A Trumped Up Police State Is Coming

The Intercept Briefing

The Intercept

Politics, Daily News, History, News

4.8 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Donald Trump’s all-caps executive order on policing — “STRENGTHENING AND UNLEASHING AMERICA’S LAW ENFORCEMENT TO PURSUE CRIMINALS AND PROTECT INNOCENT CITIZENS” – is less about policy and more about intent. And that intent is clear: To give Trump direct control over local law enforcement and further shield police from accountability.

As journalist and author of “Rise of the Warrior Cop” Radley Balko puts it, “It’s a statement of intent and whether or not Trump is able to do a lot of the more pernicious and unconstitutional things he wants to do.”

The executive order calls for “military and national security assets” to assist in local policing, directs federal resources and protections for state and local law enforcement, and enhances police protections, among other proclamations. But it reflects a deeper ambition.

“He wants more federal militarized law enforcement under his thumb instead of under the thumb of governors or mayors,” says Balko. “He wants to use them to help with immigration deportations. He wants help with cracking down on protest.” And the concern and fear, says Balko, is that Trump will also “use law enforcement to go after his critics and people he perceives to be his enemies.”

This week on The Intercept Briefing, Balko joins senior reporter Akela Lacy and host Jessica Washington to break down the Trump administration’s push to federalize local law enforcement and “unleash” police who already face minimal meaningful restraint.

Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

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Transcript

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0:31.7	Welcome to the Intercept Briefing. I'm Jessica Washington.
0:39.5	See, we have to let the police do their job, and if they have to be extraordinarily rough.
0:45.7	That's Donald Trump, speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania last October.
0:50.0	One rough hour, and I mean real rough, the word will get out and it will end immediately.
0:58.0	Trump called for one really violent day, a moment where law enforcement is not just empowered, but unleashed to fight crime.
1:06.0	It's a common theme for the president to quote-unquote, unleash law enforcement from restraint on the
1:11.7	public. But it's not just campaign rhetoric. Last week, he signed a new executive order
1:17.3	signaling just that. It's called the strengthening and unleashing America's law enforcement
1:23.2	to pursue criminals and protect innocent citizens. Obviously, the irony here is that Trump himself has skirted accountability
1:30.5	for the dozens of criminal charges he faced before being elected president.
1:35.7	Nonetheless, what exactly does it mean to unleash law enforcement
1:39.7	in a country where police already face few meaningful restraints?
1:45.5	And what does Trump's vision of policing reveal about how he plans to wield power?
1:53.0	Joining me today to break it all down is Radley Balco, a journalist who spent decades covering
1:59.2	the criminal legal system, police militarization, and civil liberties.
2:04.0	He's the author of numerous books, including Rise of the Warrior Cop, and a forthcoming podcast with The Intercept called Collateral Damage about the War on Drugs.
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