Words have power.
They can be used to spread truth, or corrupt with lies. To help, or to destroy. To spread hope or rob joy.
They also have the power of life or death. Which is why it matters when liberals call conservatives – or really just anyone who disagrees with them – some form of a “Nazi.”
One particularly egregious example that comes to mind is the recent commencement speech that failed former VP candidate Gov. Tim Walz gave at the University of Minnesota 2025 graduation ceremony. Walz had the ignorance and audacity to describe federal ICE agents as “Trump’s modern-day Gestapo.”
And that isn’t just a boldfaced lie – it’s dangerous.
Shortly after Walz’s speech, ICE Acting Director Todd M. Lyons released a statement, saying “On the final day of National Police Week — when those brave enough to put on a badge and a uniform mourn their fallen brothers and sisters — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz referred to my professional, hard-working ICE agents and officers as ‘modern-day Gestapo.’ This abhorrent, dehumanizing and ignorant comment should not be tolerated. It seems that Mr. Walz prefers violent criminal aliens are released into Minnesota’s communities. If the governor doesn’t like the laws, he’s free to advocate that Congress change them, but he should refrain from putting ICE officers in danger by likening them to one of the most appalling groups in history. Assaults against ICE officers are up over 400% from this time period last year, and part of that is because politicians like Gov. Walz are careless with their politically motivated rhetoric. He should issue an immediate apology to the men and women protecting his communities.”
The Department of Homeland Security also posted a statement on their X account in response, saying “It is absolutely sickening to compare ICE law enforcement agents to the Gestapo. Attacks and demonization of ICE and our partners is wrong. ICE officers are now facing a 413% increase in assaults….”
Officers are being increasingly assaulted because words have power.
Language has meaning, and definitions matter.
So, when the left decides to continually and intentionally misapply words like “Gestapo” or “Nazi” to American law enforcement officers, that’s a big problem. It erodes reality and leaves our brave men and women in uniform in grave danger. Despite the fact they are the sworn protectors of law and order and should represent safety and protection, they are rebranded as murderous, deceptive agents of evil, lurking around every corner and disappearing free citizens at whim.
This is a lie.
Let’s look at the word used by Walz to talk about ICE agents, “Gestapo.”
The Gestapo, or Geheime Staatspolizei, was the secret police force of Nazi Germany utilized during WWII as a “crucial weapon against perceived enemies of the state, including political dissidents, Jews, Romani people, and other marginalized groups.” The Gestapo had zero accountability to procedures, or the rule of law and could torture or kill anyone they wished.
They helped run concentration camps and oversaw mass murders throughout the war. They represented a true Orwellian Big Brother, implemented state-terror projects, controlled society on pure fear, and committed so many overt crimes against humanity that Gestapo agents were tried during the famous Nuremberg Trials.
In other words, ICE agents – or any U.S. government officials for that matter – are in no way, shape or form similar to the Gestapo. Yet the word, and words similar like “Nazi,” continue to be applied to officials in the Trump Administration.
What’s more upsetting is that by liberally applying these horrible terms so casually to those who don’t fit the description, the actual meaning and seriousness of the words are lost and watered down.
As one publication puts it, “The casual application of labels like “Nazi” or “fascist” — no matter how unfounded — runs the risk of desensitising society to what these terms really denote. The more we hurl such accusations around, the more we build a world where true evil is potentially normalised.”
The erosion of a term’s true meaning leads directly to a loss of reason – a break from reality.
It’s the same lack of meaning that promotes the lies of Antisemitism. “Queers for Palestine” is an oxymoron. Yet the pro-Gaza “Free Palestine” LGTBQ community doesn’t seem to understand that there are, in fact, no Queers in Palestine. Palestinians kill gay people. That’s well documented. Meanwhile in Israel there is a large and thriving LGTBQ community. So, using reason and facts, it should be “Queers for Israel,” yet here we are with people simultaneously wearing the rainbow LGTBQ flag pin and the Palestinian flag pin despite their complete ideological opposition to each other.
Facts don’t matter to a pervasive and violently ignorant ideology.
It is this same loss of meaning in words and reality which just resulted in the horrific murders of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrom in D.C. in front of the Jewish Museum. The soon-to-be-engaged couple worked at the Israeli embassy and were on a date when they were killed by an antisemitic terrorist who thinks Jews must die, Israel must be destroyed, and Zionists are evil.
He fired 21 bullets into the innocent Messianic Jewish couple.
This is what happens when you redefine good as evil.
Evil flourishes.
It’s worth noting that previous mentioned statistic – there has been a 413% increase in assaults on ICE officers. That means that the American men and women who work every single day to make America safe again face unprecedented danger and threats. Weak, virtueless men like Tim Walz – and those like him who vote and defend open borders and the chaos that inevitably follows – are the problem.
According to the FBI, in 2023 law enforcement agencies reported 79,091 assaults on officers across agencies – the highest recorded in 10 years.
Throughout various recent ICE specific incidents, illegal immigrants have broken ICE officer’s noses, punched an officer in the face unprovoked, caused bodily harm, including one incident with “significant groin bruising,” bit an officer’s finger so hard it was fractured, and have threatened to “cut off the heads of an ICE task force officer and members of his family” while the agent was executing a search warrant.
This will not abide.
These are not the best and brightest coming to America because they love our country and want to integrate and become a functioning member of our society.
These are not patriotic future American citizens.
These are criminals and gang members. These are violent men who have no respect for human life.
And these are the dangerous people our ICE officers have to go up against every single day without a moment’s hesitation.
That’s called bravery.
So when men like Tim Walz have the gall to equate these courageous ICE officers who are carrying out justice as laid forth by the law of the land with genocidal maniacs who have no respect for the frailty of human life – and he says it to a huge crowd of young, impressionable college graduates no less – those of us who know the truth have the responsibility to stand up and respond with a resounding “No.”
ICE officers carrying out the duties of their jobs are not anything like the Gestapo.
You cannot change the definitions of words as you please.
You cannot call order chaos.
You cannot rename the good as the bad, or relabel right as wrong.
We do not live in the Upside Down.
We live in the United States of America, where there is liberty and justice for all and we are making America safe again.