An interesting development in the Balkans: a long time strong man is unhorsed for corruption

Both Viktor Orban and Aleksandar Vucic have something in common: Russian-leaning strongmen who were brought down because of the anger of their corruption. This is interesting. The Student LIST movement just ousted the current strongman Aleksandar Vucic in Serbia via parliamentary elections.. The List was angered by the collapse of a railway station canopy, which exposed government corruption and contracting incompetence.. It was about both that and student grievances against the government policies, as well as a Trump family deal. Yeah! We cheer another strongman bit the dust. Chalk one up for democracy. Well, democracy worked, but those supporting Vucic's fall were not necessarily more pro-West, either.

List's agenda wasn't about joining or not joining the EU or NATO.. List's demands ignored the EU issue and advocated military and national neutrality. Reuters believes neighboring Croatia and Montenegro, both NATO members, influenced the uprising and unhorsing of the Vucic government. Per a PBS report, students were also angered about the government's approval of a development by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, that would have removed an historic ruin dear to Serbian nationalists angered by US bombing of Belgrade in the Kosovo conflict (another Serbian/Muslim conflict).

Things are never simple in the Balkans, yet what happens there does not stay there, given its access to the Mediterranean, which Russia has always coveted, and a religious affinity with Russia orthodox church and culture,including a similar alphabet. Serbia had applied for membership in the EU, but it was de facto put on pause because a massive street gathering celebrated as a hero the death of a Bosnian Serb, Ratko Mladić, who was serving a life prison term in The Hague. The World Court found him guilty of leading the mass killing of

8 thousand men and boys who were Muslims from the Bosnian village of Srebrenica. The long-reigning Vucic government in Serbia opposed the public celebration of the “hero’s Mladic" funeral in mass demonstrations as Mladic's body was returned to Belgrade, Serbia, because of fears, rightly, that their application to the EU would be put on hold..

Also eye-raising last night on US TV was one of the leaders of Student List, the student movement bringing down the government, flashing a two-handed victory sign of the right-leaning Chetniks... a hyper-Serbian nationalist movement active even before world war 11..During World War II the Chetniks were the surviving royalists that had fought the Nazi's with the hope that the Serbian king would be restored to the throne. (Yugoslavia was formed in the wake of WW I with pasting together warring ethnic regions that had a Serbian king, a constitutional monarch, until the Nazi invasion of the country) . Student List appears to be more of a nationalistic movement than not; however, one can also hope that Serbian neutrality is better than being a Putin satellite.

The implications for peace in the Balkans are huge since Serbian history is one of closeness to Russia, and Putin has been trying to get more influence in that ethnically conflicted and heated cauldron. Their client state in Bosnia, the semi-autonomous Republika Srpska, just elected a pro-Putin government with the assistance of Trump’s own campaign operatives.

Felicia Muftic is a long-time close-up observer of the Balkans, since her visit as an ezchange student in Europe in the late 1950's, married for over 50 years to an immigrant from Croatia with close Bosnian roots. At Northwestern, her independent senior year study was on Balkan History, culture, and economies. Over the past 50 years, she has visited every corner of the former Yugoslavia, and the family has been involved in import and distribution from that area even today. She has also been involved in humanitarian aid post-civil war in the 1990s.

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/10/whose-side-is-trump-on-anyway-from.html

Iare Trump's policies toward Euroope finally facing reality? There are some welcomed. shoots of green.

Are Trump's policies toward Europe finally facing reality?  Trump's isolationist policies and disdain for Europe are chickens coming home to roost. It may portend a shift in policy and attitudes toward NATO, a realization that Putin is not his best buddy, and a coming to grips with reality.   Europe's change in attitude is also an unanticipated fallout from Trump's quagmire in Iran and from friends and foes alike following Trump's low polls at home. For some, it is a time to stand up to Trump's bullying and the opportunity to "kick him while he is down". 

A secret trip to Russia by the US CIA chief, rumors that Russia was planning to attack some NATO ally to take advantage of Trump's home and Iran troubles, and Canada, aggressively pushing back on Trump's tariff bullying, may be hitting Trump in the face. It could all result in some not-so-subtle, but welcome, US policy changes toward NATO and strengthen that alliance instead of weakening it.  Hopefully this means greater understanding by Trump that the fall of Ukraine or the neutering of NATO were matters of national security importance to the USA itself. Canada's pushback against Trump's tariff war may also signal and end to European leaders licking Trump's boots and showing their own stiffening backbone.  

