Week 41 - Trump’s Authoritraian Tools: Diversion, Seizing Equity, Rewriting History and Revising Data

This week we continue the storyline of Trump’s efforts to rewrite history and manipulate data to fit his narratives, both hallmarks of authoritarianism. Last week Bureau of Labor Statistics data was under siege; this week Trump’s U.S. Attorney in D.C. launched a probe into so-called manipulation of violent crime data in D.C., when reality of the data didn’t fit the justification for Trump’s coup of the city’s law enforcement. Trump also continued his unprecedented actions to rewrite history at the Smithsonian, which is supposed to be an independent entity, threatening a process similar to the regime’s ongoing investigations of colleges and universities.This week we saw much pageantry with Trump first entertaining Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska, and then days later European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. I’m struck by the similarity to Trump’s grandiose summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un during the first regime, when the media breathlessly covered every detail on the front pages for days, distracting from stories back then that he did not want covered. Similarly, we find almost no coverage this week of the Epstein files, which is politically toxic for Trump. With all his wild machinations and claims surrounding peace between Russia and Ukraine, including his normalizing Putin and allowing him a place on the world stage after three years of being ostracized, nothing really happened this week to ensure the peace that Trump had promised would happen on Day 1.Another disturbing development this week are Trump’s moves for complete control of the economy, not only with his trade war, but also his efforts to take control of the Federal Reserve and extort U.S. companies. Trump is looking for ways not only to pressure and bully Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, but also to intimidate other Fed members into resigning, in an effort to reshape the independent institution to his liking and to do his bidding. The Trump regime is also reportedly ranking U.S. companies by their fealty to Trump, and seeking equity stakes in exchange for releasing federal grants promised to companies under the Biden administration.All in all, this is a disturbing week because Trump is continuing to consolidate power, with little pushback. He is by all accounts, having an outsized say not only in the U.S. and global economy, but also unilaterally deciding foreign and domestic policy, with little to no pushback. Also notable is that several federal court rulings which had slowed or blocked the Trump regime’s moves have in recent weeks been overturned by appeals courts, including by several judges appointed by Trump.