Behind the Curtain: It won't stop with Trump

These actions, all public, fall into three categories: punishing individual critics ... freeing allies convicted of crimes ... and policing speech.

• Before we detail them, it's important to remember that the power of the presidency was growing long before Trump. Under all five of the presidents the two of us have covered, we've seen an ever-expanding imperial presidency.

But Trump has stretched both power and punishment routinely and, in some cases, dramatically. As we've written, the founders never envisioned a federal government this big and this powerful, or a president this unchecked.

• The result: Trump and future presidents hold the power, backed by precedent, to wield their vast authority to harm critics, help allies and chill free speech. Remember the payback precedent: When you get power back, at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, do unto the other what they've been doing to you!

Behind the scenes: A longtime Trump adviser told us the president's mindset has always been to "never allow any free shots on goal." This insider acknowledged that no president has told his government so publicly, with such specificity: "These are the people you should be getting after."

• On MAGA stifling dissent, the insider said conservatives distinguish between the cancel culture they mocked and "consequence culture," where critics are being held to account for what they say or threaten, not what they think or believe.

The adviser says Trump sees the small-c conservatives of the old Republican establishment, who spent decades pushing government restraint, as naive: "Congratulations on preserving your norms — while you're losing your civilization."

• White House communications director Steven Cheung told us: "With a more experienced White House and complete unity with Trump's agenda— something absent during the first term — the administration knows how to pull the levers of government to achieve what they want."

Nearly every day brings new instances of Trump flexing:

1. Punishing individual critics: Trump's steady push for the prosecution of enemies is no surprise to anyone who paid attention during the campaign, when he vowed — 100+ times, by one count — to investigate, imprison or prosecute certain political opponents, protesters, prosecutors, tech moguls and former intelligence officials. It's a clear example of Trump delivering on campaign vows more methodically than in his first term.

• James Comey, fired by Trump as FBI director in 2017, was indicted last month on charges of lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional investigation — just five days after Trump's Truth Social post urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to hurry up and prosecute Comey. FBI director Kash Patel said the prosecution was part of holding to account perpetrators of the "Russiagate hoax." Comey pleaded not guilty.
• New York Attorney General Tish James (D), who was also singled out in Trump's message to Bondi, was charged with bank fraud early this month. She said the charges are "baseless." James is a longtime nemesis of Trump: As soon as she took office, she vowed to scrutinize him, then brought a civil case against him. She won a civil fraud judgment that was later thrown out.
• John Bolton, fired by Trump as national security adviser in his first term, was charged last week with 18 counts of mishandling classified information, including using AOL and Gmail accounts to share classified info. Bolton pleaded not guilty.
• Trump has also reached settlements with law firms and media companies he said had undermined him.

2. Freeing allies convicted of crimes. Last Friday evening, former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), serving time for financial fraud, became the latest convict to successfully court Trump and win a commutation. Santos, who was released within hours after Trump's Truth Social post urging him to "have a great life," had lavished praise on Trump from behind bars, calling him "the only leader who truly put this nation, and her people, first." Santos appeared live Sunday on the couch of "Fox & Friends Weekend" to thank Trump and vow he is "not going to disappoint him."

• One of Trump's sweeping Day 1 actions set the tone: pardons and commutations of most Jan. 6 rioters, including some who had attacked police, to rectify what he called "a grave national injustice."

3. Policing speech: "Cancel culture" — policing the words of critics, and shaming and banishing transgressors — was a hallmark of the intellectual left before Trump won.

• Those cases were often as cultural as party-driven. But Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last year in a letter to Congress that in 2021, "senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire."
• MAGA has responded punitively to people who condoned the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and some who criticized his work and rhetoric. 145+ people were fired or disciplined in the two weeks after he was killed.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X about reports of military personnel mocking the assassination: "We are tracking all these very closely — and will address, immediately. Completely unacceptable." Since then, the Pentagon has investigated nearly 300 service members, civilian workers and contractors for online comments after Kirk's death, The Washington Post reports. The inquiry is ongoing and has resulted in a smattering of disciplinary action so far, The Post says.
• Former President Obama criticized the judgmental "call-out culture" of "woke" youth in 2019, during Trump's first term, and again in 2022, when he lamented "buzzkill" Democrats. Last month, he called out Trumpers for adopting a tactic they had long lampooned: "After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn't like."

The bottom line: There's no effort to camouflage any of this. At the memorial service for Charlie Kirk, which included a Christian altar call, Trump told the audience that while Kirk wanted the best for an opponent, "I hate my opponent."

• On Saturday night, after huge "No Kings" rallies drew massive crowds across the nation, Trump leaned into the king motif to troll his foes. The president reposted an AI video — posted earlier by Vice President Vance — showing Trump donning a bejeweled crown and regal robe, and brandishing a sword as Democrat leaders kneeled. The accompanying track: "Hail to the King."

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday as he returned from Mar-a-Lago: "I'm not a king. I work my ass off to make our country great — that's all it is. I'm not a king at all."

• Go deeper: "The most unprecedented presidency in 250 years."