Discover more from Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum
As promised, here is a link to my conversation with Ezra Klein, recorded for his podcast last week. At the time we spoke, Matt Gaetz was still Donald Trump’s choice to be Attorney General. Since then Gaetz has dropped out, but other than that nothing has changed. We talked about the challenges that Trump’s nominees pose to the political system; about the phenomenon that political scientists call “state capture”; about what is meant by “guardrails.” I started with my observation, made during the election, that Trump was using language more extreme than any used by any presidential candidate in modern times:
There was a tendency, even among people who weren’t going to vote for him, but also among a lot of people who did vote for him, including some that I know, to say: This is just the way Trump talks. He’s crazy. He just talks like this. It doesn’t have any meaning.
And I think what we’ve learned in the last 48 hours or 72 hours — I’m losing track of how many hours it is — is: No, he does mean it. He wants to break the intelligence agencies by appointing Gabbard. He wants to break other kinds of government agencies — which would explain the appointment of Kennedy.
He is interested in going after generals who he feels dissed him or didn’t respect him or didn’t obey him the first time he was president — and that was why you would appoint somebody like a Fox News host to be secretary of defense. So I think he’s now doing what he said he was going do.
You can listen on the New York Times website, on Spotify , on Apple podcasts or almost anywhere else you get podcasts.
If you want to know more about some of the nominees, please read my colleagues at The Atlantic (these are all gift links):
Jonathan Chait on Pete Hesgeth, the Fox News host who is nominated to be Secretary of Defense
Tom Nichols also talking to Hannah Rosin about Hesgeth on the Atlantic’s podcast (transcript available too)
David Graham on Pam Bondi, the new Attorney General nominee
Benjamin Mazer on RFK Jr (yes, he’s a crank)
Greetings to all from Oslo, where I presented my book, Autocracy Inc last night It’s very cold here but also very sunny. I took this photograph by the sea (with birds, a boat and a sculpture):
And here is a detail of Edvard Munch’s painting of the sun, part of his design for a mural at the University of Oslo:
On this occasion, I preferred the real thing
When I hear the word, "vermin", one thing comes to mind: Hitler's reference to Jews. It curdles my blood. This kind of language is banned in Germany now, but to say, "it's just Trump, that's the way he talks" sets a dangerous precedent. People know exactly what he means, and the MAGA cult is fine with it. He has been denigrating various groups since he rode down the escalator in his gaudy golden tower, most probably before, but we weren't paying as much attention because he wasn't yet a candidate for the presidency. Having grown up in New York, it seems for just a short interval after I moved away that I didn't hear about Trump as much. He is a fraud, a con man, a criminal, and this is who some elected for the presidency. To accept him, to accept this language, is, as Prof. Snyder has said, to "obey in advance". Just take it as it comes. I cannot. Steve Bannon said in the months before Trump rode that escalator, that he wanted the government of the U.S. to collapse. I thought he was nuts. He is, but one can see how such destruction of our institutions can come about.
I think we all know why Gaetz is out. Trump gave him a helping hand out of being prosecuted. Thanks to our wonderful SCOTUS, Trump believes he can do anything now with their blessing. He can appoint anyone he wants to continue to destroy our structure of government. Wouldn't this have been considered treason at one time?
Lovely photo. Enjoy Oslo and stay warm. Cold here in Germany with snow, but the area of Kasbach-Ohlenberg is so beautiful and peaceful, I can't say I mind the cold.
How did I not know Radio Atlantic had a podcast? Thanks for the link.