"American Cruelty: When Law Meets Lies"

In this administration, facts are more inconvenient than humane policy.

When I first met Donald J. Trump, he didn’t give two shits about immigration. Hell, he barely knew the difference between a visa and a MasterCard. Immigrants were housekeepers, drivers, dishwashers, his greens keepers and in his mind, disposable tools to fuel both his ego and empire. Fast forward to today, and suddenly he’s the second coming of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, peddling in xenophobia and serving up racist tropes with a side of policy brutality. And now? We’ve got another sadistic puppet joining the horror show; Tom Homan.

If Stephen Miller is the dark architect of America’s anti-immigrant Gestapo, then Homan is the iron-fisted foreman. A man so wrapped in his own delusion of righteousness that he’ll look directly at an injustice and call it law enforcement. He’s not just another face of cruelty; he’s the gnarled, twisted grin of American authoritarianism.

Let’s talk about the case of Abrego Garcia. Here’s a man who, despite a protective order and no active charges, showed up for his scheduled immigration check-in like a law-abiding soul; only to be designated as MS-13 and deported anyway. On what basis, you ask? An accusation made by a detective who was later fired. Let that sink in. A life upended, a family destroyed, a man branded as a terrorist based on nothing more than bad intel and bureaucratic cruelty.

And now, with a straight face, before the American people, Tom Homan refuses to call it a mistake. Why? Because in this administration, facts are more inconvenient than humane policy. What’s truth to a man who’s drunk on power and propaganda? Mistakes require humility. Mistakes require a sense of justice. Mistakes require admitting you’re fallible; three things the Trump brigade has never known.

This brings us to the Supreme Court’s 9-0 decision, which Trump now clings to like a toddler with a toy he doesn’t understand. “We will follow the ruling,” he says; great. But here’s the catch: interpretation. A ruling is only as good as the people implementing it. And when that interpretation is left in the hands of sycophants like Homan and Miller, we’re in dangerous territory.

The “Alien Enemies Act” has reentered the national conversation like a rotting corpse exhumed for political theater. Enacted in 1798, it allows the government to detain and deport any male over the age of 14 from a hostile nation during times of war. Sound familiar? Because Trump and his goons are now trying to reinterpret this ancient, bigoted relic into a modern-day bludgeon; weaponizing it against Latino immigrants, asylum seekers, and anyone who doesn’t fit the white nationalist mold.

Let’s call this what it is: state-sanctioned cruelty under the guise of order. And Tom Homan is the executioner with a badge. He’s the one now echoing Trump’s Orwellian slogan that “everything is being done humanely.” Yeah, and bears don’t shit in the woods. If you believe that, then I’ve got a Trump University diploma with your name on it.

This is the danger. When a government begins to lie with purpose, when it starts constructing a new reality for its base to gobble up, dissent becomes treason, and facts become threats. And trust me; I lived that reality. I watched as Trump turned conspiracy into currency, and fear into political capital. Now, he’s doing it again; but this time, on steroids!

The administration parades manipulated videos and cherry-picked “evidence” to justify deportations, detainments, and raids. They dare you to believe your lying eyes while feeding the public disinformation from the White House press podium. They don’t care that the informants in the Abrego Garcia case gave conflicting testimony. They don’t care that the detective behind it all was dismissed. They don’t care that the Department of Justice quietly tucked its tail between its legs, hoping no one noticed their screw-up after admitting it.

Because this is not about justice. It’s about vengeance. It’s about fear. It’s about turning brown bodies into political piñatas for Trump to smash while his cult of rage cheers on.

But here’s the most sickening part: I never thought I’d see Trump go this far. I spent over a decade and a half by his side; I was his fixer, his enabler, his confidant, and I never heard him speak about immigrants with such seething contempt. This isn’t the man I once knew. This is something else. Something darker. Someone else. He’s evolved; or rather devolved into a full-blown demagogue who sees cruelty not as a bug, but as a feature.

Tom Homan is simply following orders. Orders to ignore the Constitution. Orders to sidestep human rights. Orders to sell the American dream to the highest bidder, while demonizing those still foolish enough to believe in it.

This is how it starts. Not with tanks in the streets or barbed wire around voting booths, but with euphemisms like “enhanced enforcement” and “humane deportation.” It starts with indifference to truth and an obsession with obedience.

And if we don’t call it out; if we don’t say “this is wrong”, then one day, we’ll wake up and realize the country we thought we were living in never existed at all.

Because fascism doesn’t kick down the door; it gets invited in.

And Homan? He’s already rearranging the furniture.

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