How conservatives learned to love the police state
Led by Donald Trump, Republican leaders—including members of Congress and several governors—have in recent weeks endorsed armed occupations of American cities.
The most prominent display of this attitude can be seen in Washington, D.C., where Trump has deployed federal law enforcement along with the National Guard to combat a nonexistent crime wave. For a few weeks now Americans have watched as federal agents have been tasked with handling moped accidents, drunk men throwing sandwiches, and trash cleanup duty.
The action in Washington follows the deployment of federal assets in Los Angeles, which is led by Mayor Karen Bass, a Black woman. Other cities have been threatened with occupation by Trump including Chicago, Baltimore, and most recently New Orleans. All of the cities vote Democratic, have large minority populations, and are led by Black mayors.
But just a few years ago conservatives and Republicans were busy accusing Democrats of wanting a “police state.”
The right spent nearly a decade accusing former President Bill Clinton of plotting to allow United Nations-backed agents of the “New World Order” to do things like construct FEMA camps and conduct armed takeovers of American cities.
Related | Why do Republicans hate American cities?
By the time former President Barack Obama took office in 2009, the right whipped itself into a frenzy over the “Jade Helm” conspiracy. Under Jade Helm, Obama was purportedly amassing military forces to take over red state cities and towns. None of it was true, as Jade Helm was an innocuous military exercise.
The fearmongering over the impending police state did not stop when former President Joe Biden took office in 2021. In 2024 while serving as governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem said there would be “war on our hands” if Biden used the National Guard to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border.
Now that Noem is serving as Trump’s Homeland Security secretary, she backs using the Guard to invade states like California.
A group of 28 congressional Republicans released a letter in 2024 pushing Biden not to federalize the Texas National Guard after Gov. Greg Abbott began using the guard to install razor wire on the southern border. Republican attorneys general also voiced protest as well.
But these same people are perfectly fine with Trump deploying the National Guard to enforce his imperialist presidential agenda.
Conservative groups like the NRA, which have argued that Americans have to be armed to the teeth to counter federal power, have been quiet even as federal troops have marched on Washington.
The truth is that the right never really cared about a federal police state. The movement is more than happy if cities with large Black populations led by Black leaders are forced to buckle to Trump’s whims, backed up by armed feds.
If it means enhanced power for Republicans and allowing them to dominate Democrats, minorities, or both, then the right is all for it.
Figures like conspiracy theorist Alex Jones made millions selling ineffective medication, based on his promotion of fears about a “police state.” Now Jones is busy parting with contributors to his own network who reportedly demonstrate insufficient fealty to Trump.
The entire elaborate “police state” warning was another fraud from the right. They aren’t opposed to a police state—they revel in cheering it on.