Democrats Are Complicit Enablers of Trump’s War Machine

While Democrats preach resistance to Trump's tyranny, the facts expose them as equal architects of America's blood-drenched imperial legacy

by Jon Reynolds | Jan 27, 2026 | ANTIWAR.COM

Reprinted with permission from The Screeching Kettle at Substack.

The year is 2026. The US under Donald Trump kidnapped the president of Venezuela after bombing the country and killing a hundred people on the ground. This follows a year of airstrikes on Venezuelan boats, supposedly carrying drugs, with passengers treated as guilty until proven dead and evidence of their alleged crimes never provided. The US claims it will temporarily “run” Venezuela during a so-called transition – positioning itself to seize the country’s vast oil reserves.

For decades, the US has rampaged around the world with impunity – invading Iraq in 2003, bombing Libya in 2011, running unaccountable torture programs, and openly assassinating high-ranking generals. Free from the international laws it expects others to obey, the US now has its sights set on Greenland. And who knows what else after that, so long as it serves US “national security”.

Such a level of dystopian overreach doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Trump embodies US imperialism without disguise, but he is not a king. These actions require more than desire – they require complicity: the votes to fund them, the confirmations to staff them, and the procedural cover to let them proceed unchallenged. Not just from Republicans, but from Democrats – the so-called opposition party that could stop him yet so often chooses not to, especially when it comes to imperialism.

This pattern became especially visible with the January 2025 nomination of Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. Rubio – a lifelong neoconservative hawk who has backed just about every US war since 9/11 – could have been resisted. Instead, Democrats in the Senate joined Republicans to confirm him 99–0.

In June 2025, Trump launched unilateral airstrikes against Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities, and some Democrats took issue – not with him openly bombing Iran, but with his failure to seek out Congressional approval first. Impeachment measures were proposed, but then overwhelmingly tabled, after a bipartisan majority – including 128 Democrats – voted against them.

In early January 2026, the Senate allowed debate on a war powers resolution to check President Trump’s military activities in Venezuela – a procedural gesture that looked impressive in headlines but did nothing to constrain him. When it came time for a binding vote to actually restrict Trump’s powers, the measure failed.

Then, on January 22nd, every present House Democrat voted to support a resolution that would have barred President Trump from conducting military actions in Venezuela without congressional authorization – largely irrelevant given that the coup is now complete. The resolution also called for US forces to exit the country – again pointless, since none were there – somewhat akin to passing a resolution to remove troops from the Moon. The vote was 215–215 and, per House rules, a tie counts as a defeat. Still, a win for Democrats as a show of pseudo-resistance.

Meanwhile, hours before this charade took place, 149 House Democrats joined with 192 Republicans to approve $828.7 billion in military spending – based on a framework established months earlier with the support of Senate Democrats – that would further embolden imperialism around the world: funding for Israeli missile defense, hundreds of millions for Ukraine, troop restrictions in Europe, and billions for ships, hypersonic weapons, and munitions.

Such unchecked funding is no surprise – it’s the lifeblood of a cross-party project that has defined US imperialism for decades, with Venezuela simply serving as the latest chapter. In 2002, George W. Bush backed a failed coup there. Later, Obama labeled Venezuela a national security threat and imposed sanctions. Trump’s first term was marked by a humiliating coup attempt in the country, additional sanctions, and a bounty placed upon the head of Nicolás Maduro. Biden continued the sanctions and upped the bounty reward. Trump’s second term has included airstrikes on Venezuelan boats, the bombing of its capital, and the kidnapping of Maduro.

And yet, if Venezuela illustrates how the US empire operates in moments of escalation, Israel shows how it functions as a permanent fixture of US foreign policy. Both parties pledge unwavering allegiance – no one reaches the Oval Office without being thoroughly invested. Under Bush, Obama, and Trump’s first term, Israel received a constant flow of weapons and diplomatic cover to harass, detain, and kill Palestinians. Under Biden – and throughout Trump’s second term – this support hasn’t wavered. Both administrations have backed Israel as it targets hospitals, schools, and bakeries, flattening Gaza and wiping out entire families with impunity.

