Trump's Expanding Mafia State

While Trump and his loyal mobsters continue to exploit their power for personal benefit, we the people must loudly oppose their corruption and injustice

(Photo by Andrew Harnik via Getty Images)

Over the last week, I’ve been reflecting on the threat by Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, that led Disney/ABC to indefinitely suspend late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel. “We can do this the easy way or we can do it the hard way,” Carr said during a podcast, elaborating that the broadcaster’s license could be in jeopardy if it didn’t get rid of Kimmel. With this, Carr set in motion a dangerous assault on free speech and a brazen display of government censorship.

This is not how a public servant speaks. This is how a Trump henchman—you might say one of his gangster operation’s captains—talks when he feels unfettered by the law or a sense of shame. Underscoring his belief in his power to persecute individuals and media companies who disagree with his boss, Carr told CNBC after Kimmel lost his job that he was not done—that he was strengthened by “the permission structure that President Trump’s election has provided.”

Unsurprisingly, Trump has praised Carr as “a tough guy.” It’s just the kind of flattery that his old lawyer Roy Cohn would have used to describe his notorious mafia clients, a list that included John Gotti, Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno of the Genovese crime family, Carmine Galante of the Bonanno crime family, and Paul Castellano, head of the Gambino crime family who sold concrete to Trump for Trump Tower.

Is it any surprise that the underboss of the Gambino family, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, served up this indirect endorsement of Trump not long after he got out of prison in 2017? America “doesn't need a bookworm as president, it needs a mob boss,” said Gravano, a former hitman who confessed to his involvement in 19 murders. In this second term, Trump isn’t even pretending to be anything else.

What would it look like if we were facing a mafia state with a mob boss in charge? A demand for total loyalty; the use of fear, intimidation and violent threats to get what he wants; the exploitation of cracks in the law to expand his power and wealth; the transformation of an independent Justice Department into an arm of his criminal operation; the extreme abuse of his public position to enrich himself and his cronies; and, of course, the aggressive plan to pursue retribution against his perceived enemies, no matter how powerful they are, to weaken their threat to him.

In such a scenario, there’s little room for the public’s interests. Worse, these corrupt and criminal pursuits ensure that the interests of most Americans are aggressively undermined, making everyday survival harder and crueler. This abandonment of a president’s responsibility to govern should mobilize we the people to demand change.

In the last few days, we’ve seen several new examples of the already obvious criminality of Trump’s mafia state. After all, the boss has been busy for months extorting former allies with his tariff operation; his Gestapo-style ICE operation that has involved masked men kidnapping people off the streets and shipping them off to foreign prisons without due process; and he and his sycophants have been busy threatening colleges and universities, law firms and businesses. Did you notice no one in his mob batted an eye when Apple’s Tim Cook came to the Oval Office with a 24-karat gold tribute and later joined a group of cowardly tech billionaires who pledged—protection racket-style—hundreds of billions in new AI investments?

Six weeks before the 2024 election, so-called “border czar” Tom Homan was caught on camera by the FBI in Texas taking a bag of $50,000 in cash with a promise to assist border security companies seeking to land government contracts. Once Trump got back into power, his Justice Department operatives didn’t just bury this bribery case involving federal undercover agents, they condemned it as a politicized “deep state” investigation.

If Trump knew about Homan’s activities, we can presume he didn’t care less: This is the guy he wanted to hand enormous power to oversee his mass deportation operation, ostensibly to root out criminals.

“Pam Bondi knew. Kash Patel knew. Emil Bove knew,” California Sen. Adam Schiff posted after MSNBC aired its report about the case this weekend. “And they made the investigation go away. A corrupt attempt to conceal brazen graft.”

But two other cases offer even more egregious evidence of a lawless boss flexing his muscles to consolidate his power. First, on Friday, Trump pressured Virginia prosecutor Erik Siebert to resign after he refused to bring a weak case against New York Attorney General Letitia James for alleged mortgage fraud. “I want him out,” Trump said, adding in his mob boss-style about James, “It looks to me like she's very guilty of something, but I really don't know.”

That’s not all. When asked about Siebert, the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, he explained his desire to get rid of him like this: “When I saw that he got two senators, two gentlemen that are bad news, as far as I'm concerned, when I saw that he got approved by these two men, I said, 'pull it,' because he can't be any good.” Who were those “bad news” senators? Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats.

Then, on Saturday, Trump demanded that Attorney General Pam Bondi urgently prosecute some of his perceived enemies. His list posted on Truth Social included former FBI Director James Comey, Letitia James and Adam Schiff, all of whom he claimed are “guilty as hell.”

So much for justice. So much for judicial protocol. So much for an independent Justice Department, in which prosecutors pursue actual evidence without fear or favor. Trump wasn’t even pretending to care about any of that: Justice is only what serves him.

“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump wrote in a post addressed to “Pam,” referring to Bondi. “They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”

This is what we get when a corrupt right-wing supermajority on John Roberts’ Supreme Court hands a convicted felon—who promised retribution if he got back into power—near-total immunity for “presidential acts.” This is what we get when millions of Americans vote for a vengeful, lawless candidate, likely assuming he didn’t really mean it when he pledged to go after his political enemies.

And this is exactly why it’s critical that Americans continue to speak out against this regime and say enough is enough. We cannot simply stand idly by and watch this continuing desecration of our norms, values and laws by a man who treats our beloved country like his personal mafia state.

One more thing: As much as this is a tragedy for America, it’s also a continuing danger to the globe. Trump’s reckless disregard for human life and disregard for lawful action is also visible in the regime’s three attacks on Venezuelan boats in international waters. The death count so far: 17 humans.

Trump and his henchmen have justified their deadly attacks by claiming, without evidence, that they are confronting the spread of drugs by drug traffickers—as if the appropriate response is to kill them rather than arrest them and hold them legally accountable.

But as New York Times military reporter Eric Schmitt writes, these attacks may be just a cover for a broader military operation in the pursuit of regime change of Venezuela’s current president, Nicolas Maduro. That assessment would help explain the presence of 4,500 military on eight warships in the Caribbean, as well as 10 F-35 stealth fighters at the ready in Puerto Rico. (Ironically, Trump and his regime is questioning the legitimacy of Maduro’s election and government; they insist he’s abusing his power to direct Venezuela’s drug cartels.)

“The massive naval flotilla off the coast of Venezuela and the movement of fifth-generation F-35 fighters to Puerto Rico has little to do with actual drug interdiction — they represent operational overkill,” Adm. James G. Stavridis, former head of the Pentagon’s Southern Command, told the Times. Rather, this is a signal to Maduro that they are willing to escalate their efforts to drive him from power.

And if that operation requires killing several dozen Venezuelan boat passengers—whatever may be the truth of their activities—then so what? To the Trump regime, that’s just collateral damage. Human life is expendable when a mafia state chooses to flex its muscles.

This is not just a warning. It should be a call to action for everyone who values human life and expects a White House occupant to respect the rule of law and the people’s will. It may seem impossible to unravel an expanding mafia state, but let’s not give up our belief that when the majority fights back, such lawlessness and hostility can’t endure.

Becoming a paid subscriber to America, America—for $50 a year or just $5 a month—helps sustain our work, keeps nearly all the content free for everyone and gives you full access to our dynamic community conversations. It also represents your commitment to fearless and independent journalism. That’s never been more critical.