To President Trump’s critics, the creeping authoritarianism is in plain view.
Take this week: Democrats on the Hill declared that the United States was in constitutional crisis, a consequence of the Trump administration’s refusal to comply with House subpoenas pertaining to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe and thereby disregard congressional powers of oversight. Separately, my colleague Dana Milbank pointed to the administration’s provocative new steps to revoke the media credentials for White House journalists (including his).
And then, at a rally on Wednesday, Trump laughed along with thousands of cheering supporters about shooting migrants who arrive at the U.S. border. That it fostered only muted outrage and discussion on cable news networks the following day pointed to how inured the American public has become to Trump’s routine demagoguery.
stephanie kotuby@stephaniekotuby.@RepJerryNadler tells @JudyWoodruff on @NewsHour tonight @realdonaldtrump is trying to establish the presidency as a “dictatorship” by defying all House subpoenas.
In part for that reason, the White House visit next week of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is worth watching. Shunned during the Obama presidency, Orban, an illiberal nationalist, has appeared to find common cause with Trump. While numerous E.U. officials and European statesmen have decried Orban’s majoritarian rule — which they say is actively eroding Hungary’s democracy — the Trump administration has cultivated Hungary and other nationalist governments in Central Europe as like-minded partners.
View the complete May 10 article by Ishaan Tharoor on The Washington Post website here.