Our new book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration has been full of ominous developments.
Whether we are a hybrid regime or a full police state is debatable, but after the events of last week, our democracy and the rule of law appear to be in tatters. Consider that in a single week, Trump:
- Forced out a U.S. attorney to put in an utterly unqualified flunky who overrode the recommendation of career prosecutors and barely obtained a patently absurd criminal indictment (a classic vindictive prosecution) against former FBI director James Comey based on a “false statement.” (That statement is unspecified and, in all likelihood, not false. The government almost certainly cannot prove the requisite mens rea.)
- Demanded a private company fire former Justice Department deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco.
- Fired another U.S. attorney for abiding by a court order.
- Declared his intent to prosecute on nebulous grounds a private foundation that supports liberal causes.
- Issued a blatantly unconstitutional executive decree (based on a specious accusation that liberals are responsible for political violence) that “threatens criminal and civil investigations against nonprofits based on their point of view…. a thinly veiled ruse to crack down on its political opponents.”
- Demanded (with no legal justification whatsoever) that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth deploy military force in the entirely peaceful city of Portland, Oregon. (The long-threatened deployment to Memphis is planned for this week.)
- Unilaterally enacted more taxes (tariffs), this time on prescription drugs (at a 100% rate), heavy trucks, and furniture.
- Gleefully celebrated yet another gift of unchecked executive power from the MAGA partisan majority on the Supreme Court (which again acted by shadow docket decree, without full briefing or a complete opinion.)
- Imperiously threatened to undertake more unilateral firings and dismantle more federal government operations in the event Democrats do not provide votes to keep the government open.
