Governing as an Authoritarian

Jonathan Bernstein: “Donald Trump’s biggest campaign promise was to govern as a lawless authoritarian, and on his first day of office he showed everyone that he intends to keep that promise.”

“We don’t know yet – we won’t know for a while – the extent to which he will succeed. When it comes to specific policies, I want to echo what I’ve heard a bunch of other people say: Just because Trump and his people say that something is happening through executive action doesn’t mean it’s really going to happen. Some of it will happen, but some will be challenged inside and outside of the administration, and some of it will turn out to be little more than hand-waving to begin with. Lots of steps exist between saying that there will be an action and eventually enacting new policy.”

“Trump’s pardons of insurrectionists, however, are unfortunately as close to self-enforcing as anything a president ever does. And it’s really the hallmark decision he made on Day One, putting him solidly on the side of treason to the Constitution that he had just sworn an oath to uphold. But it’s not just the pardons; many of his executive actions are simply lawless, from citizenship to TikTok and more.”