So, Dan Drezner talked about competitive authoritarianism in his substack newsletter this morning. This was my comment to his discussion: "Well, it has only been 3 weeks, and frankly, it is frightening what has been accomplished so far. And just wait until all of his nominees are confirmed, which they will be. State legislatures are coming back into session, and we will see massive, additional moves on voter suppression and related laws. DOGE has now been given the go-ahead to hire and fire at will in every executive branch department and related agencies. The goal is the destruction of the government as we know it. I hate being alarmist but my husband and I have pretty much predicted what has happened since Trump was first elected (we lived and worked in NYC from the 1970s to the late 2010s), and I don't believe we were particularly prescient. We have always read a lot across the political spectrum on policy, domestic and international affairs, you name it. Neither of us is hopeful that the country as we have known it over decades will bear any resemblance to what we have lived through pre-Trump. I respect Levitsky and have read his work. But I believe we are going beyond "competitive authoritarianism" quickly. Musk's work should scare the hell out of everyone frankly, and to see Congress act like it is good because it will increase the efficiency of the government (are you kidding me? No one has even bothered to define fraud, waste and abuse much like give concrete examples because that is not what this is about) is bizarre. And to pretend that there is an "advice and consent" process for cabinet and other nominees is a farce; it's more like Stalin show trials. Here we are..."
"He will be constrained by independent judges, federalism, the country’s professionalized military, and high barriers to constitutional reform."
Sorry but I do not see how they can predict that much less believe it.
Independent judges? Maga just ignores their rulings, and impeacheses them. 'Bring on a bew judge we agree with.' And if they don't rubberstamp what we demand, well the constant annonomys death threats against them and their families will eventually force them to go away.
Federalism? Maga State Legislatires have already bern.implenenting this administration's idea of government and who it benefits and who it condemns.
Profesionalized military? The prez fires the generals who do not fall on line or forces them to retire, the rank and file have been long been reinforced by radicalized supremacists and the DOD is now headed by one. Don't like the anti democratic orders, too bad follow them or go to prison. This administration has already imposed a loyalty test for FBI and DOJ, whose to say they wont do that in tbe military? That is 'loyality' to djt, not loyalty to the constitution btw.
Barriers to constitutional reforms? This administration has already shown it respects no barriers and congress will not stand up to protect any barriers, courts can not impose any rulings to uphold barriers, djt said he wanted to suspend the constitution, what barriers are there to stop him from doing what he pleases? Public opinion? That won't stop spit.
I pray and cry every day for what’s happening in our country. Son worksfor USAID. Daughter got married in CA last week, joining of East and West coast families. A happy event I turn to again and again. Long career in DC working on women’s health care policy. The rich take away from the poor, non white, anyone who’s not like them. We’ve got to fight this. I just had to get this off my mind. And thank you Chris for your insightful writings.❤️
Steven Levitsky seems like the character Davey Scantino from The Sopranos telling his son who is headed for college that “everything is going to be OK” after Tony Soprano takes his car away to help pay off his gambling debt.
Then we witness in the episode “Bust Out” as the Soprano Mob takes over Davey’s Sporting Goods store and proceeds to “squeeze” the store until it is forced into bankruptcy.
Or worse yet, the fate of the restaurant (Bamboo Lounge) owner in the movie Goodfellas who takes on Paulie as a “partner” and Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) recounts how they “bust out” the nightclub until it’s kaput and then Henry and Tommy (Joe Pesci) burn it to the ground.
Trump and Musk are thinking, talking and acting like mobsters. They are in the process of “Busting Out” America.
This is not going to end well as it never does when one “partners” with a mobster. When the corrupt radical right wing majority in the Supreme Court gave Trump virtual blanket immunity he is a Mafia Mobster unchained from ANY accountability.
Congress will not restrain him whatsoever as the Republican party is literally owned by Trump and the Democrats, even if they regain majorities in Congress will not get close to the 67 Senate seats it takes to remove Trump.
In any event, Trump is simply ignoring Congress. They are piece of sand in his shoe or just another mark to squeeze.
There will probably be an election in 2028, but it will be far from “free and fair”. Russia has elections too. It’s not a secret that Trump is jealous of Putin and is striving to be exactly like him and his unchallenged power.
