Trump Is Making His List and Checking It Twice

A Prominent Streamer's Brief Detention Is A Flashing Red Light

Today, El Salvador, tomorrow…Via Office of the President, El Salvador

We came back to the US last month after a two-week trip overseas. Moving through passport control at LAX, there are three lines: Global Entry, American Citizens, and everyone else. The process, intentional or not, is stark: All shiny floors, armed guards, low ceilings with glaring flourescents, and no windows.

Though there about 78 individual kiosks for Customs and Border Patrol officers to check passports, only five or six are ever occupied and in operation. Most of the time, you wait in line, step up when called, look in the camera, maybe answer a cursory question, and go onto Customs.

That was not the case for prominent progressive streamer Hasan Piker. As

Taylor Lorenz

reported Monday: “…[Piker] was detained by Customs and Border Protection for hours of question upon returning to the U.S. from a trip to France this weekend.”

Piker posted about the incident on Twitter and his channels recounting the line of questioning; asking about what he did for work, whether he ‘talked about the news,’ veered into questions about Israel and Gaza before the coup de grace: “Do you talk about Trump?”

He has been outspoken in his views about the war in Gaza. This is his FIRST Amendment right, of course. Piker was born in New Jersey: He is a natural born American citizen.

The Department of Homeland Security, for their part, admitted that he had been questioned, but it was ‘routine.’

If you believe this was routine, I have bridge in Arizona to sell you.

This isn’t the first reported incident of an American citizen being questioned about their opinions of the president. Late last month, comedian Jena Friedman reported she’d been questioned upon her return to the US from Vancouver, British Columbia.

With all due respect to passport control agents, even if they are supportive of the administration’s policies, they’re not ‘freelancing’ when questioning public figures.

Someone told them to do it.

Here’s the chain of command from the White House to the airport.

• The White House

• DHS Secretary Kristi “Where’s my wallet?” Noem

• DHS Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar

• Acting CBP Commissioner Pete Flores

• Acting CBP Deputy Commissioner John Modlin

• Acting Executive Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Field Operations Diane Sabatino

• The heads of 20 OFO field offices and 328 ports of entry.

DHS Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar. Does he make you feel safe?

The List

If someone told them to do detain Piker, that means there’s a List of people they’re on the lookout for.

If they’re on the lookout for people on The List, that means they’re tracking flight manifests looking for Americans on said List.

When one of these individuals is flagged, CBP agents know to track them coming through passport control.

Knowing what questions to ask an individual like Piker or Friedman, means someone has done enough research to know they’re supposed to be on The List.

We should assume The List is expansive and expanding.