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Office Hours: Where will Trump’s war on his opponents lead?

Robert Reich · Robert Reich · last updated

Even before anyone knows what motivated Charlie Kirk’s killer, Trump and his lackeys are intensifying their attack on the “radical left,” by which they mean virtually all of their political opponents.

Trump says 95-year-old billionaire philanthropist George Soros “should be in jail” — baselessly accusing the Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor and founder of the nonprofit Open Society Foundation of funding protesters and demonstrations against the Trump administration.

Trump also asserts that the loosely aligned group of left-wing protesters known as “antifa” — a shortening of anti-fascist — should be designated a “terrorist organization.”

Reportedly, the White House is also planning to review the tax-exempt status of left-leaning nonprofit groups and use anti-racketeering (RICO) laws against them.

The goal, according to administration officials, is to target groups suspected of going after conservatives or causes conservatives support — including attacks on Tesla showrooms earlier this year, as well groups retaliating against law enforcement carrying out Trump’s deportation campaign. The regime is considering categorizing such perpetrators as domestic terrorists.

JD Vance is calling for anyone celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death to be fired from their job.

Attorney General Pam Bondi says she’ll “come after those who engage in hate speech,” explaining:

“There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech. And there’s no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie [Kirk], in our society … We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.”

We’re getting deeper into what I described Monday as Phase 2 of Trump’s war on his opposition, using Charlie Kirk’s murder as pretext.

So where will this lead? Three views:

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