Trump may yet succeed.
It is obvious that Trump/Musk do not feel threatened or restrained by ANYTHING…not Congress…not the Courts….not the law….not the Constitution.
They are in the mindset of “we are going to do whatever we want…just try and stop us”
The America we knew before Trump is gone, probably forever.
People, it is within the power of Congress to invtstigate if funds are appropriately spent.
And, there were independent Inspector Generals whose job it was to investigate and find fraud waste and abuse of funds in government agencies, until this administration illegally fired them all.
And, there is the Government Accountability Office (GAO) an independent, nonpartisan agency that audits, evaluates and investigates government programs for Congress.
All of those are legal ways to root out inappropriate use of funds or waste or fraud. Instead, this administration is doing it, illegally and unconstitutionally
Furthermore, it does not appear that they are trying to root out waste etc. They have provided zero examples or evidence of any such waste that required their shutting down entire agencies or terminating millions of civil servants.
They are gutting departments and agencies with tiny budgets compartively. USAID was 1% of the budget.What they are doing is taking controls of the levers of government and any oversight of the executive branch, the DOJ, the OMB, Treasury, FBI, illegally firing all Inspector Generals, on amd on.
Furthermore, how can anyone actually believe that in just a few days DOGE responsibly investigated and audited these agencies to find out the where, who and why's of what payments were going where? Congress appropriated the funds! The executive branch has zero authority to stop the funds, or redirect the funds! Article 1 of the US Constitution says so.
Supposedly, OMB and GAO have both, over the past few years, identified more than $500Billions in waste, fraud and abuse. This begs the question of why our elected “leaders” chose not to lay a hand on it.
Special interest groups, K Street lobbyists and other bloodsuckers at the Federal trough are largely the obstructions. I’m not sure we need forensic accountants but we do need incisive analysis, forward thinking and enlightened decisiveness. Don’t know who can best lead the initiative but it’s way overdue.
One could argue that the last 4 years was an attempt to tilt the playing field towards Biden. Media, legal, etc steps were taken to undermine and hurt Trump….they actually happened. To day we are speculating on how Trump can tip the field in his favor. Clearly actions to date would say it could well happen. I do not see the MSM in anyway helping Trump. Social media, as it continues to grow in importance could. The piece I struggle with is …do people really believe the path we were on was sustainable? Don’t people really want to eliminate waste and fraud? Don’t people really want to get our financial house in order?
My take on that is "tilting the playing field toward Biden" is tilting the playing field for everyone in the U.S. "Tilting the playing field toward trump" is tilting the playing field for trump, musk and other billionaires. To answer your question, YES! People are all for cutting waste and fraud but doing it legally and transparently. You don't burn a house down because it has a couple of mice. Why all of a sudden is USAID the boogeyman? Could it be that they were investigating musk? Hmmmm? How can someone like musk who has billions in federal contracts, be able to view all other federal contracts and shut them down or cut them out (does anyone care about conflict of interest?). I had a client where there was a big turnover in the executive staff, including the CFO. The Board felt there was a misuse of funds so they hired a forensic accountant to look for fraud. Has musk hired any forensic accountants? Are any of his teenage programmers forensic accountants? Where is the line by line accounting of every single piece of fraud of waste?
Trying to legally remove him from the Colorado Ballot. Changing NY law to have charges as a felony vs misdemeanor. NY business fraud lawsuit where all parties (banks) were paid in full and said no crime was committed.
The Colorado effort was lead by a Republican. And if anyone thought that and other similar attempts were really going anywhere they should reevaluate their analysis skills
While I will agree the NY fraud case was week and partly political there were no laws changed. You might want to research that.
To simplify it to everyone got paid is missing the point of the charges
The real telltale here is he had to basically go out of the country to get loans and he couldn’t get bond money from “quality” bondsmen
I didn’t get to watch this until today. It was excellent; I think one of the best. “Guests “ Chris has talked to on substack. I’m very happy he will be on again
Your reference to Venezuela was spot on. Having lived that nightmare, seeing this coming was easy. His coming back to win a second term and the dismantling and retributions that followed almost a mirror of Chavez before and after the 4-11-2002 events. Anyway, all this just to say your reference to Venezuela was right on target. These days the regime will not even bother to hide the outright usurping of elections.
