Abuse of power: Trump launches FBI raid on Virginia Democrat Louise Lucas
In the latest display of his authoritarianism and dictatorial abuse of power, Donald Trump launched an FBI raid on Democrat Virginia state Sen. Louise Lucas, the legislator behind a voter-approved redistricting plan.
Coming just days after calling on red state legislators to gerrymander districts in his favor to help Republicans gain “more than 20 seats in the upcoming midterms,” Trump’s FBI raid on the Virginia Democrat is no coincidence — nor is there any ambiguity as to his intentions (via DemocracyDocket.com):
“Today’s actions by Federal agents are about far more than one state senator; they are about power and who is allowed to use it on behalf of the people,” Lucas said in a public statement. “What we saw fits a clear pattern from this administration: when challenged, they try to intimidate and silence the voices who stand up to them.”
The raid came just weeks after Virginia voters approved the high-stakes referendum — backed by Lucas and other Democratic leaders — which could mitigate aggressive GOP gerrymanders in other states ahead of the 2026 midterms, if upheld in court.
“Just two weeks ago, Virginians sent a powerful message when they voted to stop Trump’s scheme to manipulate the 2026 midterm elections,” Lucas said. “I was proud to help lead that effort and I have never been afraid to stand up to Donald Trump or anyone else that has tried to undermine our democracy. I am not backing down, and I will keep fighting for the people of Portsmouth and the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
Federal agents executed a search warrant at Lucas’ Portsmouth office and other businesses. The FBI has not publicly identified Lucas as a target, announced criminal charges or released court documents describing the allegations under investigation.
State Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D) said the raid should be viewed within the broader context of what he described as escalating politicization inside Trump’s Justice Department.
“Senator L. Louise Lucas is an outspoken and historic figure in Virginia politics and has not been charged with a single crime,” Surovell said. “President Trump has made clear that he intends to target the Commonwealth of Virginia for voting against him in 2024 and has already obliterated the Department of Justice’s historical independence to attack our state and his enemies.” (Emphasis mine)
Trump’s plan to Make Authoritarianism Great Again (see what I did there?) isn’t new. For example, in a February 2020 exclusive interview with ABC This Week host George Stephanopoulos, Trump made the dubious claim that Article II of the U.S. Constitution “allows” him to do “whatever” he wants as president — a claim that the video below shows he has made many times.
Even though Article II clearly grants no such power — it defines the office of President, not the office of dictator or king — Trump has enjoyed using this non-existent power for his personal and political benefit. And thanks to the Trumpist enablers that now dominate the Republican Party, we’re beginning to see where this is heading.
Trump’s many end-runs around the Constitution has allowed him to dole out political favors to loyalists based on their fealty to his magnanimousness while turning government agencies like the DOJ and FBI into his personal army of jack-booted thugs. And let’s not forget his “pay-to-play” use of presidential pardons to reward his financial backers and other loyalists.
Trump has also abused the power as part of his anti-immigration platform. He routinely denies immigrants their right to due process while devising ways to suspend habeus corpus and declare martial law. He has also pressed charges against Democrats in Congress for “assaulting” ICE officers. So, launching the FBI against a Democrat in Virginia fits his authoritarian abuse of power persona to a T.
Ironically, Republicans now loyal to Trump openly opposed federally controlled gerrymandering — calling it one of “the biggest power grabs in history” — but they now appear to be a bit more flexible to such a power grab if it means making our elections “free and fair” (via The Hill):
“What you’re hearing from the president is his frustration about the lack of some of the blue states, frankly, of enforcing these things and making sure that they are free and fair elections,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters.
“We need constant improvement on that front. I don’t know what the ultimate solution is going to be.” (Emphasis mine)
Of course, “free and fair” is Orwellian doublespeak for Republicans win/Democrats lose.
As I have documented in The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty, Republicans and Democrats are always working on new ways to protect the duopoly and destroy liberty in America, and their rush to gerrymander districts to their respective advantages is no exception. However, the current fiasco began during the first year of his second term in office when Donald Trump began stacking the deck in his favor ahead of the 2026 election by convincing Republicans in Texas — and several other states — to redraw congressional districts to secure party power in Washington and deny Democrat voters the right to choose their representatives.
Our Founding Fathers knew the danger of centralized power, and they took great pains to avoid creating such a system when they drafted the Constitution. In The Articles of Confederation, we see how they desired a weak central government, and it was in that spirit that they wrote the Constitution to give broad powers to the states (the people) while deliberately limiting the power of the federal government.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump isn’t all that concerned with what the founders had to say about how he should be doing his job, which is why he has embraced authoritarianism and the abuse of power to launch an FBI raid against a Virginia Democrat; not because Sen. Louise Lucas did anything illegal, but because she refuses bow to the mango messiah.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties. He the author of The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty.
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