On Monday, federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security raided the Washington DC area home of Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota congresswoman and a progressive Democrat, in the latest instance of Donald Trump’s effort to weaponize the national security state to harass, punish and embarrass his political opponents.

The raid, which was approved by a judge after a reportedly extensive back and forth with federal security officials, was nominally carried out in connection with a spurious criminal investigation into Omar’s childhood immigration to the US.

In reality, the episode is best understood as a bit of political theater. It was meant to embarrass Omar, a Black, immigrant Muslim woman in Congress whose ascent to national political prominence has become a symbol to the Maga right of the resentments and threats posed by pluralism.

It was meant to cast an air of suspicion and criminality over the Democratic candidates who, like Omar, are facing the voters in a matter of weeks.

It was meant to make the president seem strong and appease the racist impulses of his base as his party faces down what is expected to be a trouncing in November’s midterm elections.

And it was meant to convey, both to this wavering base and to the nation at large, the Maga movement’s vision of law and citizenship, which the president views not as guarantors........

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