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Jpdate: 8/30/2026:  There is a darker view of why the CIA director went in person to Moscow with an entourage of y CIA operatives. John Brennan, a former CIA director, on MSNOW this AM feared there was an attempt to carve out what Russia would get in a peace deal in trade for Russia stop helping Iran. The problemwhy that was a long shot secret deal is that Trump no longer has the cards to deal with Ukraine, having promised aid that has not been delivered in the face of Europe "stepping up to the plate" and Ukraine itself able to ue drones to take the war to deep inside Russia.  Ukraine, however, needs US anti missile defense to do more that just play tit for tat with Russia in their destructive attacks.  Putiin on the otherhand is also driven by the line he has fed his citizens that Uraine is part of mother Russia and he is not ready to throw in the towel yet.  We may never know unless if there is no change in what Trump is already doing, but if he makes public the "deal" is on the table.

 There are some events this week that need to be carefully monitored, in addition to Trump's signal earlier this month that he is beginning to understand that it was Ukraine that had the cards and was at least giving Russia as good as it got.  While weapons from the US had not yet been sent, the Trump regime signaled to Putin that the US was no longer playing footsies with Putin on Ukraine. https://www.csis.org/analysis/trump-administration-boosts-immediate-military-aid-deliveries-ukraine

Today we learned that Trump's CIA director had made a secret visit to Russia with a message. on NATO resolve and Iran. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/26/cia-russia-nato-moscow-ratcliffe-01051848  It appeared the USA got wind that Russia was planning an attack against the Baltics or Poland to take advantage of US preoccupation with Iran and public acknowledgment that the US had run through some very important weapon stockpiles.    The message delivered was that it appeared the US would trigger the mutual defense clause of NATO after all, and they underscored this with joint NATO military exercises with Poland. Europe has stepped up to the plate. Even Germany is significantly rearming itself.  If Putin had thought the US had abandoned  NATO, he should rethink that. 

Something not foreseen by Trump was the impact of his aggressive "tariff war" with Canada. Canada retaliated with its own tariffs against the US as it stood up to the bullying. This may also have inspired a change of heart in the EU.  Until now, France and others have played the game of flattery and subservience to Trump's anti-European posture, but Canada has shown a different way. The response from influential German magazine editors on Der Spiegel's Substack was that the time was right for Europe to also stand up to bully Trump, because he was showing weakness at home in a wide variety of polls, domestic issues, and the Iran war... European leaders have frequently preferred a strategy of kowtowing and ego-flattering in dealing with President Donald Trump. Canadian Premier Carney has taken the opposite tack. Europe should do the same.  The banner from Der Spiegel this morning read:

"DER SPIEGEL - The German View

It’s Time for Europe to Hit Trump While He’s Down

Marco Rubio comes close to endorsing a dictator updated 4/9/2026

4/9/26 And then Trump and Vance left no doubt that they not only endorsed Oban, but actively came to his aid as polls show he may lose the election this coming Sunday. Orban now enjoys the support of Putin and Trump...all the "best"people. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/watch-live-vance-speaks-in-hungary-on-trip-to-help-boost-orbans-reelection-bid

Rubio boosts Orbán's bid for another term during Budapest visit | PBS News

Viktor Orban has been described by many sources as a dictator and a neo fascist and has been held up as a darling by US right-wing conservatives (CPAC).

He also favors Putin's foreign policy, particularly as it pertains to Ukraine. Fellow European NATO members find him constantly out of step with their attempts to help Ukraine, and often have to use /workarounds to carve out their support for Ukraine. That Rubio would be endorsing him says much about Trump's love of dictators, a role his words and deeds reveal he aspires to join them, as well. As a Cuban-American, one would think Rubio understands why dictatorships are bad. I do not get him other than he has hitched his political ambitions wagon to Trump..

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: The Orban playbook and if it would work here

In her 2018 book Fascism: A Warning, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright identified Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as a leader exhibiting authoritarian, fascist-like tendencies. She categorized his actions—such as undermining the press, judiciary, and minorities—as part of a broader trend of anti-democratic behavior. (GOOGLE AI)

 

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: The Orban playbook and if it would work here

Trump and Putin: dividing up the world. Did you vote for this?

