2/24/20
President Trump’s ongoing purge of his administration is rapidly getting worse, so it’s urgent that we accurately frame what’s really driving it, to avoid letting it get shrouded in a story line about Trump’s unchecked emotions and pathologies. So let’s be clear: Trump is not merely purging officials to sate his anger at those who crossed him — that is, as backward-looking retribution against disloyalty. Rather, the real driver here is that Trump is removing officials who committed the sin of trying to defend the rule of law from his efforts to corrupt it. This is forward-looking: It clears the way for more such corruption of the rule of law and sends a message to others about what awaits them if they stand in the way of this as it continues to devolve. When Trump demands that the Justice Department do his political bidding and/or rages at it for failing to do so, the press tends to treat this as flowing from an actual belief on Trump’s part: He really thinks a “deep state” cabal is out to get him, and he’s fighting back. But this is a fundamental error. Trump is raging at officials who constitute an obstacle to his own active, ongoing corruption of the rule of law. And it’s working: The Justice Department actually is carrying out his corrupt bidding in many ways. Barr actually did work to reduce Stone’s sentencing recommendation.
I don't think most people understand that the norm we've gotten used to of DOJ operating independently from the president is now functionally dead. Trump has been very open about all of this: As “chief law enforcement officer,” he is “allowed to be totally involved.” Which is to say, he can abuse law enforcement and the machinery of government for any corrupt purpose he sees fit. The purges are about removing obstacles to this. When Trump ousted former National Security Council official Alexander Vindman, who had also tried to stand in the way of Trump’s corruption, Donald Trump Jr. explicitly cast this as a message to anyone else who might do the same. The purges are not just revenge. They are designed to remove people who defend the rule of law against Trump’s very deliberate corruption and degradation of it. Those are the “snakes” that Trump wants ousted. And we have no idea how much worse it could all get.
