“I have the right to do anything I wanna do. I’m the President of the United States.” — Donald J. Trump, August 26, 2025
“L'État, c'est moi” — Louis XIV, April 13, 1655
Portrait of Louis XIV, somewhat modified and updated by Grok.
Happy Wednesday.
This is not the time to look away or turn turtle. Too much is at stake. And it is happening all at once and everywhere. So you’re going to want to be here. To the Contrary is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Perhaps you caught Tuesday’s marathon snogfest cabinet meeting, where the president’s courtiers vied with one another in lavishing praise on the Orange Sun King.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez‑DeRemer won the laurels when she effused:
“Mr. President, I invite you to see your big beautiful face on a banner in front of the Department of Labor because you are really the transformational president of the American worker," she said, while referencing a new banner unveiled on her department's headquarters.
It was a reminder that spittle doesn’t lick itself. And somewhere a North Korean minion blushes.
**
Writing in the Atlantic, Quinta Jurecic reminds us that "the Senate’s constitutional power to advise and consent on U.S. attorney nominations is meant as a check against the president selecting candidates whose only merit, as described in The Federalist Papers, is “of being in some way or other personally allied to him, or of possessing the necessary insignificance and pliancy to render them the obsequious instruments of his pleasure.”1
But this is precisely what Donald J. Trump wanted and this is what we have: a cabinet thoroughly engorged with men and women of the necessary insignificance and pliancy to render them the obsequious instruments of his pleasure.
If only it was just the cabinet.
The Emperor of Everything- UPDATED
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Trump’s ambitions to be master of all he surveys — in both the public and private sectors.
Trump has extended his reach over the federal government, but that’s only part of the story we are seeing, because in Trump’s world there is no dividing line between the public and private sectors; no bright line that separates the exercise of limited state power from cultural power, or indeed, power over everything, everywhere, all the time.
Trump overflows the banks.
That’s because Trump thinks of himself as the Emperor of Everything, with power over:
The names of sports teams.
The sugar content of soda.
The names of Gulfs (and perhaps lakes and oceans too).
The history taught by museums.
Consider: He has control over a world-ending nuclear arsenal and can dispatch troops to the streets of Washington DC, but he also claims sway over comics who mock him, and pop stars who oppose him.
As president, Trump can crush opponents with a whim; impose taxes and tariffs by favor. But it’s not enough. Trump also reigns over the aesthetics of culture. He bedecks the most solemn classical halls with gilt; paves over iconic gardens; and issues pronunciamientos of praise or censure on everything from music to women’s breasts.
Trump can order his enemies probed and investigated; but he also claims authority over what words can be used, and which should be banned.
As president, Trump holds the agencies of government in an iron grip; but he also claims dominion over what private universities may say and teach; whom law firms can represent; and what media outlets can report.
Make sure you read this mini-essay from today’s Axios: “Trump's playbook for capturing and crushing America's institutions.”Trump has captured the Justice Department, the Intelligence Community, Independent Agencies, and the nation’s capital. He is tightening his grip on the Military, Congress, Academia, and Law.
President Trump is gradually testing, stretching and gutting the independence of America's major institutions, leaving few stones unturned in his pursuit of unchecked power.
Why it matters: In Trump's vision of America, authority flows only from his consent. The firing of Fed governor Lisa Cook — a first in modern history — shows that even the central bank's legendary independence is no longer untouchable. [An earlier piece notes that “Even though it only concerns an attempt to fire one governor out of seven, for believers in central bank independence, the litigation that results from this is for all the marbles.”
The big picture: In just seven months, Trump has consolidated vast power by following a simple playbook: Capture what he can, contest what he can't and punish those who resist.
"I have the right to do anything I want to do. I'm the president of the United States," Trump told reporters Tuesday when discussing his threat to send the National Guard into Chicago.
Government taking control of private companies ...
Supply shortages and price increases due to government attacks on free commercial exchange;
The government imposing huge fines on media corporations for First Amendment protected speech that displeased the president ...
Enormous tax increases imposed on Americans without any vote by Congress;
Violent convicted criminals released onto the streets because they directed their violence against persons the president targeted as his personal enemies ...
And all of it done by - and enthusiastically supported by - people who use the language of liberty to justify acts of arbitrary power and economic predation.
“Show me the man, I’ll show you the crime”
The quote is often attributed to the Stalin-era hatchet man Andrey Vyshinsky, but it sums up the danger of a regime that can deploy a spider web of law and regulations to destroy its enemies.
As Ryan Lizza reminds us in this splendid piece in Telos News, conservatives used to understand this. “Not long ago, conservatives dreaded the possibility that an unconstrained executive branch might unleash its prosecutors to pursue violations of every law on the books.”
In 2004, The Cato Institute released Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything, which argued that “[w]ith more than 4,000 federal offenses on the statute books, and thousands more buried in the Code of Federal Regulations, it is now frighteningly easy for American citizens to be hauled off to jail for actions that no reasonable person would regard as crimes.”
