Just a few years ago, the US government system would have been considered impossible.
Trump asserts the power of the president and rebuilds the administrative department as he thinks appropriate. Elon Musk pushes out public servants, defeats the entire institution, and generally gives the federal labor to attack fear.
Mask's efforts seem to be intentionally paying attention to the law on the dismissal of a specific employee and the requirements of the parliament, and external experts are blatantly illegal. I am claiming. Anyway, he is doing it.
At the same time, the long -standing “independence” of the US Department of Justice, which made a criminal investigation and prosecuted, has been crushed.
Trump's team has already fired a dozens of prosecutors and the highest FBI employees who have already filed a lawsuit against Trump or the mob on January 6, and worked on the probe on January 6 We are building the foundation of purge. Trump's completely unrelated prosecutions have been dropped or fallen.
On the other hand, the company not only hits himself under Trump's feet, but also gives him a large reward. Meta pays $ 25 million to resolve Trump's lawsuit on suspension of company accounts, and most of it provides money to Trump's presidential library. Paramount, the parent company of CBS, is paid to his own reconciliation in Trump's inconvenience. 60 minutes Last year, I edited an interview with Camara Harris.
Both seem to be motivated by the fear of these corporate companies that the president aiming for the federal authority to them for political collection. And the first action of Trump's Federal Communications Committee suggests that they have a good reason for them.
The common theme is that Trump is crashing through institutional and legal guardrails that hinder the concentration of power in the presidential position and the government's corrupt weapon.
Those with calm temperament, or those who are exhausted by the warnings of long -standing anti -playing card panic and “democracy threats” may tend to reject them if they are not a big deal. But leave it to the idea a few years ago and understand how shocking all of them were.
We are still very close to the beginning of this story, so we don't know how it will end. But there are two important questions in the future. First, what does Trump do to improve the power of the president? Second, do they eventually hit the wall and are too extreme for court, parliament, or the general public?
Elon Mask took over a huge power
Since Trump's swearing, the most impacted story to Washington was a surprising force by the Ilon Musk.
The mask is said to have become a “special government staff”, but his formal role remains unknown. However, his various allies and former employees have been established in several government agencies, including the Human Resources Management Bureau, the General Service Bureau, and the US Digital Service (currently renamed the US DOGE service). It has been revealed that the mask is in charge of vast efforts to eliminate and rebuild the federal workers.
The important source of the mask's power is that he has gained the ability to place his career civil servant who resists his demands for management leave. This happened to the USAID security representative, a US foreign aid organization. The ally of the mask also ordered DEI Initiative's public servants on administrative leave, and his “Folk In -Road” email provides paid management leave to federal employees who agree to resign later this year. I did.
Previous presidents do not use administrative leave like this. That's because it may be illegal. But it doesn't embrace the mask. The mask seems to use this as a “hack” to buld the government employees in the past. (“Career bureaucrats do not violate the legal order from the US President,” said Vice President JD VANCE in the X -post on Monday morning.
The team of the mask has also obtained the management of the Ministry of Finance's system, which distributes government salaries, payments, and subsidies. Previously, this has been managed by a specialized civil servant. However, the mask seems to want to freeze his disliked payment.
The most dramatic mask argued that the USAID was closed, despite being established by the law passed by Congress. After talking to Trump, the mask argued that “we agree to close it.” (“I actually checked it several times with him,” said the mask.)
How does he escape by doing all of this? The answer is simply what Trump wants him. The Washington Post's report quoted on Monday a sources close to the president who claimed that “Trump does not monitor the movement of the mask carefully”, but “Trump has worked to assign a mask to him. I consider it to be there. ” So, as long as the mask seems to be acting under the blessing of the president, he has an immense margin as long as he can leave civil servants, the lawsuit or judge cannot control him. It works as he thinks appropriate.
The independence of the Ministry of Justice has been crushed
It's not surprising, but it's still quite concerned, and as a result, Purge is ongoing in the US Department of Justice.
