Letter to the editor: Standing up to Trump’s power grab — peacefully

Dear editor, 

Donald Trump accidentally posted what he intended to be a private message to Attorney General Pam Bondi to his Truth Social account a bit over two weeks ago. 

He had previously fired Erik Siebert, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, who he himself had appointed to his position because Siebert refused to prosecute Trump’s political enemies—James Comey, Letisha James, and Adam Schiff. Trump’s Truth Social post demanded that Bondi hire Lindsey Halligan to replace Siebert so that she could prosecute his enemies. Bondi hired Halligan, and Halligan indicted Comey and James on evidence so flimsy that she couldn’t get any of the prosecutors working under her to sign off on the indictments. 

Trump has made it clear that he is weaponizing the Justice Department to go after his enemies, and just last week he called for Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to be jailed for resisting ICE’s invasion of Chicago.

Trump has also signed an executive order targeting antifa as well as a National Security Presidential Memorandum which he could abuse to arrest almost anyone on the left for thought crimes against his regime.

And this might not be the worst of it. Pete Hegseth recently ordered roughly 800 admirals and generals to Quantico Virginia to listen to his and Trump’s presentations. Trump gave a truly unhinged speech telling our top military officers that he expected them to back him in his fight against “the enemy within.” Trump said, “I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military – National Guard, but military. Because we’re going into Chicago very soon.” Trump’s speech was practically a declaration of war against the country’s Blue cities.

We are at a knife-edge in history. Will we let Trump consolidate power even further and plunge our country into an autocracy of the billionaire, by the billionaire, and for the billionaire? Or will we stand up and fight for our democracy (metaphorically speaking)?

Millions of people will rally in over 2100 protests across the country against the Trump regime’s destruction of the pillars of our democracy. 

There is a protest scheduled in Ithaca’s Washington Park on October 18 at 1 pm. Please check IndivisibleTompkins.org for more details.

I hope you attend, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep it peaceful! Donald Trump is looking for an excuse to invade Blue cities. Please don’t give it to him. Let’s keep the Eye of Sauron from falling upon us.

-Robin Messing, Ithaca