To take the standard of the Department of Justice it had until recently, to administer prosecutions "without fear or favor'.is a good standard of how the rule of law should work in order to be as fair and nonpartisan as possible. It is also a standard for democracy as a whole and describes the ideal fairness standard for which it strives. By the two-week mark of the Trump presidency, Trump has turned that worthy goal upside down, and he is attempting to create a regime using fear and favor to gain power and to keep it.
This is just the beginning with Trump's opening salvo of decrees and executive orders. The pushback has not begun. We do not know how effective the pushback will be. It will come from the courts and from the voters in the midterm election in two years, which could reinforce the legislative branch, giving them a backbone with a different party in the majority., and restoring some degree of the balance of powers. It could also come from the streets, given the passions and anger Trump has awakened. It could be propelled by Trump's decisions that result in higher living costs and inflation, disillusioning some of Trump's 2024 voters.
Who is Trump favoring? Trump is the dream ruler for billionaires. He promises to lower taxes on rich people and free them from administrative constraints on rich people's ability to become richer. These barriers the already rich want to control or eliminate were designed to protect consumers and the environment and to cut the ability of the government to provide help to those unable to help themselves, the sick, the elderly, and racial and societal minorities, Head Start, and children with poor nutrition. One of the regime's first acts: fire the head of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. Next, they will attempt to eliminate civil service employees by reclassifying through regulation F, removing protections from political pressures, and replacing them with loyalists to Trump or the ideology of Project 2025 so that government rulings are in step with their priorities. Already executed in Trmp's first week: the end of DEI and the firing of all employees associated with the program. The plan laid out in Project 2025 was to eliminate DEI (diversity) goals in hiring and promotions as if it is to make white males who claimed they were the victims of discrimination the sole government rulers again as they were before the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
The attempt has virtually neutered Congress so far, with the GOP majority nodding heads or being silent and turning over their power to Trump to do as he pleases. Trump and Musk ignored the Constitution and laws that define the executive branch's role in "faithfully executing" the laws and funding Congress passed. Instead, they are attempting to become the controller of the purse in the place of the legislature.
How could this happen? Trump uses the tools of the powers of government to discipline his followers to comply by threats to primary them if they are House members and to destroy those he sees as political enemies by using the DOJ to bankrupt them by filing criminal action (without even probable cause) against anyone else. Trump's revenge against anyone who had anything to do with bringing criminal charges against him since 2020 may satisfy his hateful instincts, but it also serves as making an example of how he would treat those he sees as his foes and how he keeps his supporters in line. It is a rule by fear in political messaging as well. Fear of "others" who are not white males and are immigrants has been the leading drumbeat of his campaigns since he first entered national politics. It has been a successful message and strategy. Trump knows what works, and he knows the soul of his core supporters.
Trump is attempting to rule by favor, as well, as he places in power as a reward for loyalty and campaign contributions, primarily the very rich. Top of the favors he promises are lower taxes, with loss to the treasury offset by a reduction in government and national security services and regulations protecting consumers and the environment. By placing his loyalists up and down government agencies, he can offer those favors to those who have proved their loyalty to him and his priorities.
https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/trump-fires-rohit-chopra-wall-street-consumer-protection-rcna190444?
https://www.yahoo.com/.../invitation-foreign-actors-bondi... Yesieree bob, voters do not need to know what China, Iran, or Russia are doing to help MAGA win in any elections, right? WRONG.
