Bullies, Criminals and the Fight for America

With tariffs set to take effect today, remember that Donald Trump’s aggressive and foolish attack on our allies and Elon Musk's hostile takeover depend on Americans remaining silent

Co-conspirators in the dismantling of American government. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images)

Donald Trump stood in the East Room of our White House Wednesday describing his demand that Colombia take back its refugees from the United States. “You’re going to take them. You’re going to like it, too,” he said. Supporters in the room laughed and clapped.

This is not just the aggressive attitude of a bully. This is the disgusting thinking of an abuser, a sadist or even a rapist.

His words were bad enough, but the amusement he elicited illustrates the reality that this sociopathic man thinks he can say or do whatever he wants without consequence. You can see why: With a Supreme Court that handed him near-total immunity, his delusion of a massive victory providing him a broad mandate, and a growing rogue’s gallery of henchman that will satisfy his reckless hunger for retribution and destruction, he’s free to play out his darkest fantasies.

It’s appalling to recall that just two weeks ago he stood in our Capitol and mouthed the oath of office that he would “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution of the United States. Any real president would have felt the meaning and weight of those sacred words, which were first spoken by George Washington in 1789 when he was first inaugurated.

But we are now saddled with a despotic president who never acts out of good faith, rejects the relevance of the rule of law, despises the principles and constraints of the Constitution, relishes abusing his power to settle scores, demands loyalty over competence, and never experiences basic human feelings like shame, remorse or compassion. This is a monstrous combination. Without a fierce opposition, these failings will lead to more and more damage, suffering and ruin—rendering the America we know and love increasingly unrecognizable.

If only he genuinely grasped how a leader can accomplish great things with soft power—that is, to increase influence with attraction rather than coercion. Instead, his ugly actions—including his fiction that tariffs will boost the economy—ensure that America will be increasingly hated here and abroad.

Take the freezing of foreign aid, which caused hundreds of thousands of civilians to go hungry in famine-suffering Sudan because U.S.-funded soup kitchens often provided their only meal. As The New York Times succinctly put the issue in its well-reported story: “In a matter of days, Mr. Trump’s order to freeze nearly all U.S. foreign aid has intensified humanitarian crises and raised profound questions about America’s reliability and global standing.”

That’s of course just one example of Trump and his unelected but dangerously empowered co-conspirator, Elon Musk, seeking to wrest power and wreak havoc. Just consider the level of arrogance and sociopathic indifference for X owner Musk to use his power and platform to insist the life-saving foreign aid agency, USAID, is “a criminal agency. Time for it to die.”

Institution by institution, agency by agency, they’re exploiting their power to drive out competent and conscientious civil servants who’ve dedicated their lives to the public good. That includes forcing out officials at the Justice Department, the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration whose fealty they doubt. Their tactic is also to promise full pay and benefits until Sept. 30 to nearly every federal employee if they resign by Feb. 6, even without any Congressional appropriation. Federal employees received an email with the subject line “Fork in the Road,” which is the same one Musk used to slash the majority of employees at what once was Twitter.

Even more alarming, Musk has reportedly taken control of the computer systems that manage federal payments and contain the personal data of millions of federal employees. Reuters reported that some senior career employees at the Office of Personnel Management have lost their access to some of the data systems. “We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems,” one official told Reuters. “It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications.”

This is part of a hostile takeover with consequences for the efficacy of our government. David Lebryk, the acting Deputy Treasury Secretary, resigned this week after more than three decades of government service. This followed his being forced out by Musk and his made-up Department of Government Efficiency—created by a Trump executive order, not an act of Congress— after he refused to grant them access to sensitive data.

How serious is this? Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a letter to Scott Bessent, the newly confirmed Treasury secretary, that “officials associated with Musk may have intended to access these payment systems to illegally withhold payments to any number of programs…and any politically motivated meddling in them risks severe damage to our country and the economy.”

