We are one of the few apartments left in our building that still get the print edition of The New York Times delivered. But reading the Times since Trump has come to power is a painful ordeal. I have even stopped reading it as thoroughly as I did in the past. I begin the paper by going through the still-comforting sections—sports and the arts—and then scan the political news. In those pages there is no reprieve, as I move from one disturbing, anxiety-provoking article to another. Many of the news pieces depict racist, sadistic, vindictive, and self-aggrandizing behavior and policies that blatantly serve the wealthy—qualities and values that are an integral part of who Trump is. While reading, one begins to feel that an American version of fascism is ominously evolving, and the paper is filled with items that carry a frisson of apprehension that clearly can’t be paranoia on the reader’s part.
Some examples on a recent Saturday are an article about five more big law firms caving in and making a deal with Trump, providing a total of $600 million in free legal services to causes that Trump supports. Trump takes great pleasure in elite institutions, like universities and law firms, obsequiously bending their knee to him. In his war against regulations, he has directed 10 federal agencies, including the EPA, to scrap a wide range of energy and environmental rules. As is his wont, Trump wants the fossil fuel companies to operate without restraint—polluting the air we breathe and amassing immense profits in the process.
There is also a piece in the Times covering order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office that resulted in a purge of books critical of racism but preserved volumes defending white power. So, a moving memoir I assigned my students over 50 years ago, Maya Angelou’s best-selling 1970 memoir “I Know Why the Caged Birds Sings,” has been purged from the Naval Academy’s library, while two copies of “Mein Kampf” remain on the shelves. The order was condemned by some House Democrats as an attack on the First Amendment and an undermining of academic freedom.
Finally, there is a piece on Trump’s use of public office to punish people and companies he views as enemies and to silence any potential critics. He recently signed presidential memos singling out two officials from his first term who had defied or merely contradicted him. He directed the government to examine their behavior for any sign of criminal wrongdoing.
I know I am just scratching the surface of the transgressive and anti-democratic actions that Trump has put into play. He has turned the government into a malignant force that I can do little more than write the occasional piece against.
