Week 46 - A Week Summarized by a Brazen Trump Extolling, “I Hate My Opponents” and “Your Countries Are Going to Hell"

This was quite a week! What strikes me the most in summarizing one of the longest lists of broken norms so far is the lack of pushback that persists. Trump is by all accounts unilaterally making decisions on foreign policy, economic policy, healthcare issues, censorship, prosecutorial discretion, and more. He has become so brazen that he feels comfortable saying out loud, and repeatedly, that the Justice Department must go after his enemies — something previously unthinkable — and firing those who refuse to do so. He also this week, on several occasions, lashed out at his enemies, which includes apparently every American who disagrees with him. His words, at Charlie Kirk’s funeral: “I hate my opponent. And I don’t want the best for them.” His words, at the United Nations to world leaders who allow immigration and clean energy: “Your countries are going to hell.”Mind you, the American people are not happy. An AP-NORC poll found 75% of Americans believe the country is heading in the wrong direction, including more than half of Republicans. Trump’s approval stands at the lowest of his second regime. Yet Trump, unlike in the first term when members of his party and regime would push back, is not having boundaries erected before him. Not by Congress, nor the Supreme Court, which is again and again expanding his power, in the shade of the aptly named shadow docket, offering no explanation for their rulings. So as has been his pattern in both regimes, with no boundaries or pushback, Trump pushes norms further, and grasps more and more power.Also alarming this week are Trump and his regime’s attacks on free speech. Members of his regime are doing his bidding now. Disney suspended comedian Jimmy Kimmel after the FCC threatened to take away broadcast rights; the FTC is wielding deal approval for media companies as a cudgel; the Pentagon restricted journalists’ access; even West Point academy was sued for silencing professors. On this one issue, there is some muted pushback from conservatives, mostly out of fear that when the shoe is on the other foot, it will come back to haunt them. Ironically, the notion of the “woke right,” something unthinkable just months ago, became a thing this week.