Biden represented what might be described as “mask on” imperialism: publicly calling Israel’s actions in Gaza “over the top”, while privately continuing to fund the bloodbath, shielding Israel at the United Nations, and calling the International Criminal Court “outrageous” for pursuing charges against Israeli leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump, by contrast, dispenses with this performance entirely – openly financing Israeli atrocities while boasting about “leveling” Gaza and building casinos and resorts to whitewash the smoldering remains of a bipartisan genocide. Like Biden, he too has threatened the ICC for investigating Israeli war crimes.

Still, Democratic complicity predates the Trump era.

In 2003, Democrats – including Joe Biden – voted with Republicans to authorize the costly and disastrous US invasion of Iraq. Year after year, they funded the occupation, shoveling billions into it long after the lies were fully exposed.

During Obama’s first term, Democrats briefly held a filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate – alongside a strong majority in the House – which they used to pass a watered-down Affordable Care Act – a plan that was hollowed out by the removal of the public option, prioritizing private insurers. At the same time, Democrats continued Bush-era bailouts, funneling taxpayer dollars to financial giants like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, who just so happened to be major Obama donors. Not once did Democrats use their power to dismantle the war machine – tools they would inevitably pass on to future administrations. In fact, Obama did the opposite: he expanded Bush-era surveillance programs, chose to “look forward” instead of prosecuting gruesome CIA torture, set precedents for drone-murdering US citizens without due process, and broadened bombing campaigns across seven countries.

When Joe Biden took office, Democrats scraped together a razor-thin majority – a 50-50 Senate split, with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaker. Yet they still trotted out excuses to dodge popular policies, from “moderate” Democrats threatening to fracture their hold, to the Senate Parliamentarian’s roadblocks.

Conveniently, whenever it’s time to pass policies actually beneficial to constituents, Democrats have a litany of excuses – even when they hold a majority – to not pass them. And when they have a minority in the House and Senate – well, their hands are tied. War is the only time the excuses seem to go away. Imperialism is always on the table. It’s always a priority.

Democrats can act shocked by Trump’s brand of imperialism, but they can’t pretend as though they aren’t structurally invested in maintaining it. Democrats – like Republicans – take hundreds of thousands of dollars each election cycle from defense companies. Both parties are heavily reliant on industries that profit from war.

The wars might not be popular with the public, but that doesn’t matter. Whether driven by Trump’s undisguised imperialism – open admissions that America is invading a country for its oil – or by Democratic imperialism cloaked in “humanitarian” language and polite expressions of concern, defense industry donors just want the wars to start. The means to get there are irrelevant.

Jon Reynolds is a freelance journalist covering a wide range of topics with a primary focus on the labor movement and collapsing US empire. He writes at The Screeching Kettle at Substack.

‘We Cannot Separate Imperialism From Domestic Militarization’: Understanding the Links Between Ice, Gaza, and U.S. Foreign Policy

Mondoweiss interviews author Harsha Walia about the history of ICE and how Trump's immigration crackdown is closely linked to U.S. imperialism abroad, including in Palestine.

By Harsha Walia, Michael Arria 

January 30, 2026

Source: Mondoweiss

Image in public domain

This week, over 1,000 advocacy organizations sent a letter to Congress demanding that lawmakers stop funding United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol.

The call comes amid widespread protests over the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

“How many more people have to die, how many more lies have to be told, and how many more children must be used as bait and abducted before Congress fulfills its responsibilities and stops these out-of-control agencies from continuing to violently attack our immigrant communities and communities of color, as well as their many allies and supporters?” asks the letter.

Does Trump’s ICE represent a shift in U.S. immigration policy, or is it merely a continuation of the existing strategy? How do these tactics connect to U.S. policy abroad and the country’s wider imperial designs?

Mondoweiss U.S. correspondent Michael Arria spoke with Canadian activist and writer Harsha Walia, author of Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism and Undoing Border Imperialism, about the current moment.

Mondoweiss: I am wondering if you see ICE under Trump as a specific development within the history of U.S. immigration policy, or merely a continuation of existing policies?

Harsha Walia: It’s good question. I do think both are true. I don’t think it’s an either-or.

I think it’s important to note that the infrastructure of border enforcement certainly predates Trump. Border enforcement is a bipartisan practice. The groundwork for ICE, for DHS [Department of Homeland Security], for CBP [U.S. Customs and Border Protection], and this entire infrastructure of border policing is not new.

However, it is also the case that it has escalated in very particular ways under the current administration, particularly because the current administration really relies on, as all fascists do, the spectacle of overt dehumanizing violence.

