The document has zero legal authority and can’t actually do anything to change the law—it’s performative authoritarian cosplay from a president whose approval ratings have cratered and whose policies are imploding (even the ones that were previously popular). But while it has no force of law, it can absolutely do serious damage by redirected all aspects of the federal government away from serving the public interest, and entirely towards punishing anyone who doesn’t like Trump. The whole thing reveals just how far Trump’s willing to go in redefining basic political opposition as terrorism when he can’t win literally any arguments on the merits.

Supporting immigration reform? Terrorist. LGBTQ+ rights? Terrorist. Criticizing his failures? Terrorist! Calling out his authoritarianism? All terrorism, apparently.

Let’s break down what this document actually does, because the specifics matter—and they’re worse than the inflammatory rhetoric suggests.

Why Is Every Word In This Headline Capitalized?