Last December, Donald Trump said he wanted to be a dictator on “Day One.” He’s now at Day 250+ of his second term and he’s behaving more like a dictator every day—and a massively corrupt and vindictive one at that.
Trump has moved from verbally blasting the media as purveyors of “fake news” to putting free speech and the First Amendment in dire peril, which has dropped from the legitimate Topic A of national political discussion to Topic B.
Topic A now is the government shutdown, with threatened mass firings of federal workers, shut-downs of all but essential federal services, worries about how long it will last and how much damage it will do to the US economy—and which party will suffer politically from the shutdown.
At the moment, it looks to me as though Democrats will get the blame. As usual, their communications are lame: they keep repeating the mantra of “health care” and it’s true that Republicans have passed a spending bill that the Congressional Budget Office figures will cause 15 to 16 million people to lose their health insurance. But I haven’t heard any Democratic leader cite that finding. Or call on real patients and family members who will suffer.
Meantime, Republicans’ messaging is effective: all we want to pass now is a short-term extension of existing programs (till Nov. 21) in order to keep the government open—a “continuing resolution” that’s been the vehicle for avoiding shutdowns numerous times. If we pass this CR now, we can negotiate about health care during the normal appropriations process, but Democrats are holding the country hostage.
Democrats think they have to act now at a point of maximum leverage, but it looks as though they’re yielding to left-wingers in their party who are criticizing their leaders for not acting tough enough. In truth, they also don’t believe Republicans will ever negotiate in good faith.
We’ll see how this contest plays out, hopefully not too painfully for the nation. If the government stays shut for weeks or longer, both parties may suffer, as they should. In the meantime, the outrages continue:
Crypto-Corruption
Trump has moved from self-enrichment during his first term using his hotels, golf courses and Mar-a-Lago to making billions of dollars selling crypto currency (among other grifts).
On Sept. 15, The New York Times published a lengthy investigative story on the the biggest sale yet—the United Arab Emirates’ purchase of $2 billion worth of crypto currency from a Trump company followed two weeks later by Trump’s granting permission for the UAE to purchase 500,000 of the world’s highest quality computer chips per year.
The Times did not allege that the crypto purchase was a bribe to secure the computer chips. But the confluence of events is certainly suspicious and worth Watergate-level follow-up.
Trump’s company, World Liberty Financial, is thought to be worth more than $5 billion, though crypto purchases are secret. Bloomberg has estimated that the UAE purchase increased Trump’s net worth by $670 million immediately (other sources say his family’s gain was $1.17 billion.) Trump can’t pocket $4 billion in unrealized gains, but when he can, his take will top $5 billion.
Even if the crypto/chips exchange was not a direct payoff, Trump is certainly guilty of massively enriching himself and his family from a foreign government, which would violate the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause.
The semi-conductor sale also has raised national security worries. The Biden administration restricted transfer of advanced semi-conductors to foreign countries, concerned that they might be acquired by China. The UAE has close military and commercial relations with both the US and China.
Trump and major chip firms like Nvidia and their lobbyists actually want to sell the chips to China as part of a strategy to make the US the world’s leading provider of advanced semiconductors. The wisdom of that also deserves exploration.
During his first term, Trump was a strong crypto critic on the grounds that it was a vehicle for drug dealers and other criminals. But in his second, he’s become a major crypto champion and investor. He’s blocked the SEC from regulating the crypto industry and just stopped the Justice Department from investigating or prosecuting crypto criminality.
Presidents and vice presidents are exempt from conflict-of-interest laws. The Founders believed that public disclosure would be an adequate deterrent to presidential corruption. Most presidents have divested themselves from their businesses or put them into blind trusts to avoid the appearance of conflicts. But Trump has not. To the contrary, he’s used every device possible to monetize his office.
No one has ever been penalized for violating the Emoluments Clause, but Trump has been profligate about taking foreign money, the biggest previous case being his acceptance of a luxury 747 jet from Qatar that the US Air Force will have to spend $1 billion to retrofit for use as Air Force One, after which it will be used not as a presidential plane for his successors, but will be Trump’s to do with as he sees fit.
A Culture of Retribution
In keeping with his pre-election threats, Trump has used government agencies to punish or harass perceived enemies (who number more than 100, according to NPR)—the latest being former FBI Director James Comey, whom he ordered his no-longer-independent Justice Department to prosecute for allegedly lying to Congress during its investigation of Trump’s ties to Russia in 2020.
