Paul Rosenzweig: “The first 10 days of Donald Trump’s presidency have seen such an onslaught of executive orders and implementing actions that Steve Bannon’s strategy to “flood the zone with shit” seems apt. But that characterization is incomplete, and it obscures a more frightening truth: The Trump administration’s actions have been not just voluminous but efficient and effective. Though Trump himself may not appreciate the depth of detail that has gone into these early days, his allies do appear to understand what they are doing, and they seem to have his unquestioning consent to do whatever they like.”

“And what they want is very clear: to take full control of the federal government. Not in the way that typifies every change of administration but in a more extreme way designed to eradicate opposition, disempower federal authority, and cause federal bureaucrats to cower. It is an assault on basic governance.”

“A great deal of thought has gone into this effort already. The executive orders and sundry administrative directives and guidance that have been issued reflect a profound understanding of the federal government and exactly where the weak spots within the bureaucracy might lie.”

“Security agents escorted the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture out of her office on Monday after she refused to comply with her firing by the Trump administration,” Reuters reports.

“Phyllis Fong, a 22-year veteran of the department, had earlier told colleagues that she intended to stay after the White House terminated her Friday, saying that she didn’t believe the administration had followed proper protocols.”

Greg Sargent: “Admitting failure is anathema to the authoritarian leader, who is perpetually in danger of being diminished by those who are resentful of his glory—which is why White House adviser Stephen Miller is frantically searching for scapegoats to blame for the unfolding disaster around President Donald Trump’s massive freeze on federal spending…”

“All of which carries a lesson for Democrats: This is what it looks like when the opposition stirs and uses its power in a unified way to make a lot of what you might call sheer political noise. That can help set the media agenda, throw Trump and his allies on the defensive, and deliver defeats to Trump that deflate his cultish aura of invincibility.”

Said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT):  “This has been a red-alert moment for weeks—but now no one can deny it. For my colleagues that didn’t want to cry wolf, the wolf is literally chomping at our leg right now.”

Tom Nichols: “The goal of all these orders is not to implement policy, but to generate outrage, report the spasms of liberal apoplexy to the MAGA faithful, and then, when necessary, go to court. And why not? The president now has a politically sympathetic Supreme Court majority that worked hard to keep him out of prison while he was a candidate, and has functionally immunized him against almost any challenge now that he’s back in office.”

“Trump’s people know that they cannot actually shake the Constitution like an Etch A Sketch and make birthright citizenship disappear, but why not give it a shot, especially if a trolling executive order makes the base happy?”

Benjamin Parker: “It may seem counterintuitive, but part of Trump’s MAGA populism is an excessive regard for the sanctity of elections. It’s why it was so important to deny the legitimate and obvious results of the 2020 election. It’s why Trump insisted he had won the popular vote in 2016, when he clearly didn’t. It’s also why, way back in February 2016, he claimed that Ted Cruz had only won the Iowa Caucus because of fraud.”

“The appearance of democratic legitimacy is important to Trump. The force of his popularity is one of his most effective weapons against institutions that try to constrain him.”

“Now that Trump is president again, he’s using that projection of popularity and his demagogic will to power against the Constitution and laws of the United States.”

“President Donald Trump has hired the elite white-shoe law firm Sullivan & Cromwell to appeal his criminal conviction in the Manhattan hush money case,” Politico reports.

President Trump on Truth Social:

“I have just asked Elon Musk and SpaceX to ‘go get’ the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration. They have been waiting for many months on the Space Station. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck Elon!!!

Don Kettl: “You may see articles arguing that one action or another action taken by Trump resembles something that a previous administration did. That totally, completely misses what’s happening. The Trump restoration is simply unlike anything that we’ve ever seen before. It’s singularly, startlingly focused on increasing the president’s power…”

“It’s as if Trump has dumped the pieces of the world’s biggest jigsaw puzzle across the streets of Washington: Everyone is chasing around the individual pieces, while only the Trump team has a sense of how all the pieces fit together… The Trump team already knows what they want it to look like—they’ve seen the picture on the outside of the box.”