Iran’s protesters are marching through live ammunition, risking death for the simple act of demanding dignity. They have no First Amendment, no constitutional armor, no legal guarantee that the state won’t crush them under its boot. And yet the United States — a country that tear‑gassed peaceful citizens so Donald Trump could wave a Bible like a man showing off a stolen souvenir — has the audacity to lecture Tehran about human rights.
The Lafayette Square assault remains the Rosetta Stone of American hypocrisy. On June 1, 2020, federal officers violently cleared peaceful protesters from the park so a contractor could install fencing — at least according to the Interior Department’s inspector general. The timing, however, was so convenient it practically winked. The fencing contractor was already waiting. Attorney General Barr urged officials to “speed up the process” once Trump decided he wanted his little march. The Park Police commander later said he was “stunned” when Barr told him Trump was coming through the area. The official story — that this was all just an innocent, pre‑planned landscaping project — had the structural integrity of wet cardboard.
And then came the photo‑op: Trump holding a Bible - upside down - in front of St. John’s Church like a man who’d never seen one before but was determined to convince the world he’d skimmed the back cover. The entire scene was so contrived it could have been storyboarded by a committee of raccoons. Tear gas, rubber bullets, mounted charges — all so he could stand there for five minutes and pretend to be Moses descending from the mountain instead of a man who needed a crowd of peaceful citizens violently removed so he could get a picture.
That was the opening salvo. The National Guard deployments that followed were a masterclass in authoritarian cosplay. Trump sent troops into Los Angeles after immigration sweeps sparked protests, with Guard units and Marines deployed to “protect federal facilities” while police fired tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash‑bangs into crowds. In Chicago, protesters chanted “Donald Trump, you stupid clown; ICE ain’t welcome in this town” as National Guard troops patrolled the streets in his so‑called crime crackdown. In Los Angeles again, Trump deployed 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines during ICE raids, prompting California’s governor Gavin Newsome to call it “a serious breach of state sovereignty.” The Guard rolled into cities where the most dangerous thing happening was someone handing out bottled water.
And then there’s ICE, aka the ICEstapo, because if the jackboot fits, lace it up. Tear gas and pepper spray have been deployed repeatedly against peaceful protesters, including in Minneapolis, where federal agents used chemical agents and point‑blank pepper spray on demonstrators protesting the Jonathan Ross’ murder of Renee Nicole Good. Videos show officers rolling down windows to spray protesters directly in the face. Days of protests followed, with tear gas and pepper spray filling the streets while thousands marched against the administration’s immigration crackdown. NBC News reported that thousands of ICE and Border Patrol personnel were sent to Minnesota, where tear gas and pepper spray were used in confrontations with protesters.
The killing of Renee Good itself became a national flashpoint. More than 1,000 protests were expected across the country, according to CBC reporting, after the White House claimed Good had “weaponized” her SUV — a narrative Minneapolis’s mayor called “garbage” and multiple videos proved absolute horseshit. The city was “on edge,” according to Channel News Asia, as masked federal officers used tear gas and pepper balls on peaceful demonstrators outside an immigration court.
And then there’s Kristi Noem, who has turned narrative‑shifting into a competitive sport. After Good’s killing, Noem immediately defended the ICE agent and accused Good — a U.S. citizen — of “domestic terrorism,” according to USA Today’s reporting on her department’s statement. When pressed by CNN’s Jake Tapper about why DHS released such a statement within hours, she doubled down, insisting her department’s version was “absolutely” correct — even as local officials disputed key details and protests erupted nationwide. The Independent reported that Noem also criticized New York officials for condemning the shooting, accusing them of “provocative language” while she herself defended the officer who killed an unarmed woman. The story changed depending on the audience. The facts did not.
Meanwhile, the crackdown on pro‑Palestinian student activists has been a masterclass in authoritarian creep. Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent U.S. resident and Columbia Ph.D. student, was arrested after DHS claimed he was a key organizer of the campus encampment, according to Yahoo News reporting. He was held in a Louisiana detention center while the government tried to deport him. Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish Fulbright scholar, was seized by masked ICE agents in an unmarked SUV, vanished for nearly a day, and reappeared in a Louisiana ICE facility. A federal judge later ordered her release, but not before the public saw the footage of six masked men grabbing a scholar off the street. During a trial examining whether these arrests were politically motivated, a federal judge asked government attorneys why the agents were masked. “The common sense inference is that that is to spread fear,” the judge said, according to Courthouse News Service reporting. Four DHS agents testified that the orders were “highly unusual,” and one even contacted a DHS lawyer to confirm they were legal, Politico reported.
The government’s explanations shifted like a drunk trying to talk his way out of a traffic stop. First these students were “security threats.” Then they had “visa issues.” Then the arrests were “not about activism.” The story changed every time the public reaction grew louder.
And through all of this, Trump has continued calling journalists, protesters, students, and political opponents “terrorists,” “lunatics,” and “enemies of the state” — the same language he uses for hostile foreign actors. When a leader uses identical terminology for domestic dissenters and international threats, the line between policing and persecution becomes a rumor.
Iran’s protesters are fighting for rights they do not have. America’s protesters are fighting to keep rights they are supposed to be guaranteed. And the man who tear‑gassed Lafayette Square now wants to play global savior for the oppressed? It’s a cosmic joke — a roaring, neon‑lit, Hunter‑Thompson‑grade joke — that the man who treats peaceful Americans like enemy combatants claims to be the defender of freedom abroad.
And if readers think this hypocrisy is bad, they should stay tuned. Because the next piece will dive into what’s happening right now in Minnesota — where ICE has killed an American citizen, protests are rising, and Trump is once again threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act. For years he has been deploying the Guard, unleashing ICEstapo raids, disappearing people without due process, blowing up boats claiming they were carrying drugs, and picking fights with Greenland and Canada — all while inching closer to the moment he could claim “riots” and cancel or postpone elections. That story is coming. And it’s uglier than anyone wants to admit.
Add comment
Comments