Ezra Klein Lists Off Trump’s Actions In Office In Scathing NYT Editorial: ‘The Authoritarian Consolidation Stage’
New York Times opinion columnist and podcaster, Ezra Klein, raised eyebrows over the weekend with a scathing take, urging Democrats to no longer fund President Donald Trump’s “authoritarian consolidation” of power.
Klein’s Sunday column, titled “Stop Acting Like This Is Normal,” included listing off Trump’s many actions since taking office that critics and observers warn are shredding the rule of law in the U.S.
“We are in the authoritarian consolidation stage of this presidency,” Klein warns, adding:
I want to be very clear about what I am saying here. Donald Trump is corrupting the government — he is using it to hound his enemies, to line his pockets and to entrench his own power. He is corrupting it the way the Mafia would corrupt the industries it controlled. You could still, under Mafia rule, get the trash picked up or buy construction materials. But the point of those industries had become the preservation and expansion of the Mafia’s power and wealth. This is what Trump is doing to the government. This is what Democrats cannot fund. This is what they have to try to stop.
Klein then lists some of Trump’s more stunning moves while in office. “Just in the past few months, we’ve watched Trump fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because he didn’t like the jobs data. We watched him fire the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency after it suggested that the administration’s strike on Iran set its nuclear weapons program back by only months.”
He goes on to discuss Trump’s threats against NBC and ABC, Jerome Powell, Chris Christie, Fed Governor Lisa Cook, John Bolton, Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), NY Attorney General Tish James (D), and others, concluding, “ Trump has an enemies list, and he is using the power of the federal government to punish and harass his foes.”
Klein then looks at the corruption, saying, “We’ve watched the Trump family invest heavily in crypto, even starting its own coins, and then use its political power and fame to funnel in investment. We’ve watched Trump accept a luxury jet as a gift from Qatar.”
“We’ve watched, over the past few years, as the Saudis and the Qataris and the Emirates have made huge investments, billions of dollars, in Trump family businesses and crypto coins,” he continued, adding:
We’re watching countries like India and Vietnam and Qatar race to build Trump golf courses and towers. In March, Forbes estimated that Trump’s worth had more than doubled, to more than $5 billion, over the past year. “It pays to be king,” Forbes wrote.
We’ve watched Trump deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles and then to Washington, with more cities expected to come under federal military occupation soon. We’ve watched masked ICE agents conducting raids all over the country, refusing to reveal badge numbers or warrants.
We’ve watched Trump systematically purge the government of inspectors general, of military JAGs and officers, of federal prosecutors — anyone who might stand in the way of his corruption or his accumulation or exercise of power. It is astonishing that the Jan. 6 rioters have been pardoned and that dozens of the Justice Department lawyers who prosecuted them have been fired.
“This is not just how authoritarianism happens. This is authoritarianism happening,” Klein warns.
Watch the full clip above.