So I do think that is different because explicitly right-wing rhetoric relies on a particular kind of racial terror in order to keep reproducing itself.

The last thing I’ll say is that it’s also important to know that what’s happening in the U.S. can’t be isolated from attacks on migrants around the world. I think it’s a bit of a mistake to only read what’s happening in the U.S. in relation to the U.S.

The war on migrants is intensifying around the world, whether that is in the Mediterranean, which is. the deadliest border on the planet, or in Eastern Europe, India, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Australia, etc.

This is all happening in the context of climate catastrophe and growing inequality due to capitalism and colonialism. Border policing and enforcement are now increasingly maintained through warfare technologies, and it’s escalating around the world.

So, I think ICE has to be looked at in this wider global context.

People often talk about ICE as if it had existed for many decades, but of course, it was founded under the Bush administration during the “War on Terror.”

Can you talk about ICE’s history and the political climate it emerged from?

I think it’s critical to understand that ICE emerges from the post-9/11 so-called “War on Terror “context. The post-9/11 policies were a continuation of the war at home and the war abroad.

So in the 90s and the 80s, we kind of saw that the war on migrants was deeply connected to U.S. foreign policy and coups and interventions in South and Central America. In the post-9/11 climate, we saw that the war at home was a war on migrants through “anti-terror” arrests, security detentions, and Guantanamo Bay.

The war at home and the war abroad were completely merged together. ICE was, in fact, the domestic arm of this imperial warfare.

All of that was completely connected to imperialism in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Somalia. the expansion of AFRICOM [United States Africa Command], etc. The war at home and the war abroad were completely merged together.

ICE was, in fact, the domestic arm of this imperial warfare. I think, as we look at ICE’s expansion over the past 20-plus years, it’s important to note similar reverberations. Right now, we see U.S. imperialism in Gaza, in Palestine, in support of the Zionist entity. Also, in the recent U.S. interventions in Venezuela.

These different moments remind us that we cannot separate imperialism from domestic militarization, whether that’s the militarization at the border, whether it’s the militarization inland through carceral systems and all forms of policing, or it’s immigration enforcement. These are completely connected to U.S. foreign imperial policy.

I wanted to stay on your point about Gaza. People are making connections between what’s happening now in places like Minnesota and what’s happened in Gaza for decades. Most people know about the military and economic connections between the U.S. and Israel, but they are also connected through settler colonialism, which you have written about.

Can you talk about those parallels?

I think the connections are that these are settler-colonial societies. So these are societies that are intrinsically based on expanding the frontier and intrinsically based on the logic of genocidal elimination, on supremacy, on ethno-nationalism. These are ideologies that are baked in. These are not about singular regimes, even though singular regimes are particularly violent and genocidal. These are about structures that are baked into the foundation of the so-called United States and the Zionist entity.

I think those are the deeper similarities that allow us to unearth, particularly for those of us doing movement organizing and committed to justice and liberation, that we need to dismantle settler colonial structures and social ways of being. That’s incredibly important.

It is important not to lose sight of the fact that it is not just companies that are invested in genocide and occupation. It is also entire state structures.

This is connected to immigration enforcement in several ways. The same technologies are used. Even some of the same companies are complicit, whether it’s Palantir or Elbit. There are many more. Many of these technologies are shared across agencies. Training is shared between the IOF and various policing agencies, as well as with ICE and border policing. Some of the same companies that literally built the apartheid wall in Palestine were building the border wall on the southern US-Mexico border, Elbit in particular.

Some of that is looking at how transnational capital accumulation moves across these geographies of occupation and settler colonialism, but I do think it is important not to lose sight of the fact that it is not just companies that are invested in genocide and occupation. It is also entire state structures that are built on genocide and occupation.

We often see ICE framed as an issue specific to Trump, in the same way that people refer to Israel as specific to the Netanyahu government. However, ICE existed under Democratic administrations, and these kinds of policies have been supported by many Democrats. Can you talk about how this has been a bipartisan project?

It’s crucial to recognize that ICE, border enforcement, and border policing in general have always been bipartisan in practice. While there are calls to abolish ICE, it is important to know that movements rooted in migrant justice and immigrant rights have long called for the abolition of this entire structure.

