This is a Turning Point for U.S. Democracy

It's easy to see the damage Trump is doing to the economy with the stock market. But this week another line was crossed.

Photo by Ali Bakgor on Unsplash

Amid the global financial havoc that Donald Trump is causing with tariffs, it's understandable that other authoritarian moves get lost in the shuffle. The same day that President Trump announced a pause on reciprocal tariffs -- while ratcheting up tariffs against China -- the White House announced that it was directing the Justice Department to probe the activities of a whistleblower and a former cybersecurity official who refuted Trump's lies about the 2020 election being stolen. On April 9, Trump signed memorandums targeting Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs, who both served in the Department of Homeland Security in Trump's first term. Trump also revoked their security clearances. 

Trump crossed a line that officials had prevented him from doing in his first term: using the Justice Department to probe perceived critics. The Justice Department has been protected by norms insulating it from political pressure; these guardrails are gone. 

 Their only offense is crossing the president. Taylor anonymously wrote an op-ed in the New York Times in 2018, declaring that he was part of the "resistance" inside the administration. He revealed his identity in October 2020. Krebs led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency during the 2020 election, and shot down many of Trump's lies about widespread fraud. Trump fired him after the election. Rewriting history in the memo, the White House said Krebs "falsely and baselessly denied that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen, including by inappropriately and categorically dismissing widespread election malfeasance and serious vulnerabilities with voting machines."

It's a move straight out of the authoritarian playbook to target critics with government harassment.