We’ve long known that Donald Trump wanted to step outside of the constitutional role of the presidency and rule as an authoritarian. What’s scary is the degree to which we’re now seeing that he has managed to bend the U.S. government into what he wants, despite the constitutional and institutional protections that were supposed to be in place. We saw it when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defended Trump’s altered hurricane map over the facts, and we’re seeing it in massively consequential ways as an impeachment inquiry launches.
Attorney General William Barr is traveling the globe, meeting with foreign governments, and asking them to undermine U.S. intelligence to satisfy Trump’s obsession with proving that Russia did not interfere to his benefit in the 2016 elections. (Russia very much did.) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is trying to block current and former State Department officials from testifying to Congress, at the same time as he’s investigating more than 100 other officials for the crime of having emailed then-Secretary Hillary Clinton with information that has been retroactively classified.
The Washington Post reports on just how this is happening: Trump has gotten rid of everyone who was in his administration who ever stood up to him even a little. And now “I’m not sure there are many, if any, left who view as their responsibility trying to help educate, moderate, enlighten and persuade — or even advise in many cases,” a former senior official told the Post. “There’s a new ethos: This is a presidency of one.”
“He continues to go further and further and further, and now I don’t think there’s anybody telling him, ‘No.’” Yeah, well, from the outside it looks like the way to know who told Trump no is to see who leaves the administration. But increasingly, the degree to which Trump has stocked his administration with loyalists and fanatics means that top officials are actually abusing power to make him happy and—not coincidentally—weaken democratic norms for the long term versus just soothing his ego and carrying out an extreme but arguably lawful Republican agenda.
If you’re not frightened, you should be.