We don’t want to let the Democrats off the hook when it comes to their role in building up ICE specifically. But also more generally, this is not only about ICE. This is about border enforcement, which is carried out by a number of agencies. In a few years, the Democrats could ride the coattails of the Abolish ICE movement, co-opt it, and say, We’re abolishing ICE, but actually transform it and give all of those functions to a different agency.

So it is important to recognize that the calls to abolish ICE have to be located and placed within a broader call for the abolition of border enforcement and for the abolition of the harms of the border, because the issue is actually the ideology of the border, the material structure of the border that even creates the category of migrant. That creates this idea of a non-citizen who does not belong, who is racialized.

That is the deeper bipartisan commitment to border enforcement that must be dismantled. In different moments, it looks like different things. Right now, the most spectacular violence of border enforcement looks like the horrors of ICE raids, and at other times, it has looked like the horror of border deaths and the building of the border wall. At other times, it has looked like the detention and incarceration at the maritime border with the Caribbean.

All of these systems are part of the same structure of border enforcement that every regime, every government, and every administration in the United States has been committed to. So our task as social movements is to uproot the system of immigration enforcement, whether it’s ICE or CBP or DHS or the border itself.

ICE in Our Communities: The New Ku Klux Klan

By Faye Wilson Kennedy

January 30, 2026

Florida ICE detainees | Image credit: John Holmes for Human Rights Watch, 2025

The country is witnessing the revival of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), a white supremacist, far-right hate group in the United States, through ICE and Border Patrol officers terrorizing our communities. The group is infamous for using terrorism, violence, and intimidation to promote white supremacy and oppress minority groups, particularly Black Americans.

The KKK has existed in three distinct iterations and time periods throughout U.S. history, each with similar core beliefs in white nationalism and racial subordination, but also with varying targets and political focuses. 

First Klan (Reconstruction Era, (1865-1872): Founded by six Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee, as a social club that quickly evolved into a paramilitary force. Its primary goals were to resist the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies and reestablish white control of Southern governments through violence, lynchings, and intimidation of Black Americans and their white allies.

Second Klan (1915-1944): Revived by William Joseph Simmons near Atlanta, Georgia, this iteration was inspired by the film The Birth of a Nation, which glorified the original Klan. It became a nationwide political force, expanding its hatred to include immigrants, Roman Catholics, Jews, and organized labor, in addition to Black people. The Klan introduced the burning cross as a symbol.

Third Klan (Mid-20th Century-Present): Resurging during the Civil Rights Movement, this iteration continued the use of violence, including bombings of Black churches and schools, to oppose desegregation and civil rights activism.  

The archetype of the Third Klan is found in ICE and Border agents, primarily terrorizing and killing people of color with Hispanic-sounding names, immigrants of color, and their white allies.

Throughout history, groups like the KKK and now agencies such as ICE and Border Patrol have acted as arms of our government. They are responsible for kidnapping people (young children from their parents and families) from the streets, their homes, shopping malls, schools, and parks. This leads to the separation of families, the division of communities, and even the deaths of community members, all justified in the name of so-called national safety and security.

This country’s president, vice president, homeland security director, the so-called Department of Justice, and Secretary of State have all openly stated that it is acceptable and support the terrorizing actions and dehumanizing behavior of masked ICE and Border officers.

The current administration is now criminalizing entire communities without due process and states by sending in the National Guard, ICE, and Border Patrol officers.

Around 60 years ago, my late parents left Choctaw County and Mobile, Alabama, due to severe racism, oppression, and violence from the KKK and White Citizens’ Councils, who dominated many rural communities, including our birthplace.

Black people – particularly Black men and boys could be killed if they didn’t adhere to “sundown towns’ rules.” “Sundown rules” primarily refer to historical practices in the U.S., especially before the Civil Rights era, where towns (sundown towns) warned Black people and other minorities to leave town by sunset, enforced by signs, sirens, and violence, creating all-white communities; in a different context, “sundown” in some modern contexts can refer to lingering racial bias or gentrification.  

For Black folks with Southern ties, we remember the KKK, and now our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are witnessing ICE and Border Patrol officers in our communities emulating the Ku Klux Klan’s tactics (KKK) in 2026!!  Like our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, we must organize, vote, march, rally, and write letters to our elected officials, demanding they grow a spine and legislate, impeach, and remove the current administration, and pursue peace and social justice at home and globally.

