Fred’s Weekly Note Archive
On Wednesday, April 30, Democracy 21 President Wertheimer received the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government for 2025. Previous recipients of the nonpartisan award include President Barack Obama, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Senator John McCain, and Representatives John Lewis and Liz Cheney. The following are excerpts from Fred’s remarks at the […]
President Donald Trump started governing the country by executive order from Day One of his second term. Since January 20, Trump has issued 137 executive orders. This compares with 162 executive orders issued by President Joe Biden over his entire four-year term and the 276 orders issued over eight years by President Barack Obama. In issuing this explosion […]
It took Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, to illustrate to Americans just how dangerous our corrupt campaign finance system can be. This system allowed Musk to contribute more than $250 million to help elect Donald Trump in 2024, making him Trump’s single biggest financial supporter. In turn, President Trump made Musk his governing partner. Following […]
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on voting last month called Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections. Based on past performance, however, we can be confident that preserving and protecting integrity was anything but his goal. The Republican-backed SAVE Act, passed in the House on Thursday, falls into the same category. Like Trump’s executive order, it […]
Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) left a shameful and indelible mark on American history with his lies, vitriol, baseless attacks on innocent Americans, and “Red Scare” tactics that cast a dark shadow over the 1950s. But there’s another Senator from that era who deserves to be remembered for her stand against McCarthy: Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME). […]
The rule of law is foundational to our system of constitutional government. It is not, however, foundational to President Donald Trump, who is attacking the rule of law in the same way that a dictator would. The rule of law is a core principle under which all persons, institutions, and entities are accountable to laws that are: […]
When President Donald Trump, in one of his irrational online rants, called for the impeachment of U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg this week, he engaged in a gross misuse of his office and took another step toward a head-on confrontation with the federal judiciary. Trump already has spurred multiple head-on confrontations with a compliant […]
President Donald Trump has moved swiftly in the early weeks of his second presidency with a game plan based on anger, hate, revenge, and destruction. He appears to be out to turn our democracy into an autocracy. Trump, assisted by his partner Elon Musk, is conducting a frontal assault on our government and civil service […]
It took Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, to illustrate to Americans just how dangerous our corrupt campaign finance system is. This corrupt system allowed Musk to contribute more than $250 million to help elect Donald Trump in 2024, making him Trump’s single biggest financial supporter. In turn, Musk was richly rewarded by President Trump, who […]
In 2016, Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the FEC and, later, a criminal complaint with the Justice Department, following reports that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was soliciting foreign contributions, a clear violation of campaign finance laws. Our complaints, investigative news reports, and the clarity of the law didn’t deter Trump and his […]
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