If He Barks like an Autocrat and Governs Like an Autocrat, He’s an …
Trump now has all the power tools that autocrats (and dictators) use to exercise singular control over their nations.
Trump’s authoritarian resources include:
- A masked, nameless and secret national police force, aka ICE.
- Absolute and unaccountable presidential control of the Justice Department and the FBI, courtesy of a disastrous Supreme Court decision.
- An unprecedented Justice Department section to be placed inside the White House to “investigate fraud” that reports directly to the president and vice president and is likely to be used for political purposes.
- A military whose leaders have been willing to undertake combat missions that apparently violate the law of war and the U.S. code of military justice.
- A Justice Department and Defense Department willing to criminally investigate, harass and punish Democratic Senators and House members despite having no legitimate grounds for doing so.
Trump’s rules for demanding criminal investigations, indictments and prosecutions have nothing to do with the law, the facts or the merits. They are driven by his own desires and momentary whims to punish, pressure and harass perceived enemies or opponents.
Trump says, in essence, vengeance is mine, but he is anything but the Lord. (despite delusionally saying “I run the country and the world.”)
There are early signs that his reach at last may be exceeding his grasp.
Trump’s owned and operated Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. This follows months of Trump pressuring and attacking Powell for not lowering interest rates.
Powell has responded by challenging the president head on, saying:
No one, certainly not the chair of the Federal Reserve, is above the law, but this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration’s threats and ongoing pressure. Those are pretexts. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president.
Trump appears to have seriously overreached with this move, triggering a strong and bipartisan backlash to his obvious effort to attempt to punish Powell for not lowering interest rates.
This was followed by Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin and three Democratic House members revealing that they are being investigated by the Justice Department apparently for telling the truth in an ad (they said it is illegal for military personnel to comply with an illegal order – it is).
Democratic Senator Mark Kelly appeared in the same ad, which resulted in Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issuing a letter of censure and moving to reduce the retired Kelly’s rank and pension. It’s almost predictable at this point that Hegseth had previously expressed the same position. Kelly has sued Hegseth for violating his freedom of speech.
These “investigations” and “actions” against the Democratic members of Congress are without any legitimate basis and they are fighting back,
Meanwhile, Trump has orchestrated vengeance and retribution campaigns against former FBI Director James Comey, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, and Senator Adam Schiff. To date, he has failed miserably to get the criminal indictments he desperately wants.
Yet, Trump continues to attempt to bully everyone he can to get his way.
According to published reports, “President Trump criticized a group of U.S. attorneys at a White House event last week, calling them weak and complaining they weren’t moving fast enough to prosecute his favored targets, according to people familiar with the exchange.” He improperly and recklessly demanded criminal prosecutions, having no idea if his targets are guilty of any crimes.
“Irresponsible” barely describes Trump’s unhinged behavior. Nor does the administration’s indefensible approach to the tragic killing of Renee Good, a mother of three, by an ICE Officer, with no apparent justification.
Instead of opening an investigation into what happened in the killing of Good, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche moved quickly to announce there would be no criminal investigation of the ICE officer who killed Good.
At the same time, senior Justice Department officials outrageously have pushed for an investigation of the victim and her widow to see if they had any damaging ties in Minnesota – a disgraceful attempt to try to smear the victim and her widow.
This led six U.S. attorneys in the Minneapolis office to resign, rather than take part in this apparent effort by senior Justice Department officials to deep six the killing.
The American people are fighting back.
More voices are saying that Trump, a convicted criminal and a serial lawbreaker, will not define us.
This will be a long battle. But in the year of our country’s 250th birthday, We the People will prevail just as the people did in the American revolution. The United States will continue to stand tall, long after Donald Trump is gone from the White House.
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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter, and other recent editions, here. And subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
