In today’s “To the Contrary” Podcast, Tom Nichols and I survey a deplorable week which saw DJT:
Defying the courts in the case of the illegal rendition of a Maryland man to El Salvador
Weaponizing the IRS against Harvard
Bullying law firms who have opposed him
Threatening to sic the FCC on Comcast
Suggesting the “termination” of the chairman of the Federal Reserve
Continuing his deadly game of chicken with China
Continuing to arrest and rendition migrants and critics
The point, of course is the fear. So far, it has been working.
But there are growing signs of resistance.
You can watch or listen right here or on YouTube / Listen (and subscribe) on Apple/ Spotify / iHeart / RSS Feed.
Happy Easter.
And, of course, the celebration of our Lord’s Resurrection would not be complete without a gracious and pious message from our president.
This, I regret to tell you, is not a parody:
Nota Bene
The Wall Street Journal: “Trump Is Taking On America’s Institutions but Resistance Is Building” [Gift link]
WASHINGTON—In moving to accumulate unprecedented power, President Trump has bulldozed his way through the traditional constraints of presidential authority with such force that institutions including universities, law firms and parts of Congress have been left reeling.
This week, some started fighting back.
Harvard University refused to comply with the Trump administration’s demands for changes to address alleged bias. Columbia University, facing criticism for acquiescing in negotiations over federal funding, took a tougher tone.
Federal courts raised the prospect of holding Trump officials in contempt.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has resisted calls to pre-emptively lower interest rates to cushion any economic fallout from Trump’s trade war.
Former cybersecurity official Chris Krebs, targeted with a federal investigation for not going along with Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, quit his private-sector job so he could more freely battle the White House.
Voters are more loudly voicing opposition to some Trump policies, criticizing Republican lawmakers during town-hall meetings.
“The embers are alive, and there are even some flames of resistance growing,” said Peter Wehner, a Trump critic who served in three earlier Republican administrations.
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Nationwide ‘50501’ protests rally against Trump administration’s policies - The Washington Post
From Wyoming to Washington and Mississippi to Manhattan, protesters at hundreds of rallies in small towns and big cities gathered Saturday to denounce President Donald Trump’s sweeping policy moves, the second day of mass action this month as opposition to the administration continued to coalesce.
The more than 700 planned events were part of the “50501” movement, a decentralized campaign that began on Reddit and got its name from a Feb. 5 push for “50 protests in 50 states on 1 day.” That effort led to anti-Trump protests at state capitol buildings across the nation. Hunter Dunn, a spokesperson for 50501, described the group as a “pro-democracy, pro-Constitution, anti-executive-overreach, nonviolent grassroots movement.”
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Ryan Holiday in the NYT: The Naval Academy Canceled My Lecture on Wisdom [Gift link]
For the past four years, I have been delivering a series of lectures on the virtues of Stoicism to midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and I was supposed to continue this on April 14 to the entire sophomore class on the theme of wisdom.
Roughly an hour before my talk was to begin, I received a call: Would I refrain from any mention in my remarks of the recent removal of 381 supposedly controversial books from the Nimitz library on campus? My slides had been sent up the chain of command at the school, which was now, as it was explained to me, extremely worried about reprisals if my talk appeared to flout Executive Order 14151 (“Ending Radical and Wasteful Government D.E.I. Programs and Preferencing.”)
When I declined, my lecture — as well as a planned speech before the Navy football team, with whom my books on Stoicism are popular was canceled. (The academy “made a schedule change that aligns with its mission of preparing midshipmen for careers of service,” a Navy spokesperson told Times Opinion. “The Naval Academy is an apolitical institution.”)
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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is losing his chief of staff, Joe Kasper, in the coming days, according to a report published by Politico on Friday night.
Kasper will remain with the agency. However, three other Defense aides who were put on leave earlier this week were terminated on Friday, according to sources granted anonymity by Politico. Those three, who were reportedly on leave in connection with an ongoing leak investigation, were senior adviser Dan Caldwell, Hegseth deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick, and Colin Carroll, who was chief of staff to the deputy secretary of Defense. Two sources told Politico that Carroll and Selnick intend to sue for wrongful termination.
Who could have seen this coming? Except everyone?
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Some highlights of my conversation with Tom Nichols
Tequila and Quaaludes: A Political Analogy
Trump is getting outplayed by China
Sunday dogs
From my wife’s Easter morning Substack post… a gallery of our best boys.
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