Breaking news late on Friday.
A federal appeals court panel by a 7-4 vote has ruled that many of Donald Trump’s tariffs were illegally imposed. The Supreme Court will almost certainly review the decision.
And Trump served notice he’s going to cancel nearly $5 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid funding. To say the least it is a legally questionable action.
Oh, a Trump cancelled Kamala Harris’ Secret Service protection because, well, I guess because he can.
And the White House fired a bunch of EPA staff Friday who had the temerity to sign a letter two months ago questioning the agency’s leadership.
Meanwhile, Happy Labor Day. The Chaos Presidency rolls into September.
In a piece I wrote for the Lewiston (Idaho) Tribune this week, I offered a sad despondent frightened pessimistic view of where we are with this administration.
Read on if you can take it.
With the exception of a similar comment Richard Nixon made after he was forced to resign the presidency – if the president does it, Nixon said, it’s not illegal – no American president, at least out loud and in public, has said anything approaching what Donald Trump said this week.
“I have the right to do anything I want to do,” Trump said. “I’m the president of the United States.”
What a totally remarkable, utterly frightening and profoundly unAmerican thing for the president of the United States to say.
Yet in another sense what Trump said is true because our now badly diminished 250-year-old system of checks and balances, designed from the beginning to constrain and even remove an imperial president, are failing by the hour.
As the historian Garrett Graff wrote recently:
“The president’s military occupation of the capital has escalated in recent days into something not seen since British troops marched the streets of colonial Boston – even though precisely nothing has happened to warrant it, the Pentagon has now armed the National Guard patrolling DC and armored vehicles, designed for the worst of combat, are patrolling the capital.”
But illegally using the military for police work, with I might add the enthusiastic support or several red state governors, actions that will almost certainly expand to other major cities, is hardly the least of our new king’s ongoing power grabs.
Check the boxes.
Consolidate control over the U.S. military.
Check.
Trump has now fired most of the top leadership at the Pentagon, always without explanation, and installed an eminently unqualified Fox News host as secretary of defense. The latest firing was of a respected three-star Air Force general – the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency – who contradicted Trump’s statements about “completely destroying” Iran’s nuclear weapons development program.
Attempt to destroy the historic independence of the Federal Reserve.
Check.
Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the Fed board, vows to fight for her job after Trump “fired” her. Her job allegedly comes with Senate confirmation, a 14-year term and a mandate for independence from political pressure. Speculation holds that Trump will next target the regional Fed presidents. What could possibly go wrong?
Demand government ownership, which is to say Trump ownership, of big pieces of corporate America.
Check.
Intel’s CEO was attacked by Trump, then went to the White House and capitulated, agreeing to a 10% ownership stake in his company by the federal government. Trump demanded 15% of the sales of chip maker Nvidia and presto he seems to have gotten it. Maybe Micron is next, or Apple or Cracker Barrel. ¹
Harass critics of his policies, even ones that served in his previous administration.
Check.
John Bolton, the former Trump National Security Advisor’s home was raided, clearly at Trump’s instigation. Trump made threats to former confidante Chris Christie, and unsubstantiated charges against a U.S. senator and the attorney general of New York. All of it amplified by the Justice Department and the FBI.
Punish government whistleblowers.
Check.
More than 100 employees of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), worried that the administration has gutted the agency designed to help when natural disaster strikes, wrote an open letter to Congress voicing their concerns. Then more than 30 of those employees were suspended with no explanation, but after saying they hoped their warnings would “come in time to prevent not only another national catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina, but the effective dissolution of FEMA itself and the abandonment of the American people such an event would represent.”
Shake down major universities for alleged offenses that lack both good faith and the thinnest pretense of fact.
Check.
Harvard is fighting to maintain its research dollars under relentless pressure from Trump. Do you think the University of Idaho or Washington State or Brigham Young University are safe from such intimidation? If so, you’re smoking something – again.
Rig the midterms by demanding that Texas, Indiana and other red states redistrict congressional seats in order to gerrymander more Republicans into Congress.
Check.
Trump has reversed election security efforts taken during his first term and appointed a conspiracy theorist who has repeatedly misrepresented the 2020 election to be in charge of election “security” at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Trump also demanded that state officials turn over detailed voter information to him. “The hiring of an election conspiracy theorist with no election knowledge or expertise is the culmination of this reversal,” said David Becker who heads a non-profit working to improve public confidence in elections. “DHS now appears poised to become a primary amplifier of false election conspiracies pushed by our enemies.” For good measure, Trump attacks mail in voting.
Destroy the Centers for Disease Control by firing the top scientist.
Check.
Susan Monarez, a long-time government scientist, was sacked by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. who really didn’t have the authority to do so, but never mind. Donald Trump decided he would personally neuter the CDC. In turn a group of senior leaders quit. Pray we don’t face another pandemic.
Blatant, massive, out in the open corruption that would make Nero blush.
Check.
Reporter David D. Kirkpatrick examined the public record and calculated, conservatively, that Trump has made $3.4 billion in real estate deals, licensing deals, crypto scams, a luxury Qatari jet and much more while president. “When it comes to using his public office to amass personal profits,” says Fred Wertheimer of Common Cause, “Trump is a unicorn – no one else even comes close.”
I have the right to do anything I want to do …
All of this, every bit of this and more, is beyond what we have ever seen in American democracy, which leads to the inescapable conclusion that we have stumbled our way across a line I never thought Americans would tolerate. To again quote historian Garrett Graff, the United States “has tipped over the edge into authoritarianism and fascism.”
If you are among the 40% or so of Americans – if you believe the polls – who support Donald Trump’s approach to the presidency my recounting of his actions likely brings a smile. You like the idea of a strongman president defying the law, tradition and any constraint on his actions.
As long as Trump is going after his enemies – and yours – it’s all good, right?
“I have the right to do anything I want to do,” the man says. “I’m the president of the United States.”
But think for a moment: where does it stop? Can it be stopped now?
Political scientist Norm Ornstein has been warning of this moment for some time. And Norm asked the obvious question this week: “Who will step up and restore any sense of checks and balances?”
Surely not a Republican Congress.
Don’t delude yourself that the Supreme Court will restore some sense of balance and constrain on a runaway president. A majority of the Court made him nearly entirely immune for his “official” actions and have repeatedly allowed him to do things that other presidents didn’t dream of trying.
Can we really count on a fair and free election next year or in 2028? A plot is afoot in plain sight to make sure Trumpism never loses.
And what does it mean for you, even my Trump supporting American friends who like the strongman idea, the guy who breaks instead of building?
Do you really want so much “power” in one man’s (tiny) hands? Is “democracy” by retribution really democracy?
And what if the script flips?
What if the next unconstrained, lawless president makes you or your business or your college or your city a target? Are your mortgage documents in order? How about that business loan 20 years ago? Ever late with your taxes? All they need is a pretense. Just make the charge and charge ahead. That’s where we are.
First they came for a Fed governor, or a senator I don’t particularly like but it didn’t affect me …
Don’t think it’s possible that you or someone you care about might be a target?
Don’t kid yourself.
Today is very different than any day before. And tomorrow will be worse.
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