America’s Trojan Horse of Fascism

From Troy to Trump, the playbook starts with a gift you should never accept.

In the ancient story of the Trojan Horse, the Greeks could not break through the walls of Troy. So they built a giant wooden horse, hid soldiers inside, and pretended to sail away. The Trojans, thinking the horse was a gift, rolled it right into the heart of their city. By morning, Troy was burning.

Fascism works the same way. It rarely knocks down the gates all at once. It waits. It pretends to be a gift. It tells you it is here to protect you, to make your streets safer, to defend “real” Americans. And then one day, you wake up and the soldiers are already on the streets of D.C.

Donald Trump is the Trojan Horse of American fascism. He wrapped himself in the language of patriotism, law and order, and economic revival. Millions welcomed him in, thinking they were inviting strength. But inside was a plan to dismantle democratic norms, weaponize federal agencies, and turn neighbor against neighbor.

You can see the same playbook today in ICE propaganda. Recruitment ads that look like WWII posters. Calls to “defend the homeland” that could have been lifted from Nazi Germany’s Ministry of Propaganda. Images of brave, square-jawed officers staring into the distance, promising to keep you safe from a shadowy, dehumanized “other.”

This is Joseph Goebbels for the Instagram era. Streamlined. Shareable. Optimized for rage clicks and algorithmic spread. It plays on fear. It plays on pride. It convinces ordinary people to become foot soldiers for an agenda that erodes the very freedoms they think they are defending.

Sun Tzu wrote that the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. That is exactly what propaganda does. It convinces the target to surrender before the first blow lands. It makes the lie so familiar and the truth so inconvenient that resistance feels impossible. Propaganda is used to convince the other side they have already lost.

We are in the stage of the war where the horse is already inside the gate. The thugs inside are mobilizing, organizing their attack. Some of our neighbors are telling themselves it is just a statue, just a harmless slogan, just keeping the homeland safe. It was Hillary’s emails. It was the Deep State. It was Dems eating babies and pizza shop human trafficking. It’s just Trump Derangement Syndrome, right?

Once the horse is emptied, there is no going back.

This fight will escalate. ICE raids will be framed as acts of heroism. Dissidents will be painted as traitors. The machinery of the state will be used to intimidate and isolate anyone who refuses to salute. If you think this is just about immigration, you have not been paying attention. They’re rounding up the homeless on the streets of D.C. Who is next?

What can the average American do?

Stop pretending this won’t land on your block. Learn to clock propaganda the second it pops up in your feed. If you share it, gut it first. Break it down, roast the tactics, explain who is pulling the strings and why. Drop receipts in the comments. Call it out every damn time. Back indie media that still has a voice and a spine. Link up with your people locally. Start building community and prioritizing one another. The Trojan Horse Penske trucks are already in the city. Do not let them roll through all of America without blowing the lid off what they’re planning to do from the inside.

At the end of the day, the difference between a free city and a burning one isn’t how tall the walls are. It’s whether the people inside can tell the difference between safety and control.

WATCH THE LATEST EPISODE OF THE DANGEROUS ONES HERE: