Robert Kuttner

2 weeks ago | prospect.org | Robert Kuttner

I’ve been taking stock of the possible firebreaks against Trump’s illegal marauding. One is the Supreme Court, the ultimate guardian of the rule of law. The high court has belatedly shown some indignation at Trump’s contempt for lower courts, but it remains to be seen whether Trump will defy even the Supreme Court. A second firebreak is financial markets.

3 weeks ago | prospect.org | Robert Kuttner

On Monday, I wrote about Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s role as the sole grown-up in the room. Bessent has repeatedly talked Trump of the ledge, first to persuade him to suspend “Liberation Day” global tariffs, next to back off the gross weaponization of the IRS, and then to stop threatening to fire Fed Chair Jay Powell. Anxious financial markets saw Bessent as an oasis of sanity and rallied accordingly.

3 weeks ago | prospect.org | Robert Kuttner

One of the oddities of America’s slide into dictatorship is that it’s all playing out publicly and bring reported on by a still-free press, often to Trump’s embarrassment. If you look at other despotisms, one of the first thing the dictator does is to shut down the opposition press. As Trump tries to destroy one free institution after another—universities, law firms, independent public agencies, trade unions—sooner or later he will come for the press.

3 weeks ago | prospect.org | Robert Kuttner

Last Thursday, Trump explicitly threatened to have the IRS take away the nonprofit status of Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia, as well as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). This came two days after Trump abruptly removed an acting IRS commissioner, and installed in his place Gary Shapley, an ally of Elon Musk. That move came as a surprise to Scott Bessent, especially since the IRS is part of the Treasury.

3 weeks ago | prospect.org | Robert Kuttner

On Thursday, Trump lashed out at Jay Powell, a day after the Fed chairman warned in a carefully worded speech at the Economic Club of Chicago that Trump’s tariff war could create a “challenging scenario” by putting the central bank’s two primary goals—price stability and avoiding recession—in conflict. Trump has repeatedly pressed Powell to cut interest rates, to offset the damaging economic consequences of his tariffs.