Less than three weeks into the new year, 2026 has already witnessed an extraordinary escalation of violence and criminality by the Trump administration, both internationally and within the United States.
The year began with the illegal invasion of Venezuela and the abduction of its president, Nicolás Maduro—a naked act of imperialist aggression aimed at seizing control of the country’s oil resources. This was swiftly followed by threats to bomb Iran, renewed threats to annex Greenland by military force, and increasingly belligerent rhetoric directed even at traditional allies of the United States, including most recently Canada.
Now, the Trump administration is turning the apparatus of violence and repression inward. Over the weekend, the Pentagon confirmed alerting 1,500 soldiers of the Army’s 11th Airborne, which is based in Alaska and is well-prepared to operate in the deep freeze of a Minnesota winter. In a statement emailed in response to press inquiries, spokesman Sean Parnell wrote, “The Department of War is always prepared to execute the orders of the commander in chief if called upon.”
The Trump administration is, in effect, declaring war on the American people. The planned deployment of the military against the population of Minneapolis, along with Trump’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act, is a vast escalation of the ongoing conspiracy to establish a presidential dictatorship.
What is driving this extraordinary turn to violence and repression? They cannot be explained merely by the sinister personality of Trump but must be understood as the response of the ruling class to a deep and accelerating crisis of American capitalism. This is manifested in unsustainable levels of debt, threats to the global position of the dollar, and the escalating breakdown of the postwar order. Domestically, mass anger is building among workers and youth against the oligarchy for whom Trump speaks and acts.
In response to the social opposition that has erupted following the ICE murder of Renee Nicole Good, the Trump regime is preparing to escalate its violence. In addition to mobilizing the 11th Airborne Division, the Pentagon has alerted 200 Texas National Guard troops to be ready to deploy to Minnesota in support of Army forces.
FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche visited Minneapolis on Friday, amidst press reports that Patel has appealed to FBI agents nationwide for volunteers to transfer temporarily to Minneapolis.
In an extraordinary statement, Blanche claimed last week that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (the former vice presidential candidate) and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both Democrats, were guilty of “terrorism,” declaring, in a message to Walz and Frey, that he was “focused on stopping YOU from your terrorism by whatever means necessary.” The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into both on the charge that they have “interfered” with federal immigration enforcement.
Appearing on several Sunday morning interview programs, Frey said that Trump was deliberately provoking violence, hoping to use it as a pretext for military occupation of the Twin Cities. He told CNN State of the Union host Jake Tapper, “The fact that we’re saying this out loud, Jake, is bizarre. I never thought in a million years that we would be invaded by our own federal government.”
Frey added that he was “hopeful for here is the judicial system to do its part to see that necessary check and balance.” This is a blind alley and a diversion, particularly with the Supreme Court, the final judicial authority, under tight control by the ultra-right, including three justices appointed by Trump himself.
The call for a one‑day, city‑wide strike on January 23 by a coalition of local trade unions and community organizations in Minneapolis comes in response to growing pressure from workers, young people and broad layers of the population for mass action against the federal ICE occupation.
However, the major trade union federations—including the Minnesota and national AFL‑CIO—have refused to endorse strike action, and many local union leaders are working to counteract growing sentiment for a general strike.
The Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) issued a statement Saturday calling on its members “to honor the no-strike provisions of their contracts and report to work as scheduled,” under the fraudulent pretext that nurses “hold a unique and essential role as caregivers and patient advocates.” This as 15,000 nurses are currently on strike in New York City, and 31,000 nurses are preparing strike action on the West Coast, centered on the defense of healthcare for their patients.
While Walz and Frey have issued warnings about the occupation of Minneapolis and the danger of civil war, the Democratic Party as a whole is doing nothing to stop the Trump administration’s accelerating coup. Terrified above all by the emergence of mass opposition from below, they are working to channel outrage over Trump’s actions into the dead end of electoral politics.
In a recent video statement, Senator Bernie Sanders, who represents the supposed left wing of the Democratic Party, admitted that the United States is witnessing an “unprecedented and dangerous moment” and that Trump is “moving us toward an authoritarian society.” Sanders, however, said nothing about the one-day general strike called in Minneapolis for January 23. Instead, he reverted to the standard Democratic Party script: empty appeals for “immigration reform” and, above all, a focus on the 2026 midterm elections, which are 10 months away.
There is, however, no basis for assuming that elections will even take place in 10 months, or that, if they do, they will occur under conditions that bear any resemblance to democratic norms. The administration is assembling the legal, police and military infrastructure to intimidate voters, criminalize opposition and deploy armed forces domestically under the pretext of “insurrection” and “terrorism.”
The Socialist Equality Party calls for the widest possible mobilization of workers and young people on January 23. The preparations to invoke the Insurrection Act and send active-duty soldiers into a major American city represent a historic escalation of the drive toward dictatorship. They must be answered through the mass, independent action of the working class and the development of a genuine general strike movement, in Minneapolis and throughout the country.
This means the immediate formation of rank-and-file committees in every workplace, school and neighborhood. Emergency meetings should be called at every site—union and non-union—to elect representatives and begin planning a unified response. These committees must demand and prepare for open-ended strike action, organized across sectors and regions. Their demands should include: the withdrawal of all federal forces; the arrest and prosecution of Renee Nicole Good’s killer; the abolition of ICE, CBP and DHS and the release of all detainees.
These rank-and-file committees must not only unify the fight in Minneapolis—they must link struggles nationally and internationally. The International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC), initiated by the Socialist Equality Party and its sister parties, provides the organizational framework for such a movement.
The crisis cannot be resolved through appeals to the courts, Democratic politicians, or the next election. What is taking place in Minneapolis is the spearhead of a nationwide conspiracy to establish a presidential dictatorship. Again, Trump acts not as an individual but as the political representative of the capitalist oligarchy, which is responding to deepening economic crisis and mass social opposition with escalating violence and repression.
The mobilization now developing in Minneapolis must become the starting point for a nationwide movement of the working class, uniting every section of workers—industrial, public sector, transport, education, healthcare—in a common offensive. The mass industrial mobilization of workers and the development of a general strike must be connected to the independent political movement of the working class, directed against dictatorship, war and the capitalist system itself.