The violence we are witnessing firsthand is enabled by policies that treat immigrants with hate and treat their lives as disposable. We all know that during the COVID crisis, immigrant workers, low-wage workers of color, and people of color were our frontline workers, harvesting and delivering our food and providing essential services. We are deeply connected, and our movements are strongest when we grieve together and organize together.

Many American community members are unfamiliar with immigrants’ status and even less aware of the importance of Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

Therefore, we must stop Trump’s openly racist attack on Haitian and other Black immigrant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders. Temporary Protected Status in the U.S. allows them to live and work legally because their home countries face dangers such as conflict or disaster, and it provides work authorization (EAD) and protection from deportation. Major groups from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Venezuela, and more make vital contributions as essential workers.

ICE has controversially targeted Somali residents in Minnesota, seeking to terminate their Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Additionally, President Trump’s claims about Somali gang activity and financial crimes in Minnesota have not been independently verified and raise concerns. While the national TPS designation for Somalia remains valid until March 2026, the changes specifically affect the Somali population in Minnesota. Currently, Ethiopia and Sudan are the only African nations with fully active TPS designations.

Community members are connecting the dots and building coalitions to demand justice for those killed, kidnapped, terrorized, and removed from their communities – Say Their Names—Say Their Names!!

 We mourn the deaths of our neighbors by uplifting their names—Say Their Names:

• Keith Porter’s life was stolen when he became the first reported account of an immigration officer killing a U.S. citizen under President Donald Trump on December 31, 2025, but his name is being suppressed. Keith was a son, a dedicated father in California, who did not deserve to die at the hands of ICE. Keith should still be alive, and we need to be uplifting his name.
• Alex Jeffrey Pretti was killed on January 24, 2026. He was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed going on adventures with Joule, his beloved Catahoula Leopard dog, who also recently passed away. He worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as an ICU nurse and had participated in protests.
• Renee Nicole Good, 37, was killed on January 7^th, 2026. She was a beautiful human, a mother, a poet, a singer, a community worker, a wife, and a daughter. She did not deserve to die at the hands of ICE.

They did not deserve to die at the hands of ICE or Border Patrol officers.  Please see the list below of all the senseless deaths of beautiful human beings. Someone’s mother, father, wife, husband, partner, sister, brother, uncle, aunt, grandmother, grandfather, and neighbor!!

Trump threatens to invoke the rarely used Insurrection Act to deal with anti-ICE protests in Minnesota after last week, sparking nationwide protests.  What city and state will be next?  We refuse to tolerate ICE’s lawless attacks on our communities.

It’s been reported that in 2025, 32 people died while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), making it the agency’s deadliest year in over two decades. 

These deaths occurred both in ICE detention centers and after transfer to hospitals while the individuals remained under ICE custody.  

Alex Jeffrey Pretti- killed on the 24th
Rene Nicole Good – killed on the 7th.

Other deaths in detention centers this month.
Geraldo Lunas Campos
Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
Heber Sanchaz Domínguez
Victor Manuel Diaz
Parady La

2025
Keith Porter Jr.
Genry Ruiz Guillén
Serawit Gezahegn Dejene
Maksym Chernyak
Juan Alexis Tineo-Martinez
Brayan Rayo-Garzon
Nhon Ngoc Nguyen
Marie Ange Blaise
Abelardo Avelleneda-Delgado
Jesus Molina-Veya
Johnny Noviello
Isidro Perez
Tien Xuan Phan
Chaofeng Ge
Lorenzo Antonio Batrez Vargas
Oscar Rascon Duarte
Norlan Guzman-Fuentes
Miguel Angel Garcia-Hernandez
Huabing Xie
Leo Cruz-Silva
Hasan Ali Moh’D Saleh
Santos Reyes-Banegas
Ismael Ayala-Uribe
Josué Castro Rivera
Gabriel Garcia-Aviles
Kai Yin Wong
Francisco Gaspar-Andres
Pete Sumalo Montejo
Shiraz Fatehali Sachwani
Jean Wilson Brutus
Fouad Saeed Abdulkadir
Delvin Francisco Rodriguez
Nenko Stanev Gantchev

All of these deaths need to and must be investigated.
Community members, faith leaders, activists, and policymakers must demand that ICE be removed from our communities!

Faye Wilson Kennedy is a member of Sacramento Poor People’s Campaign (Sac PPC), the Sacramento Area Black Caucus (SABC), and the Red, Black, and Green Environmental Justice Coalition (RBGEJC).