The Lincoln Logue | Law Wears Masks and Justice Wears a MAGA Hat

This week turned governance into a hall of mirrors. California passed a law to make ICE agents show their faces, only for the Trump administration to declare it meaningless. The president told pregnant women to avoid Tylenol, a claim as reckless as it was unfounded, sparking panic despite science saying otherwise. Elon Musk’s purge of federal workers, once hailed as cost-cutting genius, reversed into mass rehiring. TikTok, long threatened with a ban, reappeared in the hands of Trump’s billionaire allies. And James Comey, the FBI director who once held Trump to account, found himself indicted by a DOJ now fully under his control. Each headline looked like the opposite of what it should have been — accountability twisted into impunity, science into rumor, efficiency into waste, and justice into vengeance.

What these reversals share is their reliance on narrative over substance. Trump doesn’t need truth when repetition works better. He doesn’t need functioning agencies when dysfunction proves his point. He doesn’t need legal strength when spectacle creates its own verdict. By bending every institution until it snaps into contradiction, he turns chaos into proof of his own indispensability. In this logic, disaster is not failure but fuel.

Together, the stories reveal a government where outcomes matter less than optics, where every contradiction can be spun into loyalty. It is a system built not to govern but to dominate the headlines, to turn institutions into mirrors that only reflect one man.

Welcome back to The Lincoln Logue. Let’s get into it.

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Monday, September 22 — Newsom vs. Trump: Masked Police Edition

▌The feds want masks for “protection”; the state says “only criminals wear those.”

California took a swing at the Trump administration’s immigration machine by passing a law banning ICE and other officers from hiding their faces during raids. Governor Gavin Newsom framed it as a push for accountability, a way to stop what he called “secret police” from terrorizing communities. The law requires names and badge numbers to be visible, making it harder for federal agents to operate like a paramilitary force. State Senator Scott Wiener, who wrote the bill, said plainly: “No one wants masked officers roaming their communities and kidnapping people with impunity.”

Trump’s reaction was swift and furious. The Department of Homeland Security declared it would “NOT comply” with the law, calling it unconstitutional and dangerous. Officials insisted masks are necessary because ICE agents face a 1,000% rise in assaults and targeted harassment. That argument fits Trump’s larger narrative of law enforcement as victims rather than aggressors, turning accountability measures into supposed death threats. But the bigger question isn’t safety gear; it’s whether federal power can trample state laws designed to protect residents. By branding California’s move as a PR stunt, DHS made clear it sees transparency itself as an attack. This is the logic of Trumpism: anything that checks federal power is treasonous, and anyone who demands accountability is the enemy.

The legal battle will grind on in courts, but the stakes are broader than jurisdiction. If federal officers can roam streets masked and nameless, residents don’t live under law — they live under force. If California succeeds, it sets a precedent that states can curb federal abuses inside their borders. If it fails, the message is chilling: ICE operates above both state oversight and community consent. The clash is about sovereignty, but also about symbolism — whether democracy means government by visible, accountable agents, or by masked enforcers who answer only to one man. The masks may come off, but the deeper disguise remains: law and order as theater, with citizens left to wonder who’s behind the uniform.

Sources: BBC, The Hill...