Trump Campaign “Fascist” Memo Leaked

UDI  New York City.  3/26/16.

A memo was released by an anonymous source within Donald Trump’s campaign today that reveals the candidate’s strategy to bring the press into compliance after he is elected.  According to some legal experts, the memo implies a danger to first amendment liberties such as freedom of the press and freedom of speech, if Donald Trump becomes president,

The memo says that Mr. Trump has been “frustrated” by reporters and critics who fail to understand his message.  “How many times have I told them how great I am?,” Mr. Trump lamented.   “And how often have I told them how over-rated and horrible everybody else is?  But they still don’t get it, and many in the media are unfair to me.  And those horrible reporters who are mean to me will have to pay a price.  Believe me.”

Mr. Trump has a solution to the problem of “unfair” reporters, i.e. those who don’t sing his praises.  As president, according to the memo, he plans to change the law.  He has previously said that when he becomes president, he’ll change the libel laws so that he can sue people who say bad things about him and get money from them.  But this memo reveals an even more extreme form of retribution against people in the media who dare to criticize Donald Trump.  The memo is entitled, “How the Media Will Be Patriotic and Help Me Make America Great Again,” although some Trump opponents have dubbed it “The Fascist Memo.”

The memo discloses that after taking office as president, Mr. Trump intends to issue an executive order, or decree, mandating that all members of the media say only positive, supportive, patriotic words about President Trump and his policies.  The Trump decree will apply to all media, including  t.v., radio, print, and the internet.  Mr. Trump says in the memo that “the American people are tired of anti-Americanism, negativity, and partisan bickering in the media, and I’m going to put a stop to it.  This will be how we make America Great Again.”

Specifically the memo says that President Trump will modify the federal criminal code to provide for the prosecution of unpatriotic and seditious content in the media.  Such content, critical of the President, or anyone in his administration who is performing his  duties, will be subject to the new law.  Those in the media who create “negative” content, criticizing President Trump and others in his administration, or their policies, “will be guilty of the crime of treason, punishable by up to ten years in prison.”  Those convicted may also be sent to the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  To assure a fair trial, defendants will not be entitled to a jury, and the trials will be held in special “patriotic courts,” tried by judges appointed by President Trump for this purpose.  The memo also says that family members of the traitors who are prosecuted under the new law, will be targeted.  In some cases family members of the accused will be tortured in front of their families, a technique developed and perfected by the former dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein. The denial of a jury trial appears to fly in the face of the 6th amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees a right to a jury in all criminal cases.

At a hastily called news conference on the campaign trail today, Mr. Trump appeared along with Michael Mcshyster, an attorney for the Trump campaign, to defend and explain the memo.   Asked what it meant to “target” family members of those prosecuted under the new law, Mr. Trump replied to the reporter, with visible irritation:  “That’s a stupid question.  You’re over-rated.  Everyone knows what targeting means.  It means they’ll get what’s coming to them.  It’ll be great.”

Mr. Trump has previously called for “targeting” the family members of terrorists.  In clarifying what he meant by “targeting,” in an interview with Fox News Host Bill O’Reilly in February, Mr. Trump defended the policy of murdering the wives and children of terrorists. This despite the fact that it has never been the policy of the United States to murder women and children, even those who are family members of our enemies, even in war time.  In fact, murdering non-combatants  is a violation of international law, and of American treaty obligations.  Members of the armed forces are forbidden from following orders to murder innocents in war time, even if ordered to do so by the President.  When questioned during a Republican debate about the duty of the military to disobey illegal orders, Mr. Trump said, “If I issue the orders, they’ll obey.”

Mr. Trump turned over to his attorney questions challenging the constitutionality of his proposed executive order to silence his critics in the press.  Mr. Mcshyster, a graduate of the Frederick Law School, and partner in the New York firm of Mcshyster, Dewey, Cheetham, & Howe, was asked by a reporter whether the proposed executive order wouldn’t be a flagrant violation of the first amendment.  The Trump campaign attorney replied, “Actually, it’s not a violation of the first amendment at all because the law will only apply to traitors and subversives who seek to undermine Mr. Trump’s efforts to restore America to greatness.   Any member of the press who doesn’t want America to be great is clearly a traitor and therefore not entitled to first amendment protections.  There is a legal precedent for this.  During the Administration of President John Adams, as I’m sure you’re all aware, we had similar laws against Sedition, and they worked quite effectively, in helping to launch this great democracy.”

One critic of Donald Trump, however, was not persuaded.  Sam Samson, a spokesman for “Donald Trump Is A Douchebag,” a conservative political action committee with headquarters in Washington D.C., issued the following statement:

“I call on my fellow Republicans to wake up and reject totalitarianism.  We’ve all seen this movie before.  We know how it ends.  We’ve seen it in Cuba.  We’ve seen it in North Korea.  We’ve seen it in Iraq, and in Syria.  Our parents’ generation saw it in the 1930’s in Italy, in Germany, and in the Soviet Union under Stalin.  It ends when the charismatic Great Leader, loved by millions of followers who are blind, deaf, and dumb, leads the great national parade, the troops marching, the band playing, the masses cheering.  And they all follow the Great Leader – over the cliff.  It ends with millions loaded into freight train cattle cars.  It ends with those who speak out for freedom thrown in dungeons, in gulags, or in concentration camps.  It ends with social degradation, mass oppression,  bombs exploding, cities burning, and millions of lives destroyed.  It ends in wretchedness, weeping, and the gnashing of teeth.”

In reply to Mr. Samson’s comment, Donald Trump tweeted, “This guy’s a loser.  He has blood coming out of his wherever.  He’ll be the first one we go after when I become President.”