{"text":[[{"start":7,"text":"As governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem launched an anti-drug campaign with the tagline: “Meth: We’re on it.” Noem’s message control has not obviously sharpened as Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary. On Saturday, Noem insisted that the slain Alex Pretti was “brandishing” a gun with the intent of attacking federal officers. Anyone watching the Minneapolis videos would have seen a man shot 10 times in the back after trying to protect a woman from being manhandled. Noem nevertheless instructed Americans to ignore what they saw with their own eyes."}],[{"start":47.83,"text":"As goes Noem, so goes the rest of Trump’s team. Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and self-appointed bad cop, called Pretti a “domestic terrorist”. This echoed what the administration said about Renée Good, a 37-year-old woman, who was also shot dead at point blank range in Minneapolis two weeks ago. Though her vehicle was turning at a slow speed, and the officer shot her through the side window, the Trump crew said she was using her car as a weapon. After Pretti’s murder, Trump’s defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, told ICE agents in a post on X that “we have your back 100%. You are SAVING the country.”"}],[{"start":94.82,"text":"Which raises the question, with autocrats like these, who needs democrats? It is possible that actual Democrats will miss the open goal that Trump has presented to them. He came to office with immigration as his strongest issue. Americans wanted violent criminals deported and border control enforced. Instead, Trump has turned ICE into a menacing paramilitary that detains five-year-olds, hauls elderly men from their homes, snatches mothers from day care centres and executes non-violent protesters. The US public is turning sharply against these methods."}],[{"start":135.57,"text":"Following Good’s slaughter, JD Vance, the vice-president, declared that ICE and border patrol agents had “absolute immunity”. Vance and his colleagues are ploughing through the US constitution at speed. Each of its key amendments — the first on free speech, the second on gun rights, the fourth on protection from warrantless searches — turns out to be optional, depending on whether it is convenient. A competent wannabe autocrat would be covering his actions in the patina of legality, pitching scholars against scholars. Trump, by contrast, is uniting scholars and ignoramuses against him."}],[{"start":176.39999999999998,"text":"In so doing, he is stirring the public out of an apathy that is essential to any power grab. Someone once remarked that Trump’s incompetence outruns his malevolence. That observation’s salience is on full display. Pretti was a nurse at an intensive care unit for veterans. Good was mother to a six-year-old, and her last words were: “It’s fine dude, I’m not mad at you.” Each is instantly recognisable as your friendly neighbour on any American block volunteering to shovel your snow or jump-start your car. The phrase “Minnesota nice” describes a state that is particularly known for such people. To depict them as terrorists is darkly comical and profoundly inept."}],[{"start":224.7,"text":"The legitimate fear is that Trump will rig the US midterm elections this November to stop a widely forecast Republican defeat. But he is robbing himself of the means to get away with it. The meta-tool available to him is public gullibility. Enough people must be willing to believe that ballot boxes are being stuffed, or illegal immigrants are being bussed to the polling booths, for any shenanigans to work. The hollow people working for him are wrecking that tool with easily discredited propaganda."}],[{"start":260.7,"text":"That, in turn, threatens to neutralise Trump’s on-the-ground muscle. ICE and Border Patrol are the obvious federal crack troops to respond to viral stories about “illegals” swamping polling booths. The US public is now deeply familiar with masked men poking guns in the faces of unmasked civilians. “We are the storm,” said Miller at the funeral of the murdered Maga broadcaster Charlie Kirk last September. “Our enemies cannot comprehend our strength, our determination, our resolve . . . You are nothing. You are wickedness.” That indeed was a scary threat from Miller. But it was super-unwise. A competent autocrat would be stoking the country’s desire to be protected from the “enemy within”. Instead, Americans increasingly fear their alleged protectors."}],[{"start":314.84999999999997,"text":"The same applies on the global stage. It is hard to find an American who dreads Mark Carney. Canada’s prime minister is to Trump’s foreign policy what Good and Pretti are to his domestic politics. A competent autocrat selects his enemies with skill. Trump’s Achilles heel is that he gets worse at this with experience. "}],[{"start":345.92999999999995,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1769505987_7881.mp3"}