The Russians speak of “power ministries,” the departments that have significant legal and coercive capacity. In the United States, those include the Justice Department, the Defense Department, the FBI, and the intelligence community. Trump has now named sycophants to lead each of these institutions, a move that eliminates important obstacles to his frequently expressed desires to use the armed forces, federal law-enforcement agents, intelligence professionals, and government lawyers as he chooses, unbounded by the law or the Constitution. If you want to assemble the infrastructure of an authoritarian government, this is how you do it.
This Atlantic magazine commentary goes to the heart of Trump's attempt to replace the FBI director with an Soviet-style apparatchik. It's about control of every part of the government that can investigate and use violence on Americans who dare to oppose Dear Leader. But we have to keep in mind that the FBI (and the intelligence community, etc.) do not have clean hands. Alongside the many vital things they've done to protect us, they have – for decades – relentlessly spied on and abused out-of-favor people and organizations, not just criminals, with little meaningful oversight and unkept promises to do better. We need law enforcement that, more than not, follows the rule of law and isn't an arm of a fascist regime. What so many realists feared – and what so many Pollyanna types shrugged off – feels closer.
Trump has spent eight years sowing propaganda about his own corruption and crimes. Not just Patel’s nomination to a position in which he could thoroughly politicize rule of law, but also the means by which Trump made that nomination, is part of that same project. We have a brief two months to try to reverse eight years of propaganda, propaganda often assisted by journalists playing data mule for Trump’s Truth Social propaganda or exhibiting laziness about correcting his false claims. If Trump succeeds, it will grow far more difficult to sort out truth from crime anymore. That was always going to be true. But the means by which Trump is conducting his effort is all part of the propaganda campaign.
This emptywheel commentary looks into some of the political intricacies of the Patel nomination. It observes how the nominee has played a key role in Trump's endless propaganda campaign to legitimize his own corruption while de-legitimizing the people who call him on it. (And it's scathing, near the top, about the New York Times' pathetic parroting of Trump talking points.) This may be more in the weeds than you'll care about, but it's smart analysis.
Despite lying about it throughout the campaign, Trump wasted no time appointing several of the project’s authors to key positions in his new administration. Because they’ve been steeped in hypocrisy for so long, Republicans see nothing odd about Trump embracing Project 2025 after feigning a complete lack of familiarity and having called it “ridiculous and abysmal.” Project 2025 co-author Russ Vought, who led the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during Trump’s first term, got caught on tape saying the quiet part out loud during the campaign when he told undercover reporters to trust that Trump would implement a national abortion ban if he returned to power, despite his public statements to the contrary. But far from being rapped on the knuckles for linking Trump to a stance he ostensibly opposed, Vought has been rewarded by getting his old OMB job back.
As this Public Notice newletter commentary (alternative link here) notes, Project 2025 was and remains a blueprint for dictatorship, concocted by some of Dear Leader's most devoted, extremist henchmen under the auspices of extreme right-wing think tanks and other enemies of our democracy. Trump's insistence that he had no connection to the plan was an obvious lie to anyone paying attention, but as always, Big Journalism did stenography for the "not me" denials. That helped Trump confuse voters who weren't paying close attention, and greatly helped his campaign to defuse what was shaping up to be a serious problem. Nice work, journalists.
The reality is that sustaining a livable climate, breathable air, and drinkable water is still a political winner, despite the billions of dollars constantly being spent by private interests to greenwash killer technologies and tear down regulations. According to a 2023 Pew Research study, two-thirds of Americans think corporations aren’t doing enough to curb climate change. At least 80% want to help endangered species and wild places. In a country where so much is decided on the strength of a paper-thin margin, including who occupies the White House, those numbers are a powerful signal that the vast majority are asking for a stable planet with abundant wildlife.
This Time magazine report is an optimistic case for the next four years on the existential issue of our era. While the author believes (IMO implausibly) that Project 2025's horrendous climate policies won't come to pass, she also makes a case that there are simply too many reasons to keep the pressure on the planet's despoilers. She makes her strongest argument in urging progressive state governments, individually and collaboratively, to push ahead with green goals and policies. Again, the only wrong way to proceed is to give up.
This newsletter is a compendium of the reporting and commentary that best explains the America's political, economic, and social conditions – and, most important, how we can find a way back from the dark days ahead. You will rarely find anything here from the New York Times or Washington Post or any of the other Big Journalism companies that failed us so completely during the 2024 elections and are now sucking up – even more than usual – to Donald Trump, his cult, and corporate oligarchs. My focus will be on smaller, more honorable outlets (and individuals). I hope you'll support them with your attention and your money. For more details, please read my About page.
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Tom Nichols
emptywheel
Lisa Needham
Lydia Millet
