Next up for the very fine people of Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Maine. President Donald Trump, in his speech in Detroit Wednesday, signaled that the Pine Tree State was in his sights. Why? Well, no doubt partly because he’s never won the state in three tries (although he has carried the rural 2nd district each time, and Maine is one of two states that awards electoral votes by congressional district). But mainly because Maine has something notable in common with Minnesota. Can you guess? Yep: a sizeable Somali population.

"They’re scammers," Trump said, just putting the plain old racism out there for all to see. "They always will be, and we’re getting them out. In Maine, it’s really crooked as hell, too." In response, Democratic Governor (and Senate candidate) Janet Mills released a video in which she made her position plain: "To the federal government, I say this: If your plan is to come here to be provocative and to undermine the civil rights of Maine residents, do not be confused. Those tactics are not welcome here." The key word there, of course, is "residents" (as opposed to "citizens").

The several thousand Somalis who have settled in Maine since the 1990s are based chiefly in Portland and Lewiston. They’ve been on alert since at least mid-December, when Trump referred to Somalis as "garbage." Hundreds of Mainers gathered at a December 15 rally in Lewiston to support the Somali population—who were notably absent from the rally because, in the words of one Somali resident, "people were afraid of, ‘OK, what if somebody shoots us, or something happens?’"

As Americans, our minds are trained by involuntary habit to assume, when we see excess and violence, that the government will step in and bring order. Things get a little crazy at a protest, the cops break it up. Yes, there have been times when it’s the cops themselves who incite violence, like in Chicago in 1968. But when that has happened, the state has usually seemed at least a little sorry afterward.

Certainly, there were and always are reactionary forces working to throttle such examinations, and sometimes they succeed. But at least the impulse to investigate has generally been there. Indeed, a government commission appointed after the ’68 confrontations between cops and protesters during that year’s Democratic convention had a staff of 200 conducting thousands of interviews; in its report, it actually used the phrase "police riot." That’s how things work in the United States—there exists a shared assumption that violence of that sort is undesirable, and that when it happens, some gesture toward accountability is what a democratic society requires.

Well, there existed such assumptions. All that’s out the window now. Now the federal government is the unapologetic bringer of violence. And it’s further important to understand: No amount of criticism, no amount of forensic or video evidence, no poll expressing mass public disapproval will change this. In fact, precisely the opposite. Any and all criticism will just be taken by Trump and MAGA world as further proof that they are right. Evidence will be dismissed and countered with fake "evidence," like the video Vice President JD Vance trumpeted that purported to show that Renee Nicole Good had it coming. Bad-news polls will be dismissed as fake. The Trumpian state will dig in its heels. The only question Stephen Miller will ask himself will be: How can we turn up the heat?

This is what makes what’s happening in this country today different. The state is the perp. The government is beyond the law. The United States is now closer to Bashar Al Assad’s Syria, or perhaps even today’s Iran, than to anything we recognize as fitting within the understood norms of American history. That’s a pretty big statement, I realize, but it is not an exaggeration.

True—the Trump administration isn’t killing people by the thousands. It isn’t dropping those hideous barrel bombs on its own people. But mentally, psychologically, we as a country are edging in that direction. Until Minneapolis, I would have told you that as bad as Trump is, he’s not capable of ordering ICE agents to shoot people (citizens or not) at random, and that as bad as ICE is, they’d refuse such orders. Now I no longer believe either of those things. This man and his government are clearly capable of mass violence against immigrants and all who support them. It seems only a matter of time now before some of these thuggish ICE agents, under orders from the thug president, shoot some people down.

Remember, ICE is still on a hiring spree. And it’s not simply that ICE is recruiting—it’s how they’re doing it, and what kind of recruits they’re targeting. Earlier this week, The Intercept reported that just two days after Jonathan Ross executed Renee Good, the Department of Homeland Security posted a recruiting effort on Instagram using the phrase "We’ll Have Our Home Again." The background music in the post was a song of the same name by a group called the Pine Tree Riots. The song’s lyrics, the story reported, have been cited by extremists and neo-Nazis in the past. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Pine Tree Riots are "a little-known a cappella group affiliated with the Mannerbund, which the [SPLC] has previously listed as a white nationalist group."

The Pine Tree Riot was an uprising by some New Hampshire colonists against the British in 1772. The Pine Tree Flag has recently been linked to Christian nationalism, and at least one was carried by January 6 insurrectionists. And more recently—just so you know how deeply MAGA marinates in this stuff—an official at the Department of Education had one set up outside his office. It’s also the same flag that was spotted outside Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s vacation home a few years ago. And now, ICE is using if not the flag itself then the same far-right sentiment it evokes to recruit people to whom it is, after the most minimal training possible, handing masks and Glock 19s.

