Trump and the American People — Two Ships Crossing in the Night

I wanted to take a moment today to highlight something that for me, at least, is behind a certain strange quality in the summer of 2025. Two things, which point in two entirely different directions, occur at the same time. Each day, you can find in the news a new example of the president reducing funding (either by legal or extra-legal means), or by affirming direct control over funding in order to strengthen its direct personal power. This could finance universities, ending the financing of public dissemination, or anything between the two. He has now opened criminal probes on many officials. The immigrants and the application of customs (ICE) continue to expand their war not only against undocumented and legal residents, but also against government autonomy in major American cities (blue). I could mention dozens of other examples, but the simplest overview is that the President continues to develop and strengthen his authoritarian vision of the rule, in which the entire government machinery exists to impose his will and fight his enemies, with courts which are mostly but not always in conformity.

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