This analysis came out earlier this month, and it’s the mother of all wake-up calls. Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” would appropriate $200 billion to ICE, which the Cato Institute has called an “unimaginable sum.” Some relevant quotes:
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the bill will direct an astounding $168 billion of the budget to immigration and border law enforcement, and there is even more for agencies that indirectly support immigration law enforcement.
The $168 billion is, by itself, an unimaginable sum. Without H.R. 1, Congress had already appropriated twice as much money to America’s border police as all other federal law enforcement combined. In FY 2025, immigration and border enforcement accounted for at least two-thirds of all federal law enforcement.
In FY 2025—again, before H.R. 1—Congress allocated nearly $34 billion to immigration and border enforcement agencies. That’s 36 times more than what is provided for tax and financial crimes enforcement (IRS-Treasury), 21 times more than funding for firearms enforcement (ATF), 13 times more than drug enforcement (DEA), and 8 times more than the FBI budget to enforce effectively everything else. The level of border police spending is already so extreme that it has swamped nearly all other criminal law enforcement priorities for the federal government.
The House plans to distort this wildly out-of-whack law enforcement system beyond recognition. H.R. 1 appropriates $168 billion to agencies whose primary purpose is immigration enforcement. It adds $1.2 billion to all other law enforcement for the Secret Service. This sum comes on top of the $33 billion, meaning that if this bill passes, about $200 billion will be made available for immigration enforcement starting in FY 2025.
$200 billion dollars is equivalent to 1/5th of our entire military budget ($960 billion). It’s more than Russia’s entire military spending in 2024 ($149 billion). To say that Trump would be creating a 7th branch of the military operating on US soil would be neither an overstatement nor a conspiracy theory.
For context, this article was published by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank originally founded by Charles Koch (among others). The fact that these guys are ringing the alarm bell should be a warning unto itself. You can read the full text of the bill (H.R. 1) here.
Spoiler alert: they’re going to enforce a lot more than immigration.
If ICE was a military, it would be the third most funded military in the world with this budget. Right behind US and China and about $50 billion more than Russia.
We are looking at concentration camps for real.
I feel like what the rest of the world doesn’t understand (I am from the "rest of the world), is that the USA is VASTLY more powerful than the Nazis ever were. Barely any country is sounding the alarm seriously. Just “oh we’re concerned about what’s happening”.
We are truly fucked.
And we’re under the US’ thumb (Australia).
At least we’re majority white… maybe that’ll keep us safe, temporarily.
I hate this timeline, so very much.
I think (and hope) that one key difference here is that the US is much more divided politically and culturally then Nazi Germany was. At least right now, there is no way the US declares a war of aggression against a former Ally and doesn’t fall into Civil War. It will take a hell of a lot of internal suppression for that to change, the act of which will likely ignite the Civil War itself.
My hope is that the next few years will be less “What if the Nazi’s controlled the most powerful nation in history?” and more “What if Francisco Franco controlled the most powerful nation is history?”
Europe and China likely have time to prepare, and they really fucking need to. If they’re smart they’re already covertly looking into ways to arm and fund internal opposition in America.
the US is much more divided politically and culturally then Nazi Germany
Is it? Hitler couldn’t even win an election before his rise to power. He siezed power after being appointed to a position of power. Trump won the popular vote, if we can believe election results
I think Nazi Germany looked more unified than it was because we focus of the WW2 years, well after Hitler had consolidated power
This take makes a lot of sense, fair enough.
I guess I’m just expecting the worse because of all the norms they’re breaking. Maybe not a war, but I would not be surprised if the CIA leans on us a little more heavily than they already have (allegedly, but let’s be honest, very likely).
At least right now, there is no way the US declares a war of aggression against a former Ally and doesn’t fall into Civil War. It will take a hell of a lot of internal suppression for that to change
A $200 billion army explicitly created to suppress US citizens ought to fix that.
The Gestapo.
Oh… it’s already there
Fucking bingo.
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Lies are truth
Yeah, that is SS funding money, complete with a Waffen SS branch.
MAGA is building its own secret police SS force. What a surprise that absolutely no one could see coming /s.
At least some people are beginning to realize what I (and you probably) have been saying for months, and we aren’t just crazy.
Try years…
The Democrats are already drafting up a cutting, sternly worded letter.
I bet Susan Collins will be concerned about it (but still vote 100% for everything)
What does this have to do with the Democrats? Or did you just want to shoehorn them in?
They helped pass budget bills for Trump before.
They attack politicians who want to do something tangible about Fascism like Mamdani and Sanders, instead of fighting fascism.
They could filibuster the bill and shut down the government, which would be an objectively better outcome than allowing the gestapo to sweep through the nation. They won’t though.
It is not possible to filibusterer this. Republicans are specifically using techniques to avoid having to deal with the filibuster under Senate rules. The whole thing is DOA if they do.