And Trump himself? Soon, in Minnesota or somewhere, he will invoke the Insurrection Act against the will of local elected officials and send in the military. It’s hard to say where that will lead. But no place good. Again—all evidence that it isn’t working will be rejected as fake, and Americans who disapprove will be dismissed as having "Trump Derangement Syndrome," a phrase that allegedly describes people like you and me.

We’re the sane ones. The only Trump Derangement Syndrome is that of Trump himself, and his supporters, and it is destroying the country we thought we knew.  

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Last week’s quiz: Cheese Louise: A quiz about cheese, occasioned by RFK Jr.’s new dietary guidelines. 

1. If you’re a cheese person, you undoubtedly are familiar with the word rennet—the substance that causes milk to curdle and, thus, gives us cheese. What exactly is rennet?

A. A chemical found in the skin of freshwater fish

B. A liquid extruded from the bark of palm trees

C. A set of enzymes produced in the stomachs of ruminant (hooved herbivores, basically) mammals

D. A protein found in beef tallow

Answer: C, enzymes from ruminant stomachs. I always wonder when I learn things like this: How in the world did someone in some ancient society discover this? Well, here is a perhaps apocryphal origin story. They now have vegetarian and synthetic rennet, by the way.

2. According to existing records, which is likely the oldest of these cheeses?

A. Feta

B. Pecorino Romano

C. Brie

D. Labneh

Answer: It’s definitely not B or C. Those are from the Middle Ages. Labneh, from Lebanon, is really old (is it a cheese? There is debate, but I think yes), going back to 5,000 BCE, but the winner seems to be A, feta, which apparently goes as far back as 8,000 BCE. Here’s the story. 

3. Match the cheese to its country of origin.

Answer: Sulguni = Georgia, sakura = Japan, Limburger = Belgium, quark = Germany. What, a Japanese cheese? Turns out there are a lot!

4. Where and when was the cheeseburger probably invented?

A. Philadelphia, 1912

B. New York, 1916

C. Kansas City, 1920

D. Pasadena, 1924

Answer: D, Pasadena, 1924. By 16-year-old Lionel Sternberger, working in his father’s restaurant. 

5. In the race to give America a pasteurized processed cheese-like product, James Kraft [erroneously called Joseph in last week's FW] invented American cheese and Emil Frey invented Velveeta, both in the same decade. But which came first?

Answer: Kraft perfected American cheese in 1916; Frey came out with Velveeta in 1918. Here’s the Kraft story, and here’s the Velveeta history. Are they disgusting? Mostly, I guess, although Kraft markets something as "Deli Deluxe American Cheese" that’s actually pretty good. I guess this is why.  

6. According to a 2023 survey from InsiderMonkey.com, what is the most consumed cheese in America?

A. Swiss

B. Cream cheese

C. Cheddar

D. Mozzarella

Answer: D, silly, mozzarella—because of pizza. Cheddar is second, cream cheese is third, and Swiss is fourth. Here’s an interesting history of how mozzarella was transmuted in postwar America from the modestly selling stuff we know now as "fresh mozzarella" into the multibillion-dollar factory-shredded variant we know and love today. 

This week’s quiz: Minnesota Nice: A quiz on the history and present of a certain state under Trumpian siege right now. Seems to me we ought to learn a little bit more about the place.

1. "Minnesota" comes from the Dakota language. What does it mean?

A. "Land between the rivers"

B. "Sky-tinted waters"

C. "Land where eagles fly"

D. "Fuck, it’s cold."

2. Minnesota gained statehood in 1858, at a time when it was customary for Congress to admit states in pairs—one free and one slave. With what slaveholding state was Minnesota paired, or supposed to be paired?

A. Arkansas

B. Missouri

C. Kansas

D. Oklahoma

3. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the snowmobile, the snow blower, and the indoor urban skyway (between buildings) were all Minnesotan inventions or innovations. But what unlikely invention joins these as Minnesota-born?

A. The window air conditioner

B. Trucking refrigeration

C. The bikini

D. Mosquito netting

4. Two nationally famous companies that competed in the same field were originally from Minneapolis. In fact, their headquarters were right across the Mississippi River from each other, meaning each could keep the other under scrutiny.

A. Scott and Kimberly-Clark paper companies

B. Weyerhaeuser and Great Midwest wood product companies

C. Marx and Hasbro toy companies

D. General Mills and Pillsbury flour companies

5. A lot of famous people are from Minnesota. Match the famous Minnesotan to the hometown.

6. Spam comes from Minnesota, made by the Austin-based Hormel food company. What is the derivation of the word Spam?

A. It’s short for Special Army Meat.

B. It’s a portmanteau of Spiced Ham.

C. It’s an acronym (well, sort of) of Shoulder of Pork and Ham.

D. It stands for the phrase Sizzle, Pork, and Mmmm.

Stand with the Minneapolitans. Yep, that’s what they’re called, although I read that they don’t actually use the word much. Answers next week. Feedback to fightingwords@tnr.com.

—Michael Tomasky, editor 

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