In 2010, the Heritage Foundation warned that “the federal government may have made you a criminal for very innocent actions” and published One Nation Under Arrest: How Crazy Laws, Rogue Prosecutors, and Activist Judges Threaten Your Liberty.
The best-known book from this era was Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent, by Harvey Silvergate, whose calls for reforms addressing the hazards of overcriminalization and selective prosecution have been repeatedly cited by self-professed libertarian Republicans in Congress.
Under this system, nobody who criticizes the government is safe. If you are targeted by Trump and his fascist—I don’t deploy that adjective lightly, but it is sadly apt at this moment in 2025—enablers, the government is powerful enough to ruin your life.
Maybe you will be harassed “only” with leaks about impending criminal investigations that never actually materialize.
If you’re more unlucky, they might scoop up some details about some technical violation of law buried in the federal code that would never normally be prosecuted.
Maybe a federal judge will throw out your case, calling out the government for its shameful conduct. Or maybe your judge will be Emil Bove, and you’ll go to jail.
As this system matures—it’s only month eight—and becomes more aggressive, some Trump opponents who are targeted solely because of their political views might even have committed a real crime that nobody will want to defend.
But if the predicate for an investigation is simply that the target opposed Trump, shouldn’t we treat any ensuing action against that opponent as illegitimate?
I think the answer is yes
**
The good news? “Prosecutors Fail to Secure Indictment Against Man Who Threw Sandwich at Federal Agent” - The New York Times
The grand jury’s rejection of the felony charge was a remarkable failure by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington and the second time in recent days that a majority of grand jurors refused to vote to indict a person accused of felony assault on a federal agent. It also amounted to a sharp rebuke by a panel of ordinary citizens against the prosecutors assigned to bring charges against people arrested after President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops and federal agents to fight crime and patrol the city’s streets.
The rejection by grand jurors was particularly noteworthy given the attention paid to the case of the man who threw the sandwich, Sean C. Dunn. Video of the episode went viral on social media, senior officials talked about the case, and the administration posted footage of a large group of heavily armed law enforcement officers going to Mr. Dunn’s apartment.
Sandwich Guy art on K Street, Northwest. Photograph by Franziska Wild.
In dismissing the case, [U.S. District Judge Thomas T. Cullen] criticized Trump administration officials and spokespersons who “have described federal district judges across the country as ‘left-wing,’ ‘liberal,’ ‘activists,’ ‘radical,’ ‘politically minded,’ ‘rogue,’ ‘unhinged,’ ‘outrageous, overzealous, [and] unconstitutional,’ ‘[c]rooked,’ and worse.”
“Although some tension between the coordinate branches of government is a hallmark of our constitutional system, this concerted effort by the Executive to smear and impugn individual judges who rule against it is both unprecedented and unfortunate,” Cullen wrote.
Wednesday dogs
We have some workers at the house today and Eli is keeping a close eye on them from his perch upstairs.
In a rare moment of naivete, Alexander Hamilton rejected warnings that “the President by the influence of the power of nomination may secure the compliance of the Senate to his views.”
Surely, he argued, the senate would not be so corrupt, inert, or inane to assent to the elevation of mediocrities to positions of trust.
“ The supposition of universal venality in human nature is little less an error in political reasoning than the supposition of universal rectitude. The institution of delegated power implies that there is a portion of virtue and honor among mankind, which may be a reasonable foundation of confidence.”
"I appreciated the call earlier this evening with @CrackerBarrel," Deputy White House Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich said in a post. "They thanked President Trump for weighing in on the issue of their iconic 'original' logo. They wanted the President to know that they heard him, along with customer response (the ultimate poll), and would be restoring the ‘Old Timer.’ So smart! Congrats Cracker Barrel and America!"
I think we're still getting it wrong. This isn't a "trump" problem - this is today's GOP. Since descending down the escalator, trump could never have gotten away with anything if today's GOP had kept their oaths to our Constitution, kept to their supposed values, and kept faith with the American people.
Yes, trump is worse than ever, but today's GOP is the worst of all. When trump is gone from the scene, a fascist, power-hungry GOP will be what we're left with, having allowed trump (and hence themselves) the means with which to perpetuate their power....
Why is no one talking about "THIS is what the POTUS is doing with his time? Farting out 'pronouncements' about restaurant logos and late night comics? Shouldn't he be spending his time making your lives better?"
You know who was spending his time making lives better? Disgusting, boring Old Joe.
I think we're still getting it wrong. This isn't a "trump" problem - this is today's GOP. Since descending down the escalator, trump could never have gotten away with anything if today's GOP had kept their oaths to our Constitution, kept to their supposed values, and kept faith with the American people.
Yes, trump is worse than ever, but today's GOP is the worst of all. When trump is gone from the scene, a fascist, power-hungry GOP will be what we're left with, having allowed trump (and hence themselves) the means with which to perpetuate their power....
Why is no one talking about "THIS is what the POTUS is doing with his time? Farting out 'pronouncements' about restaurant logos and late night comics? Shouldn't he be spending his time making your lives better?"
You know who was spending his time making lives better? Disgusting, boring Old Joe.
And don't get me started on VP Vacationing Vance.