They funded ICE because of the scary brown people for the last 25 years.
But nothing for healthcare, of course. That would be communism, or some such bullshit.
Cato probably agrees with that statement, but at least they have some actual principles about small government rather than small government for good things and big government for bad things.
In German, these people and groups are called “Steigbügelhalter”.
Well done America, you had a pretty decent country with some major issues (healthcare, cost of living) but you’ve all decided you need a bit more racism and hate in your lives. Congratulations on your incoming authoritarianism.
The issue some of us take with that is no, we did not all decide we needed more racism and hate. In fact, more and more evidence is being found that shows the entire thing was rigged, and the true majority decision was not acknowledged by the folks who had mostly been behind the scenes before.
America has been sliding further and futher away from being a democracy for decades, eroding rights and corporate lobbys have put business over people, he was elected TWICE even if there was voter rigging. The democratic party is dead and your political system is broken. The Heritage foundation has long been planning this and none of this was a secret. While YOU may note have voted for this, this is what the face of America is to us foreigners,
america is truly an exceptional place, just not the kind of exception that i’d like to ever encounter
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Not really, one side uses the laws, one side by passes them, and has done for a while.
I can’t get over that they put out a book basically announcing the holocaust 2.0 and it is still being allowed to happen
Trump said it was rigged when he won (Elon fixed the machines in Penn)
What violence against him have you seen from these presumed non-supporters?
Why was nothing done about it? I don’t understand how that statement didn’t immediately invalidate his win
When Gore was found to have won they just said it would be unfair to change the result afterwards
Sure ok but that’s pretty meaningless at this juncture.
Rigged machines aren’t going to save us
To be fair, right around 50% of us are vehemently opposed to this sort of thing. Far from all America
Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to make a difference, even winning a popular vote isn’t enough, the system is broken. Your voices are drowned out by corporate and political lobbies, as we just saw in the big beautiful bill.
i can literally imagine an american sitting at the kitchen table and thinking “hmm, what do we need in our lives? more spice”
well, here’s the bill.
But eggs were getting expensive
Well they’re gonna need a lot of new brown shirts, I assume
Naw. That’s just what they’re saying to appease the slavering, gnashing teeth of American conservatives. Virtually all of that money is just going into a black hole, and right into the offshore bank accounts of Trump’s cronies.
It’s what Russia did — why would Trump run the playbook any differently?
Because Putin was popular enough to build status quo fascism. Trump doesn’t have such luxury, so he needs to get his act in order before domestic opposition finally wakes up. Federal forces, and specifically ICE, are woefully underprepared for enforcing authoritarian rule in a country as big as America, even setting aside the possibility of a civil war.
Apparently they’ll be getting the money for it
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Imagine if we allocated that much money to housing people. Ha, right?
They are.
In fascism, you don’t need disabled, Sick, old, or excessively poor people. No need for Medicare or Medicare when they can be shipped off to the concentration camps and disappeared. One big beautiful final solution.
And eventually, nobody will get sick or old anymore! Miraculously, they’ll just stop appearing entirely!
Because we’ll all be dead.
7th branch of the military operating on US soil
Seventh National Army
It’s just a pun. Nothing to worry about.
My prediction: This is how America finally gets highspeed trains, but they’ll only be used to deport people faster.
Worked for Germany…
Nah, they’ll just burn them alive when they have enough control that no one can fight back. Unless they can work… then maybe they’ll allow them to work to death as a favor.
This is what America chose. Enjoy it, idiots.
Imagine the USA being the new North Korea, Donald Jr. eventually following his father to the throne. Ostracized by the world. Global hacker scams and their own version of Juche. The parallels are astounding, esp. if you make a few simple deductions into the near future: distribution of wealth, collapsed economy while claiming it’s booming…
Especially when these right wing libertarian morons get to enjoy what they supported.
oh they enjoy suffering! suffering builds character or something
Just for comparison: NASA got $25 billion per year for the last 10 years or so. source
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You heard it wrong. You thought they said “here’s responsible spending” however they actually said “irresponsible spending”
https://www.stripes.com/branches/marine_corps/2025-06-26/marines-budget-2026-18253650.html
The [Marines] $57.2 billion budget request is part of the Navy’s $292.2 billion overall proposed spending plan for fiscal 2026, which begins Oct. 1. The budget request reflects a more than 6% increase from the 2025 request.
More then three times the budget of the Marines.
an americans seemigly will bravely bend over and take it
A lot of us aren’t/won’t
if you are not planning or participating in a general strike or a full city take down… you are just in the “thoughts and prayers” useless wagon
Hate to burst your bubble…
Don’t draw attention to yourself.
…I mean… one guy tried, but he’s dead now. The rest of us are either bitching into the void, or actively loving all the evil shit coming from this administration.
So, my money’s on we’ll just continue to bend over and take it.
