#Trump is sowing #chaos at a blistering pace.
- Thomas B. Edsall
He “is dismantling #watchdog offices & other parts of the #PublicIntegrity apparatus for 2 reasons, one backward-looking & one forward-looking,” Richard Primus, a #law prof at the University of Michigan, wrote by email:
#felon47 #DOJ #JAG #accountability #criminal #corruption #MafiaState #kleptocracy #USpol
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/25/opinion/trump-agenda-firings-chaos.html?unlocked_article_code=1.z04.UfIN.jWziIQ-9S4EQ&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
“The backward-looking reason is #revenge. Some of these people & offices have stood in his way before or tried to hold him accountable for his actions. So he wants to destroy them.
“The forward-looking reason is…to use his #power corruptly. In his first term, #Trump #profiteered from his office in ways that no other post-Watergate president would have dared…, including by encouraging diplomatic travelers from foreign countries to patronize his hotels.
#felon47 #DOJ #JAG #MafiaState #kleptocracy
“He got away with it. So he expects, reasonably, that he can do it again.”
#Trump & his allies are using their drive to slash the size of the federal work force to break the bonds of #restraint. To do so, they are deploying a strategy of #intimidation, #punishment & #coercion. They have silenced #watchdog agencies, discharged prosecutors, forced resignations & dismissed government officials whose job it was to maintain #ethical standards.
Rosa Brooks, a law professor at Georgetown, succinctly summed up #Trump’s goal in a comment she posted on X. Citing the firing on Feb 21 of top lawyers for the #Army, #Navy & #AirForce, Brooks wrote, “It’s what you do when you’re planning to break the #law: you get rid of any lawyers who might try to slow you down.”