Since coming to power, Donald Trump has been practicing methodical revenge against his enemies. In recent weeks, he has signed decrees in retaliation against five major law firms that have represented political rivals or brought legal actions against him and his government. Paul Weiss, one of the most prestigious, very linked to the Democratic Party, opposed his immigration policy during his first mandate. Covington & Burling, another firm on the hot seat, represented Jack Smith, the prosecutor responsible for two criminal procedures against the president. Perkins Coie, he defended Hillary Clinton in 2016 … Other firms are still in the viewfinder of Trump.
Trump has a weakness for autocrats
The decrees prohibit these four cabinets with access to federal buildings and request the cancellation of their public contracts and those of their customers, in short, they do everything to sink their activity. Donald Trump has continued to accuse lawyers of having harassed him “merciless” and “illegally” with trials and surveys. These decrees, very questionable from a legal point of view, have two goals: lead the firms to bankruptcy by scaring their customers. Perkins Coie has already lost several and expects a 25 %drop in income. It is also a means of pressure to dissuade them from defending criticism from the White House. These measures already have a dramatic impact. Former members of the Biden administration say they find it difficult to find a lawyer who agrees to take care of their case. A judge temporarily suspended the decree after a complaint from Perkins Coie saying that these punitive efforts “gave him cold in the back” and “threaten the very foundations of our judicial system”.
For two months, Donald Trump has taken all kinds of initiatives – some illegal – to strengthen the executive and test the limits of presidential power. “American democracy is in danger, sums up George Edwards, professor of political science at Texas A & M. We are moving towards an autocracy. Trump defies the fundamental aspects of the constitutional system.” With a terrifying speed, the president marginalized the congress, placed for loyalists at the head of the FBI, justice and the Pentagon, tries to muzzle his opponents, challenges the decisions of the courts, purges the federal administration and got their hands, with the help of Elon Musk, on personal data (notably held by the IRS, the equivalent of the taxman. He can thus use them to identify, for example, individuals in an irregular situation.
It’s not really a surprise. Trump has always had a weakness for autocrats. His model is Viktor Orbán that he met several times. The Hungarian, after his election, rewritten the Constitution, appointed judges to his boot, changed the electoral law, put under his media, all in record time. “Donald Trump follows a chaotic version of the Orban strategy manual,” said Kim Lane Scheppele, a specialist in illiberal democracies at Princeton University. According to her, “America is in serious danger of becoming a Hungary”. The tenant of the oval office does not hide it. He proclaimed: “He who saves his homeland does not violate any law”, a formula attributed to Napoleon. The White House went so far as to post on X one of its photos wearing a crown with the mention “Vive le Roi”. And “he threatens the judges, the lawyers, the press, the facs which play a central role in the democratic system”, continues George Edwards.
One of the black beasts of the conservatives, for years, is the universities, leftist fiefs, elitist, Woke and Anti-Israel, according to them. The administration began by cutting $ 400 million in subsidies in Columbia, accusing it of not having fought anti -Semitism enough during the Propalestinian demonstrations last spring. She then drawn up a series of conditions to set up: giving more power to the campus police to arrest the “agitators”, prohibit the port of the mask, appoint an independent director at the head of the department of studies on the Middle East and the center on Palestine to examine the programs and hiring of teachers …
In the process, the administration frozen $ 175 million in subsidies at the University of Pennsylvania, guilty in 2022 for having authorized a transgender student to join the female swimming team. She also launched surveys in dozens of higher education establishments to control their policy in terms of anti -Semitism, positive discrimination … More than 300 visas have been dismissed and several foreign students, holders of green card and visa, were arrested and are detained for participating in Propaletinian demonstrations or, in the case of a Turkish, to have co -signed a text criticizing the University of TUFTS response to the anti-Israel movement. For the moment, their expulsion has been blocked by judges.
Voice of America radio, created in 1942 against the Nazis, was closed
At the same time, Donald Trump attacks the media. He tries to marginalize journalists for the benefit of influencers of far -right sites. He prohibited access to the White House and the Air Force One to Associated Press, the main American agency, because it refuses to call the Gulf of Mexico, “Gulf of America”, as the president renamed it. He repeats that CNN and MSNBC are “illegal” channels. And he suspended Voice of America, created in 1942 against Nazi propaganda, which broadcasts in fifty languages in the world.