Federalism is the most important guardrail. Trump/Musk can lay waste to our federal institutions but they can't take over California's governance. We may become more divided than ever, but if the blue state resistance is well executed..are you listening Gov Newsom... we may emerge in 2028 somewhat unscathed.
What is to be done when the Trump administration refuses to follow the orders of the Courts? This will surely come to pass, and the Democratic Party appears to be largely impotent and rudderless. What then will be the People's recourse?
As long as the Trump administration abides by the rulings of the various courts, they haven't crossed the line. So far they have only complained and Trump has specifically said that he will honor those rulings (and, of course, appeal). To this point, Congress has quietly supported Trump's executive actions. They have the power to do otherwise if they choose. Trump campaigned on the idea that the Federal government should be downsized significantly, and this is what that looks like. We can argue that this administration is violating laws and even the Constitution but, under our system, that is for the courts to decide.
Then why is this administration downsizing the federal government by taking uncondtitutional actions, like cutting funding that Congress appropriated, or by closing agencies that Congress created and by law only Congress can close or downsize or reprganize?
There are legal ways to do everything DOGE has claimed to do so far but has done it illegally.
So far, Congress has not objected. Others have, of course, and the courts will determine if what the administration is doing is unconstitutional or not. The computer community doesn't get a vote.
The courts have already found some of what they have attempted are unconstitutional.
The Constitution gives express authority of funding and spending to Congress. Article 1 of the US Constitution.The Framers did this because they did not want the power and authority over the nations wealth to be in the hands of one person in the executive branch. They had lived under a king, and tyrant, and made this move to expressly avoid having a king like person in our government. The executive has no rights under the Constitition to direct funding anywhere or to cut funding off. The executive can ask Congress for funds expressly for this or that priority, but the funds are granted only by congress.
Yes, only the party in power in Congress hasn't objected. Since they control what comes to the floor, that is a legally sufficient expression of Congressional will. No doubt the upcoming budget bill will come into play here as well. That should be interesting.
Several courts have stopped Trump's efforts to dismantle or defund parts of the Federal government and the administration has complied with those court orders. So far as I know, no court has held the administration in contempt. That would be the first step in a true constitutional conflict.
Lol. No, only the party in power is not expressng any concern over the lawless actions being attempted by this administration. That does not qualify as legally sufficient expression of congressional will, unless you consider Congress only represents one party!
The courts have so far only temporarily stoppedvthevlawlessness, and the adn8nistatu9n did not comply with one stop order under the questionalble pretense that it did not understand the scope of the order!
The first step in a constitutional conflict has already occurred by this administration taking unto itself the constitutional powers granted to our representatives in Congres and taking away the power of the purse which pur Founders went to great length to keep out of the hands of the executive branch, much less into the hands of unaccountable, unvettd 20 year olds, with zero oversight and zero transparency of their actions!
Of course the minority party has the right to stand on the floor and say whatever it wants. Just like the GOP relentlessly objected to the Jan 6th hearings when the Dems were in power. Didn't change anything but they did get to feed their base.
In reality, there is some constitutional fuzziness around just how much authority the executive branch has with respect to funds allocated to it for a specific purpose by Congress. All modern Presidents have played around a bit with such funds. Obviously the current administration has wildly exceeded previous efforts and the courts have temporarily brought much of that to a halt. A lower court stating that an action by the executive may be unconstitutional doesn't mean that it is unconstitutional. Once temporary restraining orders turn into specific rulings, the appeals process will begin. And I'd expect the Supremes to get involved sooner rather than later. Trump is trying to expand executive authority significantly and it will be interesting to see exactly where the lines are drawn.