- Last week, more than 12 prosecutors were fired in Trump's two federal cases.
- More than 12 other prosecutors who were working on the federal prosecution on January 6 were fired late last week.
- Several FBI executives or field office heads were told to resign or be fired late last week.
- This weekend, the FBI staff sent a questionnaire to thousands of FBI staff who requested detailed involvement in the incident on January 6. This questionnaire seems to have a very vast Purge of FBI employees because thousands of people are involved in such cases.
It is noteworthy that Trump is not just retaliation to those who personally investigated him. He seems to want to retaliate his supporters to break the law and attack the parliament in an illegal attempt to maintain the administration. 。 (And of course, even the violent who attacked the police has already issued a very wide range of amnesty of those riots.)
Meanwhile, Trump's DOJ closed a survey of one member of the Republican member of Congress and suspended his former member's prosecution. Andy Ogres (R-TN) was investigated his finances, but the prosecutor in the case suddenly withdrawn last week. Last week, a false statement of a former member of the Diet Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) was also deleted.
This is all happening before Trump's appointment leads DOJ and FBI -Pam Bondy and Kash Patel have been confirmed. Patel promised a confirmation hearing that he would work to protect FBI employees from political prosecutions (despite other years).
Obviously, however, Trump has no intention of continuing to keep the long -standing independence of DOJ and FBI in criminal investigation. The future problem is how aggressive that his appointment is trying to meet Trump's long -standing desire for his critics and enemies to be charged.
Companies have rewarded the president to escape political collection
On the other hand, the accommodation of the world of corporate world to Trump, which is clearly inaugurated, has a troublesome new dimension.
In 2021, Trump complained of Meta after pause his account after the riot on January 6. Last week, Meta agreed to pay $ 25 million to resolve the lawsuit. Of the 22 million dollars will be sent to the funds of Trump's Presidential Library.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump mentioned in a litigation with Mark Zuckerberg after the election last November, but Zuckerberg wanted a better relationship with his administration. He informed that he had to solve it.
Similarly, during the campaign, Trump appeals and claims PARAMOUNT, the parent company of CBS News. 60 minutes At first glance, he edited the interview with Camara Harris, helped her campaign and hurt him. Brendan Kerr, the new chief of the Federal News Committee, asked CBS News to record Harris's answer.
Trump's lawsuit is widely believed that there is no basis, but the most important shareholders fear that the Trump administration will hinder the company's planned sale as long as he does. Therefore, they are currently engaged in settlement conferences.
As a whole, they both look like a company that supports the president's shake -down. Meta has already agreed to repay him (or pay his library fund) to avoid political collection, and paramounts may do the same. All of these compound plagiarism, which requires high -ranking rewards, is all broken in order for companies to work without government repression. How worse it is?
It is worth pause to be aware that all of these are being deployed in just two weeks, and many of them have happened in the past few days.
The Trump team seems to have a very clear mission to concentrate the power of the presidential position -as long as he can take it from career civil servants, parliament, and court -Trump is actually the power of government You will be able to shake. 。
That means that he can far impose a policy that his career civil servant (and his own appointment) believed that he was miserable, rotten, or illegal. He will also be able to make the government a weapon for his enemy, as he always wanted.
There are many things that I still don't know exactly what MUSK is trying to do and how wide the DOJ and FBI purges are. However, the more push -backs for them, the more you feel the Ideo Rogue of the Trump team.
So, is one big question ultimately a real pushback? Does the mask's efforts and various purges shake with legal issues? Does the Labor force of the FBI oppose an attempt to dismiss fellow agents because of their job? Does the Republican member of the Congress and Senator Swing Boat decide that they did not actually sign up? Is there a large -scale rebound?
Last week all the subsidies of last week showed that the Trump administration seemed to be in a limit to an order -Trump team withdrew after the judge grabbed an order. But it was a wide claim that it had never been done. However, Trump's team continued to charge in other aspects. And they will probably keep doing that unless the court stops them.