Update: 12/12/2025.In February 1945, at the Yalta conference, the US, UK, USSR, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met and came to an agreement that virtually divided the world into two and led to the Cold War for the next 45 years...The USSR claimed Eastern Europe as its sphere of influence, and the Iron Curtain descended within a few months. Roosevelt had died soon after Yalta. Trump is now telling Western Europe and Eastern Europe both, even they are in the sphere of Russian influence. There will be no help from the US. This takes us back to the early 1900s, even worse than the Yalta catastrophe. What happened in 1914 and 1939 was the result. Here we are again in 2025, repeating history. and the stupidity of the isolationists of the past century. Trump has succeeded in de facto destroying the NATO Atlantic alliance, a further echo and potential repeat of the tragedy of the last century. Scroll down for the original post and earlier updates..

Through various reports, Guardian among them, Trump is considering abandoning Ukraine. That is only one issue.. In a so-called American First ideology, Trump is cutting most ties with Western Europe as well. He has already been subverting NATO and its mutual defense purpose and now there is no burden sharing of armaments with Europe. NATO now only exists in issues of nuclear defense..Welcome to the 1938 version of America First.  How did that turn out?

The sad thing about this post is, like in 1938, American citizens did not give a darn of what happened in Europe, and America First isolationism held heavy political inflence is...until Pearl Harbor. The rest of historyis about is US's blood and treasure in World War II. I fear we are about to make the tremendous miscalculation that US defense is not also connected to Europe, with our economic ties and culture, even more entwined than in 1938. If war breaks out in Europe beyond the boundaries of Ukraine, just maybe the uneducated and naive American Firsters may wake up...when it is too late.

Trump is threatening Western Europe with repercussions if it funds Ukraine's defense with Russian funds in Western banks. In December, 2025, the EU defied American pressure and ensured that Hungary and Slovakia cannot veto their use of the funds to help Ukraine. EU triggers emergency clause to indefinitely immobilise Russian assets | Euronews

What Trump is in effect doing he is leaving the sphere of influence across the Atlantic to Russia by his own edict and orders. He recently shifted our Mediterranean fleet from Europe to near Venezuela..., indicating the US sphere of influence is solely the Western Hemisphere. Trump appears to demand Ukraine surrender to Russia's "peace plan" or "'else", terms that will eventually lead to Russia taking over all of that country. This is a striking spoken alliance of Trump and Putin, cutting out Western Europe. In 2026, Trump is laying the groundwork, many fear, to hand Ukraine on a silver platter to Russia, whose stated goal is to reassemble the USSR influence over the countries they lost when the Berlin Wall fell. This is not what America signed up for in 2024, but it is what Trump is actually doing by his actions, deeds, and words.

Back to days even I remember, WWII. It is also repeating history. It is the isolationism that led to WWII, as Japan and Germany thought and miscalculated on the US's resolve to remain isolated. Germany had counted on pro Nazi and American Firsters, who were US politicians, to influence its support for Germany or remain neutral. It is now like 1938 when the UK prime minister handed over part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler and proclaimed it was peace in our time.

Trump thinks he is a dictator and he can get away with this as Congress sleeps an/ord bows down to him, and any violation of laws and the Constitution is no longer punishable thanks to the gift of immunity by "his" 6-3 Supreme Court. What fools we are to tolerate this.

Europe also sees Trump and Putin's contempt of them, reinforcing Trump's disdain of Europe. From the German weekly magazine, Der Spiegel 12.20.2025 in a commentary titled" Trump and Putin, partners in malice."

"The tone Trump strikes toward Europe oscillates between pity, contempt and open hostility. .... "The Trump administration sometimes couches its criticism in the language of concern.......  In practice, though, this means the U.S. government is now officially supporting right-wing populist forces from Stockholm to Madrid. “Cultivating resistance” is the phrase used in the document – which, to the ears of European politicians, sounds suspiciously like regime change.." The article continues that NATO is no longer "burden sharing" with the US when it comes to provisions of armaments. NATO in effect is only sharing nuclear defense with US support, and now  Europe is on its own for assistance for non nuclear defense.  Earlier, Trump had threatened to destroy Article 5 of the NATO treaty  if Europe did not contribute at least 2% of their GDP to their own self defense (these are not "dues" as Trump had deceptively claimed, but a commitment). Europe rose to that and complied ...and exceeded the 2% so now Trump says...it is all 100% yours, on your own, no burden sharing. He has defacto succeeded in destroying the Atlantic alliance, in a repeat of the stupidity of the isolationists of the past century. I

Ukraine again. Trump brought it up in his address to the Israeli parliament with his usual BS

 Once again, Trump discussed Ukraine in a very public forum, prefacing his remarks with the usual attempt to excuse his not being able to end the conflict on day one. It is always: he is always claiming that if he, Trump, were president at the time, there would never have been a war. The rest of that sentence should be: it was because Ukraine was absorbed into Russia with his blessing.. The message to Putin would have been from Trump: it is ok, Vladimir, to keep on going to reassemble the boundaries of the old USSR influence, Putin's publicly stated goal, and we would not help stop you.