So, Dan Drezner talked about competitive authoritarianism in his substack newsletter this morning. This was my comment to his discussion: "Well, it has only been 3 weeks, and frankly, it is frightening what has been accomplished so far. And just wait until all of his nominees are confirmed, which they will be. State legislatures are coming back into session, and we will see massive, additional moves on voter suppression and related laws. DOGE has now been given the go-ahead to hire and fire at will in every executive branch department and related agencies. The goal is the destruction of the government as we know it. I hate being alarmist but my husband and I have pretty much predicted what has happened since Trump was first elected (we lived and worked in NYC from the 1970s to the late 2010s), and I don't believe we were particularly prescient. We have always read a lot across the political spectrum on policy, domestic and international affairs, you name it. Neither of us is hopeful that the country as we have known it over decades will bear any resemblance to what we have lived through pre-Trump. I respect Levitsky and have read his work. But I believe we are going beyond "competitive authoritarianism" quickly. Musk's work should scare the hell out of everyone frankly, and to see Congress act like it is good because it will increase the efficiency of the government (are you kidding me? No one has even bothered to define fraud, waste and abuse much like give concrete examples because that is not what this is about) is bizarre. And to pretend that there is an "advice and consent" process for cabinet and other nominees is a farce; it's more like Stalin show trials. Here we are..."
I agree with your thinking too.
I agree. But there is no question that as a minimum it will become "competitive authoritarianism" and as you say could be worse.
Yes…and here we are, indeed.
It reminds me of what happened in Europe pre and post WWII. Scary!
"He will be constrained by independent judges, federalism, the country’s professionalized military, and high barriers to constitutional reform."
Sorry but I do not see how they can predict that much less believe it.
Independent judges? Maga just ignores their rulings, and impeacheses them. 'Bring on a bew judge we agree with.' And if they don't rubberstamp what we demand, well the constant annonomys death threats against them and their families will eventually force them to go away.
Federalism? Maga State Legislatires have already bern.implenenting this administration's idea of government and who it benefits and who it condemns.
Profesionalized military? The prez fires the generals who do not fall on line or forces them to retire, the rank and file have been long been reinforced by radicalized supremacists and the DOD is now headed by one. Don't like the anti democratic orders, too bad follow them or go to prison. This administration has already imposed a loyalty test for FBI and DOJ, whose to say they wont do that in tbe military? That is 'loyality' to djt, not loyalty to the constitution btw.
Barriers to constitutional reforms? This administration has already shown it respects no barriers and congress will not stand up to protect any barriers, courts can not impose any rulings to uphold barriers, djt said he wanted to suspend the constitution, what barriers are there to stop him from doing what he pleases? Public opinion? That won't stop spit.
I pray and cry every day for what’s happening in our country. Son worksfor USAID. Daughter got married in CA last week, joining of East and West coast families. A happy event I turn to again and again. Long career in DC working on women’s health care policy. The rich take away from the poor, non white, anyone who’s not like them. We’ve got to fight this. I just had to get this off my mind. And thank you Chris for your insightful writings.❤️
Steven Levitsky seems like the character Davey Scantino from The Sopranos telling his son who is headed for college that “everything is going to be OK” after Tony Soprano takes his car away to help pay off his gambling debt.
Then we witness in the episode “Bust Out” as the Soprano Mob takes over Davey’s Sporting Goods store and proceeds to “squeeze” the store until it is forced into bankruptcy.
Or worse yet, the fate of the restaurant (Bamboo Lounge) owner in the movie Goodfellas who takes on Paulie as a “partner” and Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) recounts how they “bust out” the nightclub until it’s kaput and then Henry and Tommy (Joe Pesci) burn it to the ground.
Trump and Musk are thinking, talking and acting like mobsters. They are in the process of “Busting Out” America.
This is not going to end well as it never does when one “partners” with a mobster. When the corrupt radical right wing majority in the Supreme Court gave Trump virtual blanket immunity he is a Mafia Mobster unchained from ANY accountability.
Congress will not restrain him whatsoever as the Republican party is literally owned by Trump and the Democrats, even if they regain majorities in Congress will not get close to the 67 Senate seats it takes to remove Trump.
In any event, Trump is simply ignoring Congress. They are piece of sand in his shoe or just another mark to squeeze.
There will probably be an election in 2028, but it will be far from “free and fair”. Russia has elections too. It’s not a secret that Trump is jealous of Putin and is striving to be exactly like him and his unchallenged power.
Trump may yet succeed.
It is obvious that Trump/Musk do not feel threatened or restrained by ANYTHING…not Congress…not the Courts….not the law….not the Constitution.
They are in the mindset of “we are going to do whatever we want…just try and stop us”
The America we knew before Trump is gone, probably forever.
