Trump’s Authoritarianism is on Full Display - Horowitz

Trump’s Authoritarianism is on Full Display - Horowitz

For those observers who believed warnings that a Trump second term would pose a serious threat to our democracy were overblown, the past few weeks should have been eye-opening. At this point, it takes willful blindness to refuse to see that President Trump is employing naked and often lawless intimidation tactics against his political opponents, going as far as instructing his attorney general to prosecute them, as well as wielding the power of the government to silence colleges and universities, media outlets, law firms, and yes, even comedians who refuse to get in line and dare to stand up to him.  In his second term, the president’s north star is the iron-fisted approach of Viktor Orban and other authoritarian rulers—not our own democratic traditions and values.

 

From day one of his new term, it was evident that the arms-length relationship between the president and investigation and prosecution decisions made by the Justice Department--put in place nearly 50 years ago because of Watergate-era abuses and corruption--was going to go by the wayside. Over the weekend, however, Mr. Trump took putting his hands on the scales of justice--or in this case injustice--to a whole new level, directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to move faster to indict those he believes have done him wrong. “Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, “same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Letitia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done,” President Trump posted on Truth Social.

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“…We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!! President DJT”

 

This cannot be dismissed as just another one of the president’s periodic social media rants. At the same time as he was publicly demanding these prosecutions, Mr. Trump forced the resignation of well-regarded US Attorney Erik Siebert, over the objections of his own top Justice Department officials, because of his refusal to indict Letitia James, the New York attorney general.  A target of the president’s because she brought civil fraud cases against him, Ms. James was alleged to have committed mortgage fraud. Siebert, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, did not proceed against her, despite pressure from the White House, because he found insufficient evidence of wrongdoing. Mr. Trump’s designated replacement, Lindsey Halligan, an assistant White House counsel, will presumably be more compliant.

 

In another recent example of mounting strong-man tactics, government coercion fully endorsed by Mr. Trump was a prime mover in Disney’s decision to suspend the Jimmy Kimmel Show. FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened the broadcast licenses of ABC affiliates that continued to carry the show in the wake of inartful and inaccurate comments that the comedian made about MAGA’s reaction to the death of Charlie Kirk in the lead up to a joke. Mr. Carr’s threat to revoke broadcast licenses or fail to renew them based on the content of one late-night show far exceeds any reasonable interpretation of the FCC’s public interest standard.  But he does maintain maximum leverage over Nextstar, the company that forced the hands of Disney, ABC’s parent company, by announcing it would preempt Kimmel on its 28 local ABC affiliates. Nextstar’s pending $6.4 billion merger with Tegna requires FCC approval and an exemption from the rule that no one company can own local broadcast stations that exceed 39% of the U.S. population.

 

The Trump administration is also weaponizing the senseless killing of Charlie Kirk, using it as a pretext to investigate liberal organizations, including the Ford and Open Society Foundations, which it views as political opponents. Instead of bringing the nation together around opposition to political violence, Mr. Trump is using the assassination as a cudgel against people with views he disfavors, inventing a nexus that doesn’t exist to somehow define them as purveyors of violence. More to the point, he is planning to use the power of the federal government to punish people and organizations that he believes are opponents of his administration and are working against him and his policies.  

 

It is time for all of us to stand up to the authoritarian-in-chief. But it is particularly incumbent on leaders of media corporations, universities, law firms, and elected officials--those with deep pockets as well as their own considerable power and reach to the broad public---to stop caving in and demonstrate a modicum of backbone. To those who have reaped an outsize share of all the opportunities open to them in this imperfect, but still great and free nation, now is the time to risk a little of one’s own success to do right by your fellow Americans. As Ben Franklin famously remarked, when asked during the time of the Constitutional Convention, what kind of government was being formed, “A Republic, if we can keep it.”