Grim Reapers
This week, with a government shutdown unfolding, the president posted a creepy, AI-generated “music video” featuring himself and Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget and author of Project 2025. Both were wearing the black cloaks of the grim reaper, gleefully wiping out “bureaucrats” in Washington. The joy with which the Trump administration has seized on this moment, the delight its members seem to take in firing people and cutting programs that benefit Americans—this represents a new stage in American politics. The president, or rather the people around him (I don’t imagine Trump has anything to do with these videos himself), are happy to be seen as metaphorical murderers. I don’t think there is a precedent for an administration with this kind of open contempt for American citizens in contemporary American history.
Why is it happening? In The Atlantic (read here, gift link), my colleagues Toluse Olorunnipa, Russell Berman, and Jonathan Lemire argue that the Trump administration is using the government shutdown to complete the mass layoffs initiated by DOGE. DOGE used voluntary resignation programs, paying employees who opted to leave. This has proved inefficient and expensive: Senate Democrats are now investigating a payout scheme that spent roughly $21 billion paying civil servants not to work. Using the shutdown as an excuse, Trump is now threatening permanent, illegal job cuts.
Trump is also using the shutdown as a pretext to withhold federal funds from blue states. The administration has frozen about $18 billion earmarked for New York City infrastructure projects over what it calls “unconstitutional DEI principles.” It is also withholding $8 billion in funds from 16 states, all governed by Democrats, all with Democratic Senators. Senator Chris Murphy responded:
“Let’s open our eyes. This isn’t a functioning democracy any longer when — in the middle of a high stakes funding fight — the President illegally suspends federal projects in states run by Democrats as a way to punish the political opposition.”
Murphy’s comment suggests another, deeper purpose to this strange charade. In truth, as Yuval Levin recently pointed out in a well-argued article in National Review, DOGE has not really made much of a difference to federal spending. For all of the noise about cuts, most of the federal budget is unchanged. Hardly any savings have been made. Perhaps that’s because the true purpose of DOGE, and the purpose of the shutdown cuts, in fact lies elsewhere: They serve to put more power into the hands of the executive, and to take power away from Congress, the courts and, eventually, the voters.
Some of the cuts will hurt Americans nevertheless. By refusing to vote for ‘business as usual,’ Democrats in Congress are trying to draw attention to some of them: the changes to Medicaid and the ACA that will very soon create bigger healthcare bills for millions of Americans. I don’t know whether they can achieve this goal, given that the administration is so smugly trumpeting its indifference, but their determination certainly illustrates the differences between the two parties right now.
The Democrats still care about actual policies, not just politics. They still want to improve the lives of Americans. The MAGA Republicans are interested in power, and in changing the political system so that they can hold on to power as long as possible. Their messaging reflects that. They are the grim reapers, the destroyers of your enemies, not the people who will help control your hospital bills.
We will learn very soon whether Americans swant politicians who actually deliver improvements to their real lives, or whether they prefer to sit back and enjoy dark memes and sadistic videos. Or perhaps they simply won’t pay attention until it’s too late. That’s what happened in Venezuela, as another Atlantic colleague, Gisela Salim-Peyer, recently wrote. She grew up there, and remembers how it happened:
The disintegration of a democracy is a deceptively quiet affair. For a while, everything looks the same. Each authoritarian milestone—the first political prisoner, the first closure of an opposition media outlet—is anticipated with fear. Then the milestone goes by, and after a brief period of outrage, life continues as before. You begin to wonder if things will be so bad after all…
I was asked about this process recently on MSNBC. Would there be a turning point, a moment when we notice that we live in a different political system. I thought that, as in Venezuela, the milestones wouldn’t be so clear:
But we are not yet Venezuela. There is plenty that we can still do.
Fighting Back, in the USA
Stacey Abrams is probably best known for the work she did in Georgia, running an extraordinary voter registration campaign, twice running for governor, helping prepare the ground for her state to elect two Democratic senators. But in recent months, she has spent a lot of time thinking about how to organize Americans all over the country to face the current moment.
She understands that some fundamental things have changed. Politics as usual won’t meet the moment. The Democratic party, by itself, is not sufficient. We will need, as she argues, a broad, cross-ideological, coalition —the kind of coalition that won a seemingly unwinnable election against nationalist-populists in Poland in 2023, or that removed an anti-democratic, pro-Russian autocrat from power in Ukraine in 2014.
To build that broad coalition, she has created the 10 Steps Campaign, firstly to explain and describe the “10 Steps to Autocracy and Authoritarianism,” to help people understand what is happening. As the website explains,
These steps don’t happen in order—they occur simultaneously to overwhelm and confuse opposition. Recognize them. Resist them. Reverse them.
