“Strengthening and Unleashing America’s Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens,” is more than the violent fever dream Trump described during his campaign. It’s the name of his executive order, signed on April 28, 2025.
Trump intends to “maximize” federal resources for prison capacity, sentences for “crimes” against cops, “aggressive” policing, and law enforcement pay, training, and access to military and national security tools. Aligning with prior calls to “indemnify” the police, Trump wants to offer free resources to cops accused of wrongdoing, and officials promoting “DEI initiatives” prosecuted.
Political commentator Elie Mystal noted the likelihood of Trump violating the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars presidents from using the military as a domestic police force under martial law. But Trump has defied federal courts already.
We’ve seen years of increasing police militarization. Suing individual cops is already an uphill climb. Reforms put band-aids on the bloodbath of policing instead of uprooting the system. What happens if they collapse entirely?
Trump claims to want “a law-abiding society in which … American communities are safely enjoyed by all their citizens again.” But who gets to be safe? And who are his “citizens”? These questions aren’t hypothetical or rhetorical. We cannot trust a status quo or law to protect us when historically it hasn’t. If the law means little to us, it means even less to him.