Week 45 - The Return
Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you'll remember.
The main story this week was continued political violence in the nation, as conservative activist Charlie Kirk was murdered while giving a speech on a college campus. While the killing was one in a long list of bipartisan violence and threats, Trump and his regime seized on it to baselessly promote conspiracy theories about a vast left-wing effort, including liberal groups, donors, and protestors.
As it turned out, the alleged murderer grew up in a Republican family, in a red district, and was registered as unaffiliated, but that did not stop Trump and his allies from threatening broad measures which would undermine the fabric of democracy and the rule of law, in an effort to score political points and silence dissent. Even the conservative WSJ Editorial Board criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi’s threats to prosecute hate speech, in an op-ed saying she “needs a free speech tutorial.” The public also didn’t warm to Trump’s behavior, as an Economist/YouGov poll found his approval at the lowest level of his second regime. The only benefit for Trump has been to drive the Jeffrey Epstein story out of the top news stories.
Much of Trump and his regime’s attempts to seize power and act unilaterally is a continuation of the increasingly autocratic behaviors we have chronicled in this project. This week we continue to see attempts to silence dissent, push boundaries to act without consent of Congress, use divisions as red meat for his base, and a reordering of the world order. The economy, a point of strength for Trump during his first regime, has become his weakest issue, other than his handling of the Epstein investigations. On his overall handling of the economy, his net approval was -17, while his handling of inflation was net -30.
On Wednesday, Poland said it had detected 19 Russian violations of its airspace, and it had activated Article 4 of NATO’s treaty. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala called it “a test of the defense capabilities of NATO countries,” while in the U.S. there was bipartisan criticism of Russia.
Trump posted on Truth Social, “What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones?” without condemning the incursion, which marked the first time in the history of NATO that its forces engaged Russian military hardware. European leaders spoke out forcefully.
On Thursday, Trump told reporters of the Russian breach, “It could have been a mistake.” Trump’s statement was rebuffed by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk who posted “it wasn’t,” and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called the breach “dangerous and unacceptable.”
On Saturday, Trump demanded on Truth Social that other NATO countries “STOP BUYING OIL FROM RUSSIA,” before the U.S. would impose major additional sanctions on Russia.
On Sunday, Romania, also a NATO member country, said a Russian drone had entered its airspace. The European Union’s foreign policy chief called it a “reckless escalation.”
On Monday, NYT reported on direct ties between Trump and his Middle East enjoy Steve Witkoff with the U.A.E., including direct meetings in recent months. Trump and Witkoff benefit from multibillion crypto deals, while the U.S. agreed to sell the U.A.E. valuable computer chips.
On Monday, Trump sued the NYT and Penguin Random House for $15 billion over a 2024 book on how he squandered his father’s fortune, and three Times articles that were published in the run-up to the 2024 election. Trump announced the lawsuit on Truth Social on Tuesday.