But his main target is the judges he attacks daily. So much so that many of them – and their families – are the subject of serious threats. One of the Trumpist legions tactics is to send Domino’s pizzas to their home that they did not order. The message is clear: we know your address. There are also bomb alerts and “Swatting”, A tactic which consists in calling, preferably at night, the police to report the presence of an armed individual. This triggers the arrival of a team in the style of the GIGN which suddenly enters the accommodation and terrorizes its residents. Judge John Coughenour was a victim after blocked the decree on the abolition of soil law.
Even more amazing for the oldest in -practice democracy in the world, it is the lack of resistance. Democrats seem unable to organize and act as an opposition party. Republican elected officials “crash” for fear of unleashing the anger of the president and his supporters. As for law firms, they tried, without success, to present a united front. But many fear to end up in the crosshairs and prefer to be silent. “It is very disappointing because we knew what Donald Trump was going to do, the 2025 project (the conservative roadmap) was known since 2024. Facs, lawyers of lawyers had long time to plan, create networks and think about the way of thwarting it,” says Kim Lane Scheppele.
The intimidation strategy works. To everyone’s surprise, Brad Karp, the boss of the cabinet Paul Weiss, capitulated. A few days after the decree aimed at torpedoing him, he went to the White House one morning, from 8:30 a.m., and negotiated an agreement with Donald Trump. In exchange for the cancellation of the decree, he promised to consecrate the equivalent of $ 40 million in fees to help causes dear to the Republicans and abandon his policy of diversity and inclusion. Brad Karp has justified himself in a message to his employees. The firm, he said, faced “an existential crisis”. Even if the courts had proved her right, she would probably not have survived because she would have been seen as anti-Trump.
Unheard of since maccarthyism
This decision aroused the criticism. Some 140 former employees, in an open letter, accused him of having acted “cowardly”. “It is a permanent spot on a large firm that looked for profit by selling its soul.” These concessions may not be enough. The president indeed increases his reprisal campaign. He threatens to sanction law firms that engage in “futile, unreasonable and dilatory” prosecution against the government. “We have never seen such actions since the MacCarthyism in the 1950s,” notes Matthew Diller, the dean of Fordham’s law college. The Albert Sellars firm was more direct: “I praise these fascist nonsense.”
Paul Weill is not the only one to make concessions. Columbia has agreed to apply the measures required by the White House in exchange for the release of the 400 million subsidies. The University of Maine has promised to change its transgender policy in sport. As for the media, Meta and Disney (which controls the ABC channel) agreed to pay $ 25 million and $ 15 million respectively in Donald Trump to put an end to trials. Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon and owner of Washington Post, Eager to get into the president’s good graces, before the election has prohibited the publication of an editorial in favor of Kamala Harris. He also announced that the opinion pages would now focus on “personal freedoms and the free business” and would no longer publish opposite points of view. And a caricaturist resigned when his drawing who made fun of billionaires – including Bezos – prostrating himself before the Head of State was rejected.
The tension rises from a notch
Only counterpowers still in a state of resisting: the courts. Federal judges have blocked multiple decrees intended to remove soil law, dismiss thousands of civil servants … but the administration does everything to oppose their decisions. In recent days, she has started an showdown with judge James Boasberg. Donald Trump used an 18th century law, only used in wartime, to expel 137 Venezuelans, supposedly members of a gang, to a Salvador prison, without prior appearance in court. James Boasberg blocked the measurement and ordered the two planes to turn around. The government was sheltered behind various reasons not to comply. The judge then demanded information on these flights. In vain. Tension has mounted a notch when the Ministry of Justice invoked state secrecy. At the same time, the president accused Boasberg of being “a left -wing extremist crazy” and called for his dismissal. These insults caused a rare rebuff of John Roberts, the head of the Supreme Court. “Distribution”, he wrote “is not an appropriate response to a disagreement on a legal decision”.
In an interview, Donald Trump said he had never made a court decision and, when asked if he was thinking about it, he replied: “No, you can’t do that.” But he added: “I think that at some point, you have to ask yourself what to do before a crooked judge.” And his advisers do not take gloves. “I don’t care what the judges think,” said Tom Homan, the border manager on Fox News, ensuring that he would continue the expulsions. As for the Republican elected officials, they launched an impreshment procedure against several magistrates and plan to cut funding in certain federal courts, or even delete them. Where will it lead? “We have an obsolete constitution and our democracy is not in good health, concludes Kim Lane Scheppele. The more rigged the rules, the less likely to restore them.”
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