Strongly Recommended Watch: Trump Is Building His Own Paramilitary Force | The Ezra Klein Show
(youtube.com)
ICE now has the biggest budget of any law enforcement agency in America.
“ICE and Customs and Border Protection have long been the most rogue, kind of renegade and certainly pro-Trump police agencies in the federal government,” explained Radley Balko, a journalist who’s covered policing for decades. “What I think we are seeing right now is Trump is attempting to build his own paramilitary force. They want people whose first, ultimate loyalty in this job is going to be to the president.”
Balko is the author of “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces.” And he’s been tracking the changes at ICE and the Trump administration’s escalating law-and-order tactics on his excellent newsletter, The Watch.
0:00 Introduction
3:57 Following the Money in Law Enforcement
5:47 The New Normal of Immigration Enforcement
8:59 A New Paramilitary Force
14:43 The Democratic Argument vs. Constitutional Rights
17:11 The Policy of Fear and Eviscerating Due Process
23:40 The Attack on Legal Aid and Civil Society
29:43 The Rise of Punitive Detention Centers
32:55 The Path to Catastrophe
42:25 The Merging of Military and Homeland Defense
54:08 Project 2025 and the Erosion of the Chain of Command
58:24 The Role of Civil Society and Political Opposition
1:05:34 Book Recommendations
Read the full transcript here: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/op...
Watch more on @EzraKleinShow
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected].
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-...
Thumbnail photo credit: Morry Gash/Associated Press
“ICE and Customs and Border Protection have long been the most rogue, kind of renegade and certainly pro-Trump police agencies in the federal government,” explained Radley Balko, a journalist who’s covered policing for decades. “What I think we are seeing right now is Trump is attempting to build his own paramilitary force. They want people whose first, ultimate loyalty in this job is going to be to the president.”
Balko is the author of “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces.” And he’s been tracking the changes at ICE and the Trump administration’s escalating law-and-order tactics on his excellent newsletter, The Watch.
0:00 Introduction
3:57 Following the Money in Law Enforcement
5:47 The New Normal of Immigration Enforcement
8:59 A New Paramilitary Force
14:43 The Democratic Argument vs. Constitutional Rights
17:11 The Policy of Fear and Eviscerating Due Process
23:40 The Attack on Legal Aid and Civil Society
29:43 The Rise of Punitive Detention Centers
32:55 The Path to Catastrophe
42:25 The Merging of Military and Homeland Defense
54:08 Project 2025 and the Erosion of the Chain of Command
58:24 The Role of Civil Society and Political Opposition
1:05:34 Book Recommendations
Read the full transcript here: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/op...
Watch more on @EzraKleinShow
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected].
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-...
Thumbnail photo credit: Morry Gash/Associated Press