This is not a real headline, but it could happen.

Last night I had a dream. In it I saw a NY Times headline, “President Trump releases Stewart Rhodes.”¹

In that state between consciousness and sleep, my semi-conscious imagination took the dream further. It went to the East Coast dockers union (ILA), who will likely go on strike starting on January 15 and may well remain on strike when Trump takes office. As Oaklandsocialist has reported, Trump has indicated support for the ILA in their struggle to control automation of the docks. Oaklandsocialist has said that he most likely will give that support. However, in that dream/imagination Trump double crossed the longshore workers and called out the National Guard to unload ships and break the strike.² That set off a whole chain of events.

At that point I fully woke up and started to think through the dream, because it’s certainly possible that Trump could double cross the ILA and its leadership, which has fully supported Trump at this point. They have sold this support to the membership on the grounds that “Trump is doing what’s good for us. As far as the rest of the working class and the oppressed – no need to worry about them. Look out for Number 1.” Trump will betray the ILA at some point; the question is when, and there are powerful forces pushing him to give nationalist-based support for them at this point. But not even Trump himself knows what he will do, and my dream indirectly reminded me that it is entirely possible that he could do the opposite. Here’s how the dream comes into the picture:

Trump’s crushing of an ILA strike would mean turning away from his popular base and towards his capitalist base, which is represented by Elon Musk & Co. That would require an immediate turn to outright mass extra-legal repression. For that, an extra-legal armed gang of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, is required – a militia – and who better to organize and lead such a militia but Rhodes and the Oathkeepers, who also have all sorts of connections with and support from the police and even elements within the military? There are tens of millions of workers, some of whom support Trump right now, who would be outraged. They are more numerous than any potential militia that the Oathkeepers could organize, but the key word is “organize”, because the working class forces are nearly totally unorganized except through the unions, which is to say they are unorganized.

Where could such a scenario lead? The major wings of the U.S. capitalist class would certainly be unhappy with a militia led by the likes of Stewart Rhodes moving towards taking power. This wing of the capitalists is connected with the majority of the military command. Even though Trump might appoint fascists like Pete Hegseth (nominee for defense secretary) to other top military command posts (Joint Chiefs of Staff), the entire top and middle layer of the military is dominated by more sane types like Mark Milley. And even though they have been trained through and through to obey the commands of their superiors, in this case that training could go out the door.

Then the alternatives would be either a takeover by the Stewart Rhodes wing of MAGA or a military rebellion and military takeover.

Stephen Miller. The fact that he has the sense to stay out of the limelight makes him even more dangerous.

Stephen Miller
We should pay attention to one individual who has received insufficient attention: Stephen Miller. Trump has appointed him as his “deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security advisor”. Because this is not a cabinet level position, this appointment won’t have to go through Senate confirmation. An ultra-nationalist, Miller is a true fascist. He is also far more clever than Elon Musk, Steve Bannon, or any of Trump’s other close associates in this manner: He has enough sense to stay out of the limelight, thereby not making Trump jealous. Truly dangerous, Miller was the one who devised the family separation policy under the first Trump administration. He would definitely be close to any militia organized by the likes of Stewart Rhodes, but he has one major problem: He’s Jewish. And all fascist movements must be anti-semitic. That’s because ultra nationalism is an essential part of fascism and Jews can never really fit into any “national people” (except in Israel), because they are the very symbol of an international people. Think: “the international Jewish banker/money lending conspiracy”. So, Miller could feed the fascist alligator… until the alligator eats him. He would be cast aside just like what is starting to happen to the black MAGAites already. Just as is anti-Semitism, so is white supremacy inherent in MAGA in the United States.

Oaklandsocialist has sketched out several very different possibilities under Trump. One stresses the conflicting factions of the MAGA coalition and points to a possible government of chaos and even partial paralysis while repression reigns. Another possibility (“How violent can MAGA get?”) is the populist wing of MAGA running wild. Here, we raise that possibility going even further – either something close to outright fascism or a military takeover. Anybody who tries to be any more definitive than this is really foolish. There are absolutely no historical precedents to this situation in the United States. The best we can do is try to sketch out the different forces at work and think about how they might interact.