Update 10/30/2025: Watch what Trump does, not what he says. On Ukraine, Trump tries to show he is not Putin's patsy by sanctioning two oil companies...He seems to acknowledge that Putin only understands power, of the military kind. So what does Trump do: pulls out the aircraft carrier backing up \NATO in the Mediterranean and sends it to Venezuela, and then his fool of a Secretary of the Department of "war" announces he is reducing US troop forces in Eastern Europe, where there is a real raging war going on and Putin is the aggressor threat, lobbng drones into NATO members. Some messaging to Putin, eh, Trump?

Update 11/2/2025: Neither Putin nor Trump calculated this happening. From Putin's standpoint, the miscalculation is epic. Germany is arming itself to the teeth to transform Europe again

Continuing with original post:

We would now have been in a hot war within countries, Poland and the Baltics, which Russia wanted to grab..but who were NATO members...and the fighting would now be in Poland and the Baltics instead, destabilizing all of Europe. and the US would be directly involved. So when you hear Trump say there never would have been a war if he had been president, one reason the war has dragged on is his failure to come to the full aid of Ukraine sooner. Let us hope that Trump has learned a lesson: The only response to Putin's flattery and manipulation is the language of military force.

Update: 10/21/25 TACO again. Trump and Zelensky met/ Trump demanded that Ukraine give up territory in a land swap that did not recognize the current battle lines.. Now, Trump is claiming Ukraine will lose...and the way Trump is acting (doing nothing, just words), he is once again siding with Putin. In the meantime, Turkey, a NATO member, stepped up to the plate to ward off Russian probes into the Baltics. Russia Tests NATO Nerves — Turkey Responds     Update 10/22/25  TACO again: Update on the Budapest meeting. Called off. It appears that TACO got pressure from Europe to deep-six Putin's plan, which would have given him land he had not won in battle in the sneaky swap. Ukraine is willing to agree to a cease-fire along the battle lines IF there are guarantees of their future security. No one knows better than Ukraine that giving Putin a bone, he will still go after the whole carcass one way or the other. BBC Russia Expert Delivers Reality Check To Trump After Putin Talks Scrapped

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/cancelling-the-putin-trump-budapest-summit-ends-the-fantasy-the-us-president-can-deli

The fallout of Trump's waffling and playing footsy with Putin was very succinctly summed up by my Facebook friend, Andy Gold. No truer words were ever put in a comment:

Per Gold: "Trump is incapable of learning lessons, and even if he could his greed and ego would prevail. With that, Putin's war has yielded 3 outcomes. Europe has strengthened, the United States has lost relevance, and the economic basis of Russia is near collapse; none of these things being reversible."

The miscalculations of both Trump and Putin were that Europe would fail to increase its military strength and would not  understand that Putin's takeover of Ukraine would endanger NATO members' own national interests, nuclear blackmail with Putin threatening use of nukes and  WWIII would keep Europe out of the fray,  and that Europe would not find a way to live without importing Russian gas and oil. Both Trump and Putin were wrong on all counts. None of that has happened, and in fact, it is backfiring particularly on Putin. However, Trump's ability to influence what Europe does is much diminished. 

Europe and even Germany are rearming with an average commitment of over 5% of their GDP (from once under 2%), pledging EU funds for the purchase of US armaments and committing billions in aid to Ukraine. They have found and are finding more replacement of natural gas from other sources and are in the process of finding more. In the meantime, even Germany has 46% of its electricity coming from green and alternative sources. I predict that nuclear energy will have a revival. Russia has lost its most important market: Europe. Russia's economy relies on petro dollars, and that loss hurts.. The US had lost much of its influence with Europe as Trump played word games with Russia. However, that may improve with the US direct aid of technology and missile defenses, and intelligence assistance that  Europe cannot produce itself, and which will be requested, accepted, and appreciated. Finally, Trump has realized that Putin had been taking him for a ride.

