Trump’s war on the world begins at home and ends with a trope
Only recognising the true “enemy from within” will make American great again
For years Donald Trump has spread the lie that the greatest threat to the United States is anything other than the hateful MAGA movement he fomented that is now veering openly towards fascism.
Last week’s appearance alongside Pete Hegseth before senior US generals underscored that reality in chilling detail. The rhetoric, including references to the “enemy from within” was that of a demented, would-be autocrat.
His language is intentional. In that speech to the generals, he cast political opponents as enemies of the people and hinted that disloyalty within the ranks would not be tolerated.
Words have power, and these words are the quiet prelude to violence. A nation that turns its war machine inward, that trains its gaze on its own citizens, is a nation preparing to devour itself.
The Department of Defense is now officially the “Department of War”. Far from being a historic nod to its pre-1949 title, as Trump sends the military into more and more American cities the change feels like a statement of intent: the machinery of state is being psychologically repositioned for internal conflict rather than foreign defense.
Caps emblazoned with “Trump 2028” are a deliberate testing of boundaries, a soft launch of the idea that constitutional limits no longer apply to him. Beware those who preach loyalty to a man over loyalty to the constitution. Running for a third term would be unlawful under the Twenty-Second Amendment. Trump knows it. His base knows it. The point is to normalise the unacceptable before attempting it outright.
Fascism does not declare itself at the outset. It creeps through changes to rules, language, and public perceptions that lead people to accept the abnormal as normal, or resistance as futile.
Hitler did not seize Germany in an instant. He was appointed Chancellor following the Nazi Party’s electoral success, then spent years hollowing out democratic institutions while claiming to protect the nation from imaginary threats. By the time external war was unleashed, he had already subdued his political opposition and consolidated power domestically.
Trump’s movement has adopted the same playbook: vilify minorities, undermine the press, hollow out institutions, discredit elections, and turn the machinery of government against political opponents.
Will American institutions hold? That depends on the willingness of true Americans who stand by their constitution to defend them. Courts, legislatures, and the press rely on citizens recognising the danger before it arrives fully formed.
Make no mistake, the true danger is Trump and MAGA. The telltale sign they are dangerous is that they target immigrants and other minorities, the perennial scapegoats of authoritarians who seek to distract and divide to avoid accountability and cement their positions of power.
The danger is not yet marching across the border. For now, at least, it is standing at the podium preaching hatred, openly plotting the consolidation of power.
The enemy within America is the man inciting generals to go to war against their own people. It is the movement selling hats for a third term president the constitution forbids. It is an ideology that feeds on fear and ignorance, wrapped in a flag to make it seem palatable.
No one is coming to save America from itself. Its salvation depends on the courage of its citizens to demand the truth and peacefully resist creeping fascism.
The question now is not whether America can survive Trump. It’s whether America can survive MAGA’s would-be fascists. No amount of control is ever enough for these hollowed-out husks of human beings because no amount of lies can ever change the truth. No amount of cruelty can withstand kindness. No amount of force can subdue a good man’s conscience.
He who seeks to rule through fear is weak. He who seeks to rule by edict is powerless. History is replete with examples of weak men killing each other in pursuit of power in the vein hope they might, if only for a moment, feel strong. Forever chasing glory at the expense of it.
And to what end? Instead of writing a story to look back on fondly at the end of one’s life there is the pathological desire to etch a legacy in stone. Much ink has been spilled over Trump and MAGA. In the end it all amounts to nothing more than the same old, tired trope of weak men trying to prove they are worth remembering, and doing everything they can to suppress the knowledge that they will, in the fullness of time, become like all the other kings and tyrants before them — a footnote in history few will ever bother to read and which the few who do would rather soon forget.
Jonathan Meddings is an author and advocate from Melbourne, Australia.
