10 Things That Should Never Happen in a Democracy — But Are Under Trump

The price tag for dismantling democracy? $150 billion in taxpayer funds—and Congress is ready to pay it

1. Arresting Public Officials for Defending Civil Rights

When local leaders are punished for standing up to federal overreach, democracy itself is under attack. That’s exactly what happened when Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan were detained after challenging the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Baraka was arrested while demanding answers about a billion-dollar detention contract in New Jersey; Dugan was taken into custody after protecting the rights of immigrants in her courtroom. These actions weren’t about public safety—they were about silencing dissent and criminalizing solidarity. By targeting public officials who act as a last line of defense for vulnerable communities, the Trump administration is sending a chilling message: no one, not even those sworn to uphold the law, is safe from retaliation if they stand in the way.

2. Threatening to Suspend Habeas Corpus

In a democracy, no principle is more sacred than the right to challenge unlawful detention. Yet Stephen Miller has publicly stated that the Trump administration is considering suspending habeas corpus—not just for immigrants, but for anyone they deem a threat. Such a move would eliminate centuries of legal precedent and open the door to indefinite detention without charges or trial. The Constitution explicitly protects against this kind of abuse, but under Trump, authoritarian impulses are being openly normalized. The mere suggestion of ending habeas corpus should spark a constitutional crisis. Instead, it’s being floated as a policy option—proof that the administration no longer sees legal rights as inviolable, but as obstacles to be swept aside.

3. Using the Alien Enemies Act to Disappear People

A 1798 wartime law continues to be wielded to justify some of the most draconian actions in modern U.S. history. The Trump administration is invoking the Alien Enemies Act to forcibly remove people to foreign prisons with no charges, no hearings, and no access to legal counsel. Many are being sent to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison, where reports of torture, indefinite detention, and forced disappearances are well documented. By resurrecting this wartime statute, the administration is creating a parallel system of extrajudicial punishment that bypasses all due process. This isn’t immigration enforcement—it’s state-sponsored disappearance, cloaked in secrecy and funded by taxpayers.

4. Stonewalling the Courts

The Trump administration isn’t just breaking the law—it’s actively defying it. In multiple cases, including that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father wrongfully deported to El Salvador, federal courts have ordered the government to comply with the law and bring people home. But instead of respecting judicial authority, the administration has ignored rulings, withheld information, and refused to cooperate. This kind of stonewalling undermines the entire legal system. In a functioning democracy, the executive branch is accountable to the courts. Under Trump, it acts as if it’s above them—eroding the checks and balances that prevent authoritarian rule in the United States.

5. Challenging Birthright Citizenship

For over a century, the 14th Amendment has guaranteed that anyone born on U.S. soil is a citizen. Now, Trump-aligned lawyers are asking the Supreme Court to undo that foundational right. Their argument? That children born to undocumented parents don’t deserve citizenship—a radical reinterpretation that would create a permanent underclass of second-generation stateless people. The administration so far has refused to defend this extreme position on its legal merits, instead asking the Supreme Court to lift the nationwide injunction and allow the policy to take effect in parts of the country which would create a chaotic, fragmented state-by-state citizenship system. Legal scholars from across the spectrum have called the case unconstitutional, racist, and a threat to civil society. If successful, it would unravel the bedrock promise of equality under the law and invite open discrimination against millions. It’s not just a legal argument—it’s a political attack on the very idea of who gets to be American.

6. Targeting U.S. Citizens and Lawful Residents

Trump’s dragnet doesn’t stop at undocumented immigrants—it’s sweeping up lawful permanent residents, DACA recipients, and even U.S. citizens. In Virginia, a naturalized U.S. citizen was held at gunpoint on his way to work. In Louisiana, three U.S. citizen children–one with an advanced and rare form of cancer–were isolated and forcibly removed from the country. These aren’t isolated mistakes—they’re systemic consequences of an agenda that prioritizes fear over facts. The administration has dismantled enforcement priorities that once protected legal residents from arbitrary arrest, and ICE is now operating with impunity. When citizens and legal residents are treated like criminals, constitutional protections mean nothing.

7. Stripping Children Of Legal Protections

Trump’s war on children is not just policy—it’s a campaign of deliberate cruelty. From forcing 11-year-olds like Jocelynn Rojo Carranza to live in fear until it turns fatal, to attempting to strip 26,000 unaccompanied minors of legal aid, the administration is engineering a system where migrant children are isolated, unrepresented, and pushed toward deportation with no due process. By gutting oversight, detaining children for weeks, and labeling them “public safety threats,” Trump is turning a bureaucracy into a weapon—one that punishes kids for seeking refuge and terrorizes families into silence.

8. Criminalizing Humanitarian Aid

Since returning to office, the Trump administration has launched an aggressive campaign against humanitarian aid and legal protections. ICE has ramped up raids and targeted those accused of "harboring" undocumented people—including the owners of a South Texas bakery who were prosecuted for providing shelter. The administration attempted to cut legal aid for unaccompanied children, a move blocked by federal courts, and has revoked humanitarian protections like Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for several countries, putting hundreds of thousands at risk of deportation. Globally, the administration has targeted or dismantled over 90% of USAID and State Department humanitarian programs, with aid increasingly wielded as leverage to pressure foreign governments into complicity.

9. White Supremacy Through Immigration Policy

The Trump administration’s immigration agenda is not just xenophobic—it’s openly rooted in white nationalist ideology. While slashing protections for Black and brown migrants from Haiti, Central America, and Africa, the administration has quietly expedited the resettlement of white South Africans—many of whom lack any verified claim to persecution. As Trump himself reportedly said, “If it was up to [Stephen] Miller, there would be only 100 million people in this country, and they would all look like Mr. Miller.” That chilling admission lays bare the vision driving this agenda: a whiter, smaller America where belonging is determined by race, not rights. Through refugee bans, asylum denials, TPS terminations, and selective admissions, the administration is using policy to reshape the nation’s demographics—eroding equal protection and attacking the foundational idea that America belongs to all.

10. Asking Congress to Fund It All

The Trump administration is poised to receive an additional $150 billion through the House’s reconciliation bill, which would turbocharge the amount of detention camps, foreign prisons, mass surveillance, and militarized raids that have already disappeared children, legal residents, and even U.S. citizens without due process. This funding wouldn’t lower costs or improve safety—it would defund critical community programs like Medicaid in favor of entrenching a disappearing state that operates beyond the reach of the courts and the Constitution. For the same price, Congress could fund Head Start for over a decade, guarantee children’s health insurance, or provide free school meals nationwide.

This is the defining choice before Congress: Will they invest in care—or in cruelty? In safety—or in surveillance? Trump has made his priorities clear. Now it’s up to lawmakers to decide whether they’ll underwrite the destruction of democracy—or defend it.