Gardeners of the Galaxy

A 22-year old landscaper is in charge of domestic terrorism prevention. This is dictator shit.

Jun 23, 2025

Thomas Fugate is in charge of Homeland Security’s C3 anti-terrorism program.

This is Thomas Fugate, the head of a major counter-terrorism team at Homeland Security. He’s 22. His previous work experience is listed on LinkedIn as garden landscaper. He doesn’t have one day of experience in the national security field.

But he was a volunteer on the Trump campaign:

Loyalty kills. At a moment when Iranian sleeper cells could be mobilizing around us, the Trump administration has put a 22-year old Mar-a-Lago fanboy in charge of the C3 office. That Homeland Security organization has focussed on preventing targeted violence and domestic terrorism attacks. Since right-wing groups committed about 75% of political violence in the US over the last ten years, C3 mostly focussed on that. To prevent C3 from doing that job, the Trump administration put Fugate in place, weaponizing his incompetence and ordering him to fire people and redirect C3’s focus toward imaginary “border terrorism.” This kid who wouldn’t qualify for an interview for the lowest job available at Homeland Security was put in charge of a major counter-terrorism portfolio.

This is fascist creep. This is how populist dictators destroy their own societies rather than surrender their lies. Rulers from Juan Perón in 1940s Argentina to Victor Orban in today’s Hungary replace genuine solutions with loyalty oaths and utter incompetence. The resulting chaos doesn’t hurt them, only us.

We are more vulnerable every day.

The Authoritarians

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