That democracy thing was fun while it lasted, wasn't it?
Well it lasted 240 years or so, but the experiment is in trouble. Trump hasn't pulled an Andrew Jackson...yet.
Can't say that's very reassuring
People, it is within the power of Congress to invtstigate if funds are appropriately spent.
And, there were independent Inspector Generals whose job it was to investigate and find fraud waste and abuse of funds in government agencies, until this administration illegally fired them all.
And, there is the Government Accountability Office (GAO) an independent, nonpartisan agency that audits, evaluates and investigates government programs for Congress.
All of those are legal ways to root out inappropriate use of funds or waste or fraud. Instead, this administration is doing it, illegally and unconstitutionally
Furthermore, it does not appear that they are trying to root out waste etc. They have provided zero examples or evidence of any such waste that required their shutting down entire agencies or terminating millions of civil servants.
They are gutting departments and agencies with tiny budgets compartively. USAID was 1% of the budget.What they are doing is taking controls of the levers of government and any oversight of the executive branch, the DOJ, the OMB, Treasury, FBI, illegally firing all Inspector Generals, on amd on.
Furthermore, how can anyone actually believe that in just a few days DOGE responsibly investigated and audited these agencies to find out the where, who and why's of what payments were going where? Congress appropriated the funds! The executive branch has zero authority to stop the funds, or redirect the funds! Article 1 of the US Constitution says so.
Supposedly, OMB and GAO have both, over the past few years, identified more than $500Billions in waste, fraud and abuse. This begs the question of why our elected “leaders” chose not to lay a hand on it.
Special interest groups, K Street lobbyists and other bloodsuckers at the Federal trough are largely the obstructions. I’m not sure we need forensic accountants but we do need incisive analysis, forward thinking and enlightened decisiveness. Don’t know who can best lead the initiative but it’s way overdue.
You are absolutely right but you don’t do audits in a few days
One solution is to rehire IGs and enforce the law. The problem is Trump his boss Musk and the Republican congress is not going to do that
Now we have Vladimir back as Trumps other boss. Oh joy
One could argue that the last 4 years was an attempt to tilt the playing field towards Biden. Media, legal, etc steps were taken to undermine and hurt Trump….they actually happened. To day we are speculating on how Trump can tip the field in his favor. Clearly actions to date would say it could well happen. I do not see the MSM in anyway helping Trump. Social media, as it continues to grow in importance could. The piece I struggle with is …do people really believe the path we were on was sustainable? Don’t people really want to eliminate waste and fraud? Don’t people really want to get our financial house in order?
My take on that is "tilting the playing field toward Biden" is tilting the playing field for everyone in the U.S. "Tilting the playing field toward trump" is tilting the playing field for trump, musk and other billionaires. To answer your question, YES! People are all for cutting waste and fraud but doing it legally and transparently. You don't burn a house down because it has a couple of mice. Why all of a sudden is USAID the boogeyman? Could it be that they were investigating musk? Hmmmm? How can someone like musk who has billions in federal contracts, be able to view all other federal contracts and shut them down or cut them out (does anyone care about conflict of interest?). I had a client where there was a big turnover in the executive staff, including the CFO. The Board felt there was a misuse of funds so they hired a forensic accountant to look for fraud. Has musk hired any forensic accountants? Are any of his teenage programmers forensic accountants? Where is the line by line accounting of every single piece of fraud of waste?
I guess one "could" argue the premise you've laid out, just not very effectively.
But I see your whatboutism coming through!
I’ll bite. What legal steps. Please provide evidence not talking points
Trying to legally remove him from the Colorado Ballot. Changing NY law to have charges as a felony vs misdemeanor. NY business fraud lawsuit where all parties (banks) were paid in full and said no crime was committed.
The Colorado effort was lead by a Republican. And if anyone thought that and other similar attempts were really going anywhere they should reevaluate their analysis skills
While I will agree the NY fraud case was week and partly political there were no laws changed. You might want to research that.
To simplify it to everyone got paid is missing the point of the charges
The real telltale here is he had to basically go out of the country to get loans and he couldn’t get bond money from “quality” bondsmen
Yes!
