded the Twin Cities, in defiance of state and local elected leadership. ICE and CBP agents demand that nonwhite residents prove their citizenship, kidnap children as young as 2 years old, and murder citizens who get in their way, all in the name of “law enforcement.” They have shown that they will refuse to be bound by any law or tradition that inhibits their agenda. The architect of Trump’s mass-deportation agenda, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, described Alex Pretti, a nurse whom five Border Patrol agents had subdued before a sixth shot him in the back, as a “domestic terrorist,” repeating what Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said of Renee …
The War on Terror Paved the Way for Trump’s Rise—Now He’s Making It His Own
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The War on Terror Paved the Way for Trump’s Rise—Now He’s Making It His Own
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Current Issue
Feature
/ March 2, 2026
The War on Terror Paved the Way for Trump’s Rise—Now He’s Making It His Own
Only the total abolition of the DHS can restore freedom.
Spencer Ackerman
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Illustration by Brian Stauffer.
This article appears in the
April 2026 issue, with the headline “Trump’s War on Terror.”
In January 2026, Donald Trump’s foreign and domestic policies achieved a certain synergy.
Following a months-long naval buildup off the coast of Venezuela, US Special Operations forces invaded the country, kidnapped its president, Nicolás Maduro, and decapitated his authoritarian socialist regime. Then Trump kept US weapons trained on Caracas to pressure Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, into giving him control over some of the world’s largest oil fields. These acts of naked imperialism were a reversal of Trump’s repudiation of US regime-change efforts as a presidential nominee. But only a few on the right, such as Senator Rand Paul, expressed any discomfort with this blatant about-face. Trump immediately let it be clear he would not stop at Venezuela. “We have a big armada next to Iran,” Trump said to reporters in late January as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln moved into position in the Middle East. “Bigger than Venezuela.” On February 28, Trump used that armada to launch alongside Israel an illegal, unprovoked war of aggression against Iran, with the aim of destroying the Islamic Republic.\
Trump has also advanced US designs on Cuba, Gaza, and Greenland. He bombed Somalia repeatedly in January, continuing an onslaught that began in 2025 and has received far less media attention. And as the administration’s foreign policy grows more openly acquisitive, its domestic policy grows more overtly aggressive as it carries out what amounts to an occupation of Minnesota.
A task force consisting of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection has invaded the Twin Cities, in defiance of state and local elected leadership. ICE and CBP agents demand that nonwhite residents prove their citizenship, kidnap children as young as 2 years old, and murder citizens who get in their way, all in the name of “law enforcement.” They have shown that they will refuse to be bound by any law or tradition that inhibits their agenda. The architect of Trump’s mass-deportation agenda, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, described Alex Pretti, a nurse whom five Border Patrol agents had subdued before a sixth shot him in the back, as a “domestic terrorist,” repeating what Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said of Renee …
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