The Border is the American Reichstag
by tristero
Just so it's clear, Trump's reason for purging DHS and going beyond incarcerating babies in cages is to provoke such outrage that there will be widespread riots at the border. This will enable Trump to point to what he (and the media) will declare an unequivocally real emergency. This will will allow him to crack down violently and close the border, accomplishing two immediately desirable (to him) goals: (1)provide red meat to his base; and (2) keep America as white as possible for as long as possible. More generally, it will enable him to consolidate his authoritarian power.
This kind of strategy — in which an incident is manufactured in order to justify a violent state crackdown — is a well-known authoritarian tactic known as the Reichstag Fire strategy. It comes from, you guessed it:
The Reichstag Fire was a dramatic arson attack occurring on February 27, 1933, which razed the building that housed the Reichstag (German parliament) in Berlin. Claiming the fire was part of a Communist attempt to overthrow the government, the newly named Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler used the fire as an excuse to seize absolute power in Germany, paving the way for the rise of his Nazi regime.
Yep, Trump's learning from the worst.