VE•RI•TAS
Defend the Institutions
It was clear all along that DOGE must have had some kind of hidden purpose: it was never any secret that the promised savings could never be achieved, so what exactly was DOGE trying to do?
As the haphazard firings continued—and began to harm an ever-larger part of Trump’s coalition—the true purpose of this activity has come into focus. There’s only one person who would gain from the destruction of the world’s economy, of America’s democracy, and of the post-WWII institutions that created and still help to maintain America’s position in the world.
Only one person.
Vladimir Putin.
Trump’s actions are designed with two outcomes in mind: first, to force large-scale demonstrations as an (illegal) pretext for declaring martial law; second, to destroy the federal government, which would give his wealthiest supporters a series of buying opportunities and create the space for forced ideological change that many of his supporters demand.
But we all saw Trump's 2018 Helsinki post-Putin expression. That’s the kind of face most of us would make if we or our loved ones had just been threatened. And Putin looks as if he just swallowed a canary.
While obviously speculative, is there any other simple explanation for Trump’s consistent lack of serious resistance to Putin? For his anti-Ukraine stance? For his many positions meant to damage NATO, the EU, and the other post-WWII institutions preventing Putin from regaining the glory of the former USSR? If Trump were an actual Russian agent out to destroy The West, what would he be doing that he isn’t doing now? Nothing, of course: accomplishing even half of these goals would achieve more than Putin could ever have imagined.
It’s true that Trump has many personal motivations, such as taking revenge upon his many enemies, pumping his ego, throwing some bones to his various constituencies, and grabbing as many dollars as he can. But you can be sure his need to please Putin is never far from top-of-mind. And yes, he’s probably thinking of ways to get out from under Putin’s thumb, but the ship of fools Trump has assembled for his team are all “D” players—and most probably don’t even know the true nature of the project. So I wouldn’t look for Trump to rise and cast off his chains—that’s just not him (look at how he’s caved on the tariffs).
Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s much time before Trump makes his big push to take over. He's going to juggle as many lawsuits as possible, pretending to go through our normal legal processes, and then defy everyone all at once because he knows only the American people (or a couple dozen GOP members of Congress) have any chance to stop him (which is obviously the reason for throwing innocent folk into Salvadoran prisons).
How soon? He would likely enjoy claiming he’s had the best “first 100 days” in the history of the Presidency; April 20 is also a significant date among his fringier supporters. But he won’t move until he feels success is certain—whatever that means to him.
There is stunning good news in this battle: Harvard University has stepped up to defy Trump, not long after a local demonstration made it clear that the public would support the university if it did the right thing. Was the demonstration the deciding factor? We can’t know, but it shines a light on a path all Americans need to consider taking.
Item 2 in Timothy Snyder’s book “On Tyranny” is “Defend Institutions”:
It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well. Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. So choose an institution you care about and take its side.
We know Trump is heading toward martial law and we also know that the cooperation of our armed services will be essential to Trump’s success. Sadly, the officers in ICE have all chosen to ignore their oath to the constitution, but we need to focus on the military now so they don’t obey in advance (which is item 1 on Dr. Snyder’s list). We must encourage them not to abandon their oaths the way ICE has.
Taking inspiration from the success with Harvard, we need to demonstrate in front of as many military bases as we can, as soon as we can.
When we’re there, we need to call out Trump’s plan. This is critical, as we saw before Putin’s latest invasion of Ukraine, and before the recent ICE raids around the country. The military also needs to know we will fully support every service member who honors their duty to ignore the illegal deployment orders they will receive. Remind them of the GI Rights Hotline, 877-447-4487 (assuming it hasn’t been weaponized). If they need asylum, we will protect them. If they need legal or political help, we will support them.
And when we are rid of this administration, we will make whole any service member harmed because they defended the constitution.
Let’s make this happen.