It’s hard to grasp how this is legally possible, especially in this lawless moment, since Musk is ultimately just a private citizen with no power confirmed by Congress. Rather than simply suggest this is criminal behavior, we might more accurately describe it as a coup by a billionaire oligarch who wants to subvert the functioning of government and grab as much private power and control as his ally in the White House will permit. So far, that amount appears to be as much as he wants.

Today begins Trump’s 25 percent tariffs against our closest neighbors and top trading partners, Canada and Mexico, and a 10 percent tariff on China, one of our other largest trading partners. Trump insists that they (and others) take American support for granted.

He claims his real aim is to stop the flow of illegal refugees and the scourge of fentanyl, but he’s really just a bully taking his earliest opportunity to show off his power. Why else say stupid things like Canada should be the 51st state or the U.S. should take back the Panama Canal or buy Greenland from Denmark?

No less than The Wall Street Journal, typically in Trump’s pocket, headlined its editorial on the topic “The Dumbest Trade War in History.” I don’t usually make a practice of quoting the Journal, but its summary here is about as good as it gets.

This plan, they wrote, “reminds us of the old [historian] Bernard Lewis joke that it’s risky to be America’s enemy but it can be fatal to be its friend.” And, they rightly added, “Mr. Trump sometimes sounds as if the U.S. shouldn’t import anything at all, that America can be a perfectly closed economy making everything at home. This is called autarky, and it isn’t the world we live in, or one that we should want to live in, as Mr Trump may soon find out.”

Sadly, it won’t be just Trump who’ll find out the stupidity of his ill-informed, bullying ways. This will soon cause harm to the American auto industry, which is highly interconnected with both Canada and Mexico, and will lead to noticeably higher prices in the grocery store and elsewhere.

These tariffs also do unnecessary damage to a warm and long-standing alliance with our northern neighbor for no good reason. “This decision puts in peril a historic economic relationship, a relationship that has been the source of wealth, prosperity and possibility on both sides of the border,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday.

Note his elegant summary of this important relationship:

As President John F. Kennedy said many years ago, “Geography has made us neighbors, history has made us friends, economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies.” That rang true for many decades prior to President Kennedy's time in office and the decades since. From the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of the Korean Peninsula, from the fields of Flanders to the streets of Kandahar, we have fought and died alongside you during your darkest hours…

Together, we've built the most successful economic, military and security partnership the world has ever seen; a relationship that has been the envy of the world. Yes, we've had our differences in the past, but we've always found a way to get past them.

As I've said before, if President Trump wants to usher in a new golden age for the United States, the better path is to partner with Canada, not to punish us. Canada has critical minerals, reliable and affordable energy, stable democratic institutions, shared values and the natural resources you need. Canada has the ingredients necessary to build a booming and secure partnership for the North American economy, and we stand at the ready to work together.

None of that will have any impact on the anti-democratic, ahistorical Trump who only sees an opportunity to show off his power. Perhaps Trudeau’s response of immediate 25 percent tariffs against $155 billion worth of American goods, plus additional tariffs on $125 billion worth of American products in three weeks, will make a difference.

Add to that the consequences of retaliatory tariffs by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo: “Nothing by force; everything by reason and right,” she asserted. But she also wasn’t rolling over: “We categorically reject the slander made by the White House against the Government of Mexico, accusing it of having alliances with criminal organizations, as well as any interventionist intentions in our territory.”

I hadn’t figured that the leaders of Canada and Mexico would become a part of the opposition to this authoritarian takeover by Trump, Musk and their oligarchic allies. But here we are. Perhaps Americans will learn from the resistance of our Canadian and Mexican friends.

Ultimately, this hostile agenda will continue to accelerate as long as those in positions to do something and the public at large remain silent. Yes, we are all trying to comprehend this unprecedented assault on our government and way of life, but their takeover demands us to get over our confusion and doubt. That includes recognizing our collective power and refusing to accept this dangerous trajectory.

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber for $50 a year or just $5 a month, if you’re not already. This helps sustain and expand the work of America, America, keeps nearly all the content free for everyone and gives you full access to the comment sections. Building our community has never been more important.