[Order a copy of Robert Spencer’s forthcoming book, Muhammad: A Critical Biography, by clicking here.]

Oh, the media is going to have a field day with this. Bad Orange Man, never content with the depths of villainy he has already reached, has hit yet another new low: he has tabbed someone who is on a terror watch list, and is heavily monitored every time she flies, to help him prepare for his debate with the pure, sinless, and wise Democrat presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris. What next? Will Trump hijack a jetliner and, screaming “Insurrection!,” fly it straight into the Capitol dome?

Fox News reported Saturday about Trump’s latest atrocity: “former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has been enlisted by former president Trump to give him some valuable insights ahead of his upcoming debates against the 2024 Democratic nominee.” The focus of evil in the modern world decided to get help from Gabbard because she “memorably scorched Harris in a 2019 primary debate where she hammered Harris for jailing hundreds of Californians for marijuana violations while she was attorney general, yet bragged about her own use of the drug.”

Gabbard’s low opinion of Harris hasn’t changed. She now says: “I think she revealed in that [July 2019] debate the same thing that I think her campaign handlers are worried about right now.. Kamala Harris is an empty suit. They are trying to create this new version of Kamala Harris to match what their pollsters are telling them, so she can say whatever she needs to say to try to win over voters, which is the most offensive thing because they think we’re so stupid as to forget what her record actually is.”

That all sounds great, but let’s keep it in perspective. Our government tells us that it suspects that Tulsi Gabbard is a terrorist, and our government wouldn’t lie to us, now, would it? UndercoverDC broke the story two weeks ago: “several Federal Air Marshal whistleblowers have come forward with information showing that former U.S. Representative and Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard is currently enrolled in the Quiet Skies program. Quiet Skies is a TSA surveillance program with its own compartmentalized suspected terrorist watchlist.” This must be a mistake, right? Oh, no.

Now, you’d think that a terrorist watchlist would be reserved for, you know, terrorists, but come on, man! In the Brave New World of the Biden-Harris regime, we know that terrorists include such people as parents at school board meetings protesting Critical Race Theory indoctrination and pro-life Catholics. So why not Tulsi Gabbard, who has dared to criticize this most thin-skinned of regimes more than once?

Yet it is important to remember one small detail: Tulsi Gabbard isn’t actually a terrorist. She is a high-profile politician and as such is essentially no terror risk whatsoever. And so what was going on was clear. Gabbard recalled: “I use my military ID to get through security sometimes,” but now this no longer worked. One TSA agent was puzzled, and asked her: “Why are you Quad-S? You’re in the military?” Gabbard replied: “That’s exactly what I’m wondering. Then I said, ‘The only thing I can think of is, I work in politics.’ And he said, oh.” Oh, indeed.

First the Biden regime turned the law enforcement apparatus of the United States government against its principal opponent, Donald Trump. But it was never going to end with Trump. UndercoverDC noted that “Air Marshals were first assigned to Gabbard on Jul. 23, a day after she criticized Kamala Harris, Biden, and the National Security State in an interview with Laura Ingraham. FAMs were mobilized on Jul. 24 and assigned to their first flight with her on Jul. 25.” What a coincidence!

And so now it appears that the Biden regime has weaponized not just the Justice Department but also the government’s counterterror apparatus and who knows what else against its political enemies. The harassment of Gabbard, in fact, follows the pattern of authoritarian regimes from the past: a vocal critic of the regime is targeted in a way that may initially appear clumsy and pointless. After all, Gabbard just suffered some inconvenience in being delayed at airports.

But the idea is to show that the government is in total control and can do anything to anyone. If it can classify Gabbard as a terrorist and treat her as one just for criticizing the regime, it can eventually also imprison her or worse without due process. And the rest of the population is put on notice: don’t criticize the regime, or bad things will happen to you. And Trump, in enlisting Gabbard’s help now, is just reinforcing the regime’s contention that its opponents are bad, dangerous people who must be watched at all times. That’s what authoritarian regimes do.