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Germany's rearmament is spurred on; a fallout from the Oval Office ambush of Zelensky update 6/5/2025

MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: Trump drags his feet on Ukraine again and deceptively invents an excuse  This post includes evidence of how Europe is weaning itself off of Russian oil and gas.

How Germany Rebuilt Its Military for the 21st Century | Watch

A method in Putin's and Trump's madness: provoking violence to justify their use of greater violence

 A tool of a dictator and a dictator consolidating power: provoking violence to justify their use of superior power to commit violence. It is an oldie but goodie weapon successfully used in history.. It could explain both Trump's and Putin's puzzling actions.  What both have done recently is counterintuitive since the reaction to their words and deeds only consolidates and inspires greater resistance. There may be a method in both Trump's and Putin's madness. It is setting the trap of provocation now to get a better result later.

 The use of provocation to justify committing violence to their supporters and using military to do it is how dictators and wannabe dictators grab power and domination, whether it is Russia or the Trump regime in the homeland. Russia sends drones to rattle the sabers and scramble defense jets in Poland and Romania. Why would Putin do it? It is counterintuitive, resulting in Europe rearming against him in fear that the Ukraine land grab will bleed over to them. Trump is sending military into Portland, DC, and Memphis to fight phantom antifa, using media from years ago to invent a bogus current event that seems counterintuitive, too. It hardens the resolve of those who oppose his power grabs. What both Putin and Trump have in common might be a strategy to provoke the targets to commit violence (shoot 'em down, Trump tells Poland) because it would give Trump and Putin an excuse for the use of violent force to advance their causes. War and violent suppression might be the way they think they can win. because they have the guns and ability. If they cannot win peacefully or by subversion, propaganda, lies, and threats, they think chaos and violence are their best hope. What is the answer? Be aware of what is going on; that is their strategy. Do not fall for the provocation, but be organized and disciplined, and be very clever about any pushback. That is how you demonstrate you are not falling for this. A mass turning of backs, satire that exposes the sham, local leadership calling them out, silent resistance (I love the satirical statues placed in visible spaces that make the point), and other pranks garnering media attention might work in our own country. For Poland and NATO, trust the Europeans and the NATO military strategists; do not trust or take advice from Trump. He is either still fawning over Putin or dangerously stupid.

Using a 5-year-old video of "antifa",.passing it off as a current video to justify sending troops into Portland is not only deceptive but is puzzling, too.Portland mayor condemns federal intervention, claims videos of anti-ICE riots were from years ago  Why provoke more anger? To fool Trump's followers into continue backing him? Trump is now setting up "antifa" as the cause of opposition to him today, which needs to be suppressed by military force because they are the threat his followers should fear, used to justify his non-constitutional and dictatorial actions.  Is the Trump regime hoping Portland loses its cool, and demonstrations against the action turn violent to justify using armed active military to "shoot the legs out of Antifa", as Trump wanted to do in his first term in reaction to the George Floyd riots? (only stopped by generals at the time).  Like LA and DC, bored, untrained soldiers to be police they were supposed to aid, stood around areas frequented by tourists to send a message of what? Get used to armed military in blue cities; if you don't behave, they are a threat of violence against you, so don't assemble to voice complaints, or maybe they will be tasked to "secure" voting machines that only Trump loyalists have access to. (That got Colorado clerk Tina Peters a jail term, who did that which was so illegal. She obeyed Trump's orders and violated state and federal laws, instead of Colorado laws.)  Trump has already demonstrated he cares nothing about such laws, hoping "his" Supreme Court would give him a stamp of approval six months later, after the election takes place. In DC the national guard battled boredom by picking up trash, but their presence was an implied threat by a person who acts like a dictator and who makes good on his threats.. 

Explainer-What is antifa and why is Trump targeting it?

 Is Putin up to the same trick by sending drones into Poland and forcing NATO jets to scramble? It also seems counterintuitive because it hardens Europe's resolve to block him. Why would Putin do this? The explanaton for both could be they think they can win with violence, because propaganda, lies, subversion, threats of use of military violence, and a war of words have failed to get them what they seek  So now they want to provoke a violent reaction becuuse even violence and chaos are thebest recourse left to them to amass power when the opposition is being sufficienlly effective through the courts and media, in the case of Trump and Europeis now woke and rearming as they realize what Putin is up to. 

