We should be talking about masked government agents, endless war, disappearing constitutional safeguards and an imperial presidency accountable to no one. It runs through the administration’s approach to political opponents, dissent, immigration enforcement, executive power and constitutional limits. “A head for an eye” may be Trump’s philosophy of war, but it is also a warning about the kind of government that philosophy produces. This is what government without constitutional limits looks like: war without accountability, policing without transparency, surveillance without warrants, propaganda without shame and power without restraint. Federal agencies resist transparency, police investigate themselves, and private contractors help the government evade constitutional limits.