He said that Comey would not be the last to be prosecuted. News reports suggest his next may be Christopher Wray, whom Trump accuses of lying about (almost certainly mythological) FBI participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. But Trump has at least seven more adversaries under investigation.
Among them are retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, former CIA director John Brennan, Sen. Adam Schiff, Trump’s former National Security advisor John Bolton, plus George Soros and Reid Hoffman, Democratic donors he’s accused of financing “organized political violence.”
Also, as part of his effort to assert power over the Federal Reserve (set up by Congress to be independent of political influence), he’s attempting to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook on the (weak) grounds she committed fraud by listing two homes on a mortgage application.
These are recent actions following the firing of FBI agents and prosecutors who worked on his criminal indictments and two impeachments. Other targets were several law firms, universities, NGOs, media outlets, protestors, and officials of the Biden administration whose security clearances were revoked and Secret Service protection withdrawn.
At Charlie Kirk’s funeral, after Kirk’s widow, Erika, forgave Kirk’s assassin and said “the answer to hate is not hate” Trump said he disagreed with her and Charlie and “I hate my opponent.”
Orwellian Manipulation of Information
Trump’s Federal Communications chairman pressured ABC and its parent company, Disney, to put late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel on “indefinite suspension” for remarks he made after Chris Kirk’s assassination. Fortunately the suspension was lifted after five days of intense backlash and a drop in Disney’s stock price.
Trump had the gall to tell the United Nations General Assembly to “let us defend free speech and free expression” even as his administration has sued media outlets for defamation and threatened to repeal the tax exemptions of organizations who’ve opposed his policies on diversity or immigration. He’s also threatening to defund the Democratic opposition by investigating and perhaps dismantling Act Blue.
The Justice Department just deleted a study from its website showing that “far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically-motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists.”
Republicans were largely silent about Trump’s actions—with the surprising exception of conservative Ted Cruz, who criticized the administration’s crackdown on free speech as “reminiscent of “Mafia-style intimidation.”
Also, the Pentagon decreed new rules requiring journalists to report only information that was previously authorized on pain of losing their credentials and possibly being declared security risks.
And the Department of Agriculture eliminated a report tracking food insecurity in America, which certainly will rise following cuts in the SNAP (formerly food stamp) program affecting 3 million people.
Previously, the government deleted thousands of pages of reports on climate change and other environmental deterioration. The Energy Department just removed “climate change” and “emissions” from its website and publications.
Trump is not only blocking free expression but also the public’s right to know what the government is doing,
Power Grabs
Trump has taken over the power of another agency set up by Congress to be independent—the Merit Systems Protection Board, designed to protect civil servants from political or unjustified firing. His Justice Department ruled that managing the federal workforce is inherently a presidential power.
The upshot is that Trump’s mass firings or those to come cannot be appealed. The Supreme Court has upheld his power to fire at will. What’s coming is a return to the Spoils System, which preceded 19th Century Civil Service reforms.
Trump is also sending federalized National Guard troops to two more cities governed by Democrats—Portland, OR, and Chicago— against the wishes of their governors and mayors and has also authorized a deployment to Memphis, TN. Trump has declared occupied cities “out of control.” The troops often are not performing crime control, but are protecting or assisting masked ICE and Border Patrol agents who are ruthlessly rounding up undocumented immigrants for deportation. Chicago and Portland are suing to have the troops removed on grounds it violates the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act.
Strutting in front of the Generals
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth got the bright idea of calling 800 US generals and admirals from all over the world to Quantico, VA. The cost is estimated at up to $9 million and the officers were being diverted from their national security tasks for what turned out to be a lecture from Hegseth on his ending “political correctness” in the military (meaning women in combat roles and blacks and women in top command jobs suspected of being diversity hires) and guaranteeing that troops would not sport beards or long hair.
Naturally, Trump could not resist the opportunity to attend and delivered a 76-minute speech in which he floated the idea of training military personnel in US cities to “defend the borders of our country after we’ve defended the borders of other countries.’’ Deploying active duty troops for domestic purposes violates Posse Comitatus.
The Defense Department is equipped with some of the most sophisticated communications equipment in the world and Hegseth easily could have spoken to the brass at less expense and disruption. Journalists attending the session described the officers as “expressionless,” and “restless” and the remarks were “met with silence.” Applause was sparse until the close and reactions ranged from polite laughter to visible discomfort.
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