 What is the goal Putin may have in sending in the dumb drones? It may be he can scare the rank and file and deliver the message of fear, that Putin has the ability to kill them if there is war, so get out of Ukraine.  It is a divide and turn the less than educated, naive citizens against their leaders on Ukraine and force them to stop helping Ukraine resist Russia's aggressions.  A former president of Russia may have just said this out loud. Putin Ally Responds to NATO Drone Swarms: ‘Dumb Animals’ - Newsweek

 Another view is even more horrifying to contemplate: it is not a strategy for negotiation or saber-rattling.  He will not wait for propaganda or provoking violence to justify his actions. Putin wants war with Europe. All hopes of reasoning with Putin are gone. War is coming.

 Zelensky sees the Russian drone intrusion as a way to divert Europe's attention from the longer-term goal of the integrity and independence of Ukraine in an upcoming conference on European security. He also sees it as well as testing NATO's ability to detect and to unite to object to such aggressive acts.Zelenskyy reveals Russia’s reasons for violating NATO   airspace

 My question is also how able is Russia to fight both a war in Ukraine and an invasion of a NATO country now? That is a national security and intelligence matter.  The timing may not be now, but Putin could be shaping future Russian war plans. Putin thinks like a chess master, considering future moves.

Trump on the other hand, plays politics and national security issues like a day trader, ignoring the longer-term consequences of winning the day's outrageous and headline-grabbing proclamations and short-term acts designed to keep his MAGA base fired up and him in office.  His lack of considering future unintended consequences makes him TACO-prone, unpredictable, and irrationally dangerous. His approach is chaos and helter-skelter. That may be headline-grabbing for a day or two, but it may also sew the seeds of his own destruction at the ballot box as it inspires a more unified, determined pushback by the opposition.

What is the answer, and what should the pushback be? In the US, the strategy of provocation must be called out for what it is, with both humor and every kind of media available, and with strong leadership to keep the resistance peaceful in order to make the provokers fail.   Turning back on the provocateurs in massive peaceful protests in the US, clever use of visuals and media can rally the pushback far more effectively than countering violence with violence. Escalating violence will only lead to Trump using the more massive force of the active armed military to suppress and control the vote in November 2026. 

In Europe, the reaction to Putin should be of their own construction, and certainly, they should not take Trump's advice is just shoot down the Russian jets that intrude into their airspace.  Resistance must not fall into the violence trap, either,  but instead, they should give even more aid to Ukraine to fight their proxy war against Russia as an up-the-ante response in every instance.

  

Agent provocateurs were techniques used in Europe in the recent past.  Those seeking more power used their own disguised agents to make the opposition look bad and violent to justify a violent crackdown by them.  Trump and Putin become the agent provocateurs themselves, using their own propaganda and acts to provoke violent reactions so they can justify sending in their overwhelming force and threats of violence. 

  In the US, the setting up of Antifa (a loose, non-formal coalition of others) as the bogeyman to justify violence was first attempted by some Trump followers in claiming the Jan 6 rioters were really antifa in disguise. Videos put a lie to that BS.  Angry black people have long been the fear of white racists who used violence, lynching, and murder to justify their crimes. Antifa fits that longstanding profile as the object of fear, justifying criminal behavior of the Ku Klux Klan and fellow travelers. It appearsTrump is invoking fear of Antifa to justify his actions to MAGA. Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization – The White House. More sheer BS from the Trump regime.  Antifa is not an organization, FYI, and technically speaking, there are no domestic anti terrorist laws per se in the US, only as applied to foreign terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda.   "Despite the statutory definition of DT in Title 18 of the U.S. Code, no federal criminal provision expressly prohibits 'domestic terrorism." Understanding and Conceptualizing Domestic Terrorism: Issues for Congress | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

Update 10/6/2025:The gassing of peaceful protesters last night is an act of provocation by the masked military like actors. The fear is that by acting like agent provocateurs, these forces arrived ready to use tear gas on peaceful demonstrators. Watch it. https://www.rawstory.com/our-republic-is-in-big-trouble.../

Timothy Snyder, a political scientist professor in Toronto, wrote a book on the subject of the use of provocateurs. On Tyranny: "The goal  (of provocateurs)is to provoke a reaction that justifies state-sanctioned violence against opponents, as seen during the rise of Nazism and communism. "

NATO fighter jets scrambled in Poland as Russia launches deadly strikes on Ukraine

Trump at UN advises Poland to shoot down Russian drones Instagram