The political logic of Trump's violent lawlessness
Jan 29, 2026
The Boston Globe article by Prof. Timothy Snyder.
"The moral horror wrought by President Trump's second term is incontrovertible...the aspiring tyrant looks for cracks in the system that can be pried open. One of these cracks is the border, where the country ends.
Because the law ends there, too, an obvious move for the tyrant is to turn the whole country into a border, where no rules apply. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin did this in the 1930s, with border zones and deportations preceding the Great Terror.
Adolph Hitler did it too, in 1938 Germany, with immigration raids that targeted undocumented Jews and forced them to flee the country. Trump, by his own admission, and that of his Cabinet members, is following the same playbook...
The border becomes the pretext to undo the law everywhere, at all times, and against anyone. It is the crack that can be opened."
Edited. Read the entire article in the Boston Globe.
The Boston Globe article by Prof. Timothy Snyder.
"The moral horror wrought by President Trump's second term is incontrovertible...the aspiring tyrant looks for cracks in the system that can be pried open. One of these cracks is the border, where the country ends.
Because the law ends there, too, an obvious move for the tyrant is to turn the whole country into a border, where no rules apply. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin did this in the 1930s, with border zones and deportations preceding the Great Terror.
Adolph Hitler did it too, in 1938 Germany, with immigration raids that targeted undocumented Jews and forced them to flee the country. Trump, by his own admission, and that of his Cabinet members, is following the same playbook...
The border becomes the pretext to undo the law everywhere, at all times, and against anyone. It is the crack that can be opened."
Edited. Read the entire article in the Boston Globe.