She has also identified 10 things you can do to fight back:
Defeating authoritarianism isn’t a cinematic moment—it’s thousands of individual, community and institutional actions that are stronger and more consistent than those who would oppress us. You don’t need to be an expert. You don’t need permission. You just need to start. Start where you are. With what you have. Among those you know.
I am often asked what can I do. There are a lot of answers on the website, as well as a glossary and some resources for those who want to read more deeply. Also, do read her explanation on her Substack, Assembly Notes:
Fighting Back, in Moldova
Because there is so much going on, the triumphant electoral result last week in Moldova got very little attention. As I wrote three years ago, Moldova has been the focus of an extraordinary amount of Russian attention for a long time:
In the three decades since Moldova gained its independence, Russia has spent billions, perhaps trillions, of rubles to subvert this tiny country sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine. At different times, using different tactics, Russian security services have helped create and nurture pro-Russia political parties, pro-Russia media, and pro-Russia social-media campaigns in Moldova. Russian “entrepreneurs” created a web of corruption in Moldova, too, culminating in the spectacular scheme known as the Moldovan Laundromat. In that venture, a group of Moldovan banks, with the support of several senior Moldovan politicians, among others, helped launder more than $20 billion of illicit Russian money from 2010 to 2014.
Whatever schemes Russia dreams up for the ex-Soviet world—corruption, subversion, or now, ominously, invasion—Moldova has usually been an early victim. Way back in the 1990s, Russia helped separatists carve out a slice of Moldova—including Tiraspol, the second-largest city; quite a few factories; and most of what used to be the main road from the capital to the Ukrainian port of Odesa—by triggering a military skirmish and then helping the slice declare itself to be the independent republic of Transnistria, an entity recognized by no other UN member state, Russia included. [read more here]
Russian influence operations have also played a large role in recent Moldovan elections, both in a referendum on joining the European Union last year and the parliamentary election last week. Alberto Nardelli of Bloomberg has described how, during the recent election, Russia recruited Moldovans abroad to vote at international polling stations; organized protests; attempted to blackmail public officials with compromising materials; and launched social media disinformation campaigns targeting the ruling Party of Action and Solidarity. The BBC has published a video showing the inner workings of a Russian-funded network that pays Moldovans to post pro-Russian material on social media.
In response, Moldovan law enforcement actively countered Russian efforts, blocking TikTok channels and detaining individuals spreading Kremlin-backed propaganda. Despite being a country of just 2.4 million, Moldova demonstrated its determination to run a free and fair election—a resolve notably lacking among some Americans.
The result: The pro-European, pro-democracy party won a decisive victory. Read more here, if you want to cheer yourself up.
Kleptocracy Tracker
Continuing to monitor conflicts of interest, ostentatious emoluments, outright corruption and policy changes that will facilitate outright corruption. (Read my original article, Kleptocracy Inc.)
September 26
- While FEMA has been slow to dispatch aid to disaster zones, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem fast-tracked more than $11 million in federal funds to rebuild a historic pier in Naples, Florida, at the request of one of her political donors.
- Trump-connected lobbying firm Ballard Partners has facilitated tens of millions of dollars in no-bid ICE contract awards for clients, some of whom have no prior government contracting experience.
- Steve Witkoff’s son, Alex, solicited billions of dollars from Middle Eastern governments while his father engaged them on behalf of the U.S. government.
September 29
- The U.S. $20 billion bailout package for Argentina, announced by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, benefits his billionaire hedge fund manager friend Rob Citrone—who has placed large bets on the future of the Argentine economy.
- YouTube agreed to pay $24.5 million—most of which will go to the White House ballroom—to settle a frivolous lawsuit brought by Trump over his temporary suspension from the platform following January 6.
- Jared Kushner partnered with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, PIF, to purchase video game company Electronic Arts for $55 billion.
- The Trump Organization partnered with Saudi-owned Dar Global on a $1 billion deal to develop Trump Plaza in Jeddah.
September 30
- Pfizer agreed to reduce the price of some of its drugs and sell them on a government-run, direct-to-consumer platform—dubbed TrumpRx—in exchange for a three-year grace period from Trump’s anticipated pharmaceutical tariffs.
- Trump’s granddaughter Kai launched a premium streetwear line and has been using her proximity to the president to promote her brand, including at the White House and on Air Force One.
October 1
- Zach Witkoff and Donald Trump Jr. announced that World Liberty Financial plans to launch new products, including a debit card and tokenized commodity assets.
The C&O canal
George Washington was one of the first investors in what was then a fashionable high-tech startup: The waterway that eventually became the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Once an important transportation hub, the towpath along the canal is now (thanks to federal government investment!) a walking trail and bike path. Just a few minutes’ drive from downtown Washington, DC, it feels far from civilization, aside from the occasional noise of nearby traffic… Hope everyone enjoys the weekend.
Buy Autocracy Inc, in paperback
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