FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a ceremony held to dedicate a 4-mile stretch of road from West Palm Beach Airport to his Mar-a-Lago estate as 'President Donald J. Trump Boulevard', at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., January 16, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
During his first presidency, Donald Trump's critics often attacked him as an "isolationist" who was uninformed about the rest of the world. But Trump has taken a much more imperialistic turn since returning to the White House, from capturing leftist Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to threatening to take Greenland by force to calling for Canada to become "the 51st state." Libertarian/conservative Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) and MAGA ex-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) believe Trump is betraying the "America First" agenda he once championed.
Trump went from being called an "isolationist" to being called a warmonger with a belligerent foreign policy.
In a scathing opinion column published on January 18, MS NOW's Paul Waldman (formerly of the Washington Post) argues that Trump is waging a "comprehensive war" — only he isn't talking about Venezuela or Greenland. Trump, Waldman stresses, is declaring "war" on Americans who didn't vote for him in 2024.
"Something important and dangerous is happening," Waldman warns. "The Trump Administration is engaged in a comprehensive war, and its enemy is half of America. This war is being waged in rhetoric and regulation, budget cuts and violence. Its aim is to tear the country in two. There is no precedent in modern times for this; one might make an analogy to Reconstruction in the wake of the Civil War, in which the federal government forced the South to accept democracy. But that was for the best of reasons, and Trump's attempt to bend blue states to his will is for the worst. We're seeing the ugliest face of Trump's plan in Minnesota."
Referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Minneapolis, Waldman laments that Minnesota's largest city is "under siege from roving gangs of masked federal thugs."
"Trump promised a 'DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION' against the city and the state of Minnesota, and he is already delivering," Waldman observes. "Even before an ICE officer shot dead Renee Good, ill-trained and overly aggressive agents rampaged through the community, brutalizing people, lobbing tear gas into crowds and spreading an atmosphere of fear that has everyone in the city on edge. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz wrote on social media this week, 'Minnesota voted against him three times and now he's punishing us,' and it's hard to argue, especially since Trump is openly talking about 'retribution'…. Most remarkably — as in the administration's filings in the case on environmental grants — officials in Trump's administration don’t even pretend they should serve all Americans equally. Trump himself certainly doesn't."
Waldman adds, "Every day he makes clear that if you support him he likes you — and if you don't, you’re his enemy."
Paul Waldman's full column for MS NOW is available at this link.