Unfortunately, despite the mounting evidence that the rule of law isn't even remotely going to stop Trump and his fascist agenda, there will still be a lot of Very Serious PeopleTM who simply refuse to believe their "lyin' eyes." In my experience there is often something about the affluent American liberal mindset that seems to make it impossible for many of them to even engage with the idea that powerful people working together can, and will, ignore the rules for their own benefit if there's nobody capable of enforcing them. Coupled with the fact that they're often high on elitist propaganda about "the madness of crowds," they will state that it's too early to be thinking about rising up to oppose the fascist state, and come up with all sorts of complicated reasons why the rule of law and the Constitution will prevail, even as Trump openly ignores all legal challenges to his authority. Over the past few days alone I've been told that "nobody is above the law," "SCOTUS will stop Trump if he violates the Constitution," and "the president might be immune, but that doesn't mean Trump's flunkeys in government are," for example. While I have neither the time, nor the desire to go over every possible objection folks who're looking for an excuse not to act can come up with, I'm just going to leave a few links here to demonstrate why really-existing, observable reality strongly suggests their faith in the system's ability to hold is almost certainly misplaced.

Here's a 6-3 fascist high Supreme Court of the United States ruling that so long as he's acting as the President, Trump is literally above the law - and then reserving the right for themselves to determine what the hell is and isn't an official act:

brennancenter.org/our-work/ana… & truthout.org/articles/the-supr…

Here's Trump pardoning a bunch of fascists who tried to storm the US capitol as part of an organized coup (or autogolpe if you prefer) to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, despite their convictions in court for those activities:

commondreams.org/news/jan-6-pa… & bbc.com/news/articles/cjw4vjvl… & aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/23/t…

Here's Trump pardoning coup plotters in and around his regime before he left office the first time:

usatoday.com/story/news/politi…

And here's Trump pardoning corrupt friends of his just for shits and giggles:

msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/m…

Naturally, some folks will point out that federal pardons don't circumvent the rulings of state courts, but I think you have to be pretty naïve to suggest that there are a lot of people in state judiciaries eager to go toe to toe with a fascist Trump regime that's already got SCOTUS on its side, and their power to really impede the America First fascist agenda is quite limited in scope anyway. It's all fine and dandy to shout "no one is above the law," but in the really real world we have to acknowledge that it really doesn't matter if Trump is "wrong" when he says he's untouchable, if literally nobody wants to risk it, or is in a position to actually enforce those laws.

All of which is not to say we as a people have to meekly accept a fascist dictatorship because nobody in the American establishment will stop it; just that waiting around for the referee to make Trump start playing by the rules is an extremely shortsighted, objectively terrible idea. All governments, even those that don't make any pretense of being democratic, rule by the consent of the people - it's just a question of how hard you're willing to fight to force them to realize that.

In a story that's not really making many waves in the US media because transphobia, transmisogyny, and hating incarcerated people are all bipartisan establishment positions, the Trump administration is also transferring incarcerated trans women to men's prisons; despite the fact that it's both illegal, and multiple judges have issued restraining orders to prevent the regime from doing so:

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/m…

Trans women transferred to men’s prisons despite rulings against Trump’s order

"Transgender women incarcerated in the US prison system have been transferred to men’s facilities under Donald Trump’s executive order, despite multiple court rulings blocking the president’s policy, according to civil rights lawyers and accounts from behind bars.

Trump’s day-one “gender ideology” order, one of several sweeping attacks on trans rights, said the attorney general “shall ensure that males are not detained in women’s prisons or housed in women’s detention centers” and that no federal funds go to gender-affirming treatment or procedures for people in custody.

The executive order was quickly challenged in court. In three lawsuits filed on behalf of trans women housed in women’s prisons, federal judges have ruled that the US Bureau of Prisons (BOP) cannot withhold their medical treatment and was barred from moving them to men’s facilities. One judge said the plaintiffs had “straightforwardly demonstrated that irreparable harm will follow."

Lawyers fighting Trump’s directive say the court rulings prevented the transfers of 17 trans women who are plaintiffs in the cases, but others not included in the litigation are now facing placements in men’s facilities."

In case you're missing the shell game going on here, the Trump administration is pretending that only the 17 specific trans women mentioned in the cases to block this cruel fuckery are covered, while simply going ahead to target other trans women who are not specifically mentioned in the court orders. Not only is this an abnormal, malicious violation of the spirit of the judge's orders, but it's also literally straight up illegal:

"Prisons are required under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (Prea), a longstanding federal law, to screen incarcerated people for sexual assault risk and consider LGBTQ+ status when making housing decisions. Legal experts say Trump’s blanket policy of housing trans women in men’s facilities clearly violates Prea."

This is a hard story to read, because it demonstrates a pattern of pointless, wonton cruelty towards trans women by Trump's Bureau of Prisons; in addition to moving trans women to men only facilities that put them in very real danger, the BOP has also issued *orders* for guards to deadname prisoners and use incorrect pronouns, change their gender markers on official forms, deny requests for gender appropriate clothing, and to allow male guards to pat down trans women prisoners. Furthermore because this administration (and some would say, American society) hates trans women more than they like ice cream, nobody is making any effort here to prevent abuses that would seemingly go even beyond Trump's fascist executive order. There are already reports of male guards "groping" trans women prisoners, prison officials seizing the bras and underwear of trans women prisoners like they were contraband, threats to force detransition incarcerated trans women by denying their hormone therapy, and even one report that a woman who had gender-affirming surgeries before her incarceration, being moved to a men's prison. As one lawyer noted, this "is essentially sanctioning sexual assault in some instances."

Of course, given that trans people represent a microscopic minority inside the U.S. population, and 17 trans women are being protected by temporary restraining orders, only a small number of trans women are subject to what I'd describe as a form of psychological torture and the constant threat of violence; perhaps that's why the US political and media establishment in the "opposition" doesn't care, rather than their well established indifference towards trans lives, if not outright transphobia. I would however argue that the fact that the Trump administration is plowing ahead to target such a small number of trans women demonstrates that this isn't about safety or the rule of law; the cruelty is indeed the point, and a Trump regime that cares little about malnourished children, seniors living check to check on social security, or American workers, is clearly prepared to move heaven and earth to make existence so intolerable for trans women that they simply stop existing.

#Fascism #Trump #PoliceState #TransRights #BureauOfPrisons #Cruelty #SexualAssault #transmisogyny #USPol #PreaAct