On October 25, 1983, President Ronald Reagan authorized a secret invasion of the tiny Caribbean island nation of Grenada. The U.S. had consistently claimed that leftist President Maurice Bishop’s construction — with Cuban assistance — of a new airport on the island would assist the Soviet Union in placing attack aircraft capable of bombing the U.S. in the Caribbean and had agitated for Bishop’s removal. Within days of Bishop being deposed and ultimately killed, U.S. troops descended on the country. Reagan’s justification boiled down to a claim that the invasion prevented Cuba and the Soviet Union from taking control of another country in the Western Hemisphere. Some 19 U.S. military personnel were killed in the invasion, as were 25 Cuban nationals and more than 60 Grenadians. In one Navy airstrike early on in the invasion, the U.S. bombed a civilian hospital, killing at least 12 people and possibly as many as 47. The U.N. Security Council condemned the invasion as “a flagrant violation of international law” by a vote of 11-1, with the U.S. vetoing the measure.
In the immediate aftermath of the invasion, Joe Biden emerged as one of the Reagan administration’s strongest defenders among Democrats. After receiving a classified briefing from William Casey, Reagan’s CIA director, Biden said, “I’ve now seen facts sufficient to put me in a position of saying I think the president was right” to invade Grenada. On Day Three of the invasion, Biden voted in favor of invoking the War Powers Act to limit the timeframe that U.S. forces could remain in combat in Grenada without further congressional authorizations.
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.
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IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
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I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
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