As part of my work, I've been watching a fair bit of mainstream cable news recently; your condolences are appreciated in advance. While not all the coverage of the Trump regime's willful violation of judge's orders and the law in general has been horrible, there is a strong tendency to cast what is happening here as a hypothetical future result in a far too credulous way given the available evidence. This isn't even really about whether or not Downmarket Mussolini will get away with ignoring the laws and courts yet either; we're talking about grown adults in our media openly asking if the Trump regime seriously intends to do so, or this is all some grand strategy bluff.

This position is of course preposterous to the point that pretending it's plausible Trump isn't trying to create a "constitutional crisis" and allow his administration to act regardless of courts or the law, borders on open collaboration with a fascist regime. If that position sounds extreme to you, check out this article collecting some of the things official representatives of the Trump administration have said about the regime's already-enacted scheme to ship hundreds of alleged gang members to a slave labor prison in El Salvador despite having presented no evidence the Venezuelan men are gang members, and using a war powers act that's well over 200 years old, despite the fact that we're not at war with Venezuela:

https://truthout.org/articles/bondi-says-trump-will-defy-judge-continue-deportations/

"Bondi Says Trump Will Defy Judge, Continue Deportations"

"In a court filing, the ACLU and Democracy Forward accused the administration of a “blatant violation” of the restraining order, as senior Trump administration officials openly dismissed the order. Vice President J.D. Vance bragged about the forced transfers on X, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio retweeted a post by El Salvador President Nayib Bukele that mocked the judge’s decision, saying, “Oopsie… Too late,” alongside a laughing emoji."

Okay so that's Vice President JD Vance, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio; let's take a look at what other high-level, official representatives of the Trump administration have to say about the situation and the government's intentions:

US Attorney General Pam Bondi:

“These are foreign terrorists, that the president has identified them, and designated them as such, and we will continue to follow the Alien Enemies Act [AEA].”

“You know, this one federal judge again thinks he can control foreign policy for the entire country, and he cannot.”

WH Deputy Chief of Staff (and noted white supremacist) Steven Miller:

“It is without doubt the most unlawful order a judge has issued in our lifetimes.”

“A district court judge has no authority to direct the national security operations of the executive branch. The president has operated the absolute apex of his constitutional authority,” he continued."

WH press secretary Karoline Leavitt:

"“[F]ederal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the President’s conduct of foreign affairs, his authorities under the Alien Enemies Act, and his core Article II powers to remove foreign alien terrorists from U.S. soil and repel a declared invasion.”

U.S. “border czar” Tom Homan:

“We’re not stopping.”

“I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the Left thinks. We’re coming.”

Folks, these' aren't fascist YouTubers or Fox News media hosts, these are officially designated representatives and officials in the actual Trump administration. They aren't saying these things as a matter of personal opinion, they are speaking on behalf of the Trump regime in an official capacity, even when they're appearing on Fox. It is blatantly irresponsible for corporate media muppets to pretend this fascist nonsense is all something Trump *might* try to do, just because nobody knows if these nazis are actually going to get away with it. He *is* trying it, the US government under Trump's official position is that the president has the power to ignore laws and courts that interfere with his self-identified mandate to "save America." We can debate whether or not he'll get away with it, but the regime has made its intentions clear and the American people deserve to know that. It's not good enough to report Trump's actions and discuss the potential motivations behind them, while treating what regime officials openly say as a separate story. These things are intimately related and they should be presented as such.