You’re on their menu
There’s that thing dogs do when they see or hear something that’s “off,” something they can’t immediately recognize. They cock their heads to one side and get a puzzled look. Baroo, they call it.
Sadly, we are not as attuned as dogs and usually let odd statements go by without a second thought. Later, maybe.
Olivia Troye, former Mike Pence national security advisor, had her ears prick up for you on Monday during Donald Trump’s Oval Office meeting with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador. Trump used a word that her ears caught when he said of jailing more people in El Salvador: “The homegrowns are next.”
She writes:
I’ve worked in the rooms where these conversations happen. I know how this administration talks behind closed doors. When Trump uses the word “homegrown,” he’s not pulling it out of thin air. That kind of language signals internal planning is already in motion. It’s the next step in a rhetorical evolution we’ve seen before: “domestic terrorists,” “traitors,” “treason.” Words chosen to justify extreme actions. Words that blur the line between political dissent and national security threats.
Trump doesn’t throw around words like “homegrown” lightly. Moments later, in that same press conference, he linked “homegrown criminals” to the very Americans he’s suggesting could be sent to prison in a foreign country. In his worldview, terms like homegrown, criminals, and domestic threats appear to be interchangeable. And once you’ve been labeled this way, the constitutional protections you’re entitled to as an American begin to disappear.
This is a five-alarm fire.
This is the pattern: speak out, and you’re labeled disloyal. Get in their way, and you’re cast as a criminal. Dissent is no longer disagreement. It’s being redefined as treason. It’s being recoded as terrorism. You don’t have to connect many dots here. The logic is unfolding in plain sight. Critics become traitors. Dissent becomes terrorism. Americans become enemies of the state. And if you’re a legal permanent resident, or even a citizen with the wrong name, wrong politics, or wrong profile, you may be next in line. This isn’t just a shift in language; it’s a signal of where the machinery is headed.
There is no legal justification for deporting U.S. citizens. Natural-born Americans are protected by the Constitution, including the right to due process, legal counsel, and judicial review. The fact that this administration is floating the idea anyway tells you everything you need to know about how far they’re willing to go.
This isn’t incompetence. This is intention. It’s happening by design, Stephen Miller’s design, a deliberate plan to sidestep the legal system and weaponize immigration law against U.S. citizens. It’s an extremist blueprint masquerading as policy.
I meant to offer something moreup lifting for my second post this morning. Then I came across Troye’s post on Threads. So, I’m a bit unnerved.
I meant to include more about the record crowds Sen. Bernie Sanders are drawing on their “Fight Oligarchy” tour. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Idaho last night put it bluntly: Donald Trump is a criminal.” Except they should rename their tour to what we are really fighting now.
Update:
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