I didn’t get to watch this until today. It was excellent; I think one of the best. “Guests “ Chris has talked to on substack. I’m very happy he will be on again
Your reference to Venezuela was spot on. Having lived that nightmare, seeing this coming was easy. His coming back to win a second term and the dismantling and retributions that followed almost a mirror of Chavez before and after the 4-11-2002 events. Anyway, all this just to say your reference to Venezuela was right on target. These days the regime will not even bother to hide the outright usurping of elections.
Scary crazy times we live in. Who would've thought -----
Federalism is the most important guardrail. Trump/Musk can lay waste to our federal institutions but they can't take over California's governance. We may become more divided than ever, but if the blue state resistance is well executed..are you listening Gov Newsom... we may emerge in 2028 somewhat unscathed.
I’m so excited. Dutch has an ally or two. This is the best news of the week
What is to be done when the Trump administration refuses to follow the orders of the Courts? This will surely come to pass, and the Democratic Party appears to be largely impotent and rudderless. What then will be the People's recourse?
As long as the Trump administration abides by the rulings of the various courts, they haven't crossed the line. So far they have only complained and Trump has specifically said that he will honor those rulings (and, of course, appeal). To this point, Congress has quietly supported Trump's executive actions. They have the power to do otherwise if they choose. Trump campaigned on the idea that the Federal government should be downsized significantly, and this is what that looks like. We can argue that this administration is violating laws and even the Constitution but, under our system, that is for the courts to decide.
Then why is this administration downsizing the federal government by taking uncondtitutional actions, like cutting funding that Congress appropriated, or by closing agencies that Congress created and by law only Congress can close or downsize or reprganize?
There are legal ways to do everything DOGE has claimed to do so far but has done it illegally.
So far, Congress has not objected. Others have, of course, and the courts will determine if what the administration is doing is unconstitutional or not. The computer community doesn't get a vote.
Only the gop in Congress have not objected.
The courts have already found some of what they have attempted are unconstitutional.
The Constitution gives express authority of funding and spending to Congress. Article 1 of the US Constitution.The Framers did this because they did not want the power and authority over the nations wealth to be in the hands of one person in the executive branch. They had lived under a king, and tyrant, and made this move to expressly avoid having a king like person in our government. The executive has no rights under the Constitition to direct funding anywhere or to cut funding off. The executive can ask Congress for funds expressly for this or that priority, but the funds are granted only by congress.
Yes, only the party in power in Congress hasn't objected. Since they control what comes to the floor, that is a legally sufficient expression of Congressional will. No doubt the upcoming budget bill will come into play here as well. That should be interesting.
Several courts have stopped Trump's efforts to dismantle or defund parts of the Federal government and the administration has complied with those court orders. So far as I know, no court has held the administration in contempt. That would be the first step in a true constitutional conflict.
Lol. No, only the party in power is not expressng any concern over the lawless actions being attempted by this administration. That does not qualify as legally sufficient expression of congressional will, unless you consider Congress only represents one party!
The courts have so far only temporarily stoppedvthevlawlessness, and the adn8nistatu9n did not comply with one stop order under the questionalble pretense that it did not understand the scope of the order!
The first step in a constitutional conflict has already occurred by this administration taking unto itself the constitutional powers granted to our representatives in Congres and taking away the power of the purse which pur Founders went to great length to keep out of the hands of the executive branch, much less into the hands of unaccountable, unvettd 20 year olds, with zero oversight and zero transparency of their actions!
Of course the minority party has the right to stand on the floor and say whatever it wants. Just like the GOP relentlessly objected to the Jan 6th hearings when the Dems were in power. Didn't change anything but they did get to feed their base.
In reality, there is some constitutional fuzziness around just how much authority the executive branch has with respect to funds allocated to it for a specific purpose by Congress. All modern Presidents have played around a bit with such funds. Obviously the current administration has wildly exceeded previous efforts and the courts have temporarily brought much of that to a halt. A lower court stating that an action by the executive may be unconstitutional doesn't mean that it is unconstitutional. Once temporary restraining orders turn into specific rulings, the appeals process will begin. And I'd expect the Supremes to get involved sooner rather than later. Trump is trying to expand executive authority significantly and it will be interesting to see exactly where the lines are drawn.