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Independent voices make authoritarianism clear, not traditional media

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The Trump administration has weaponized the government against critics, regardless of party. These are acts of authoritarianism. However you would be hard pressed to find a traditional news story (whether “print” or “TV”) that uses such straightforward language. Not so, niche, foreign and independent media.

This is not about fighting crime. This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city, in a blue state, to try and intimidate his political rivals… Eight of the top 10 states with the highest homicide rates are led by Republicans. None of those states is Illinois. Memphis, Tennessee; Hattiesburg, Mississippi have higher crime rates than Chicago, and yet Donald Trump is sending troops here and not there? Ask yourself why.”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker in America, America

 

Calling Chicago, Illinois, a “a disaster” and “a killing field,” Trump referred to Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker as “a slob.” Trump complained that Pritzker had said Trump was infringing on American freedom and called Trump a dictator. Trump went on: “A lot of people are saying maybe we like a dictator. I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense and a smart person. And when I see what’s happening to our cities, and then you send in troops instead of being praised, they’re saying you’re trying to take over the Republic. These people are sick.”
Heather Cox Richardson, Letters From An American, August 25, 2025 (no MSM used the full quote)

 

President Donald Trump fired Fed Governor Lisa Cook in a post on Truth Social, something he has been threatening to do for days. He pointed to allegations of mortgage fraud. “President Trump purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law…I will not resign,” Cook says.
NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez reports for TODAY, August 26, 2025

 

Credit to @npr.org for reporting this LIsa Cook fiasco accurately: "Trump SEEKS to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook"

Unlike the @nytimes.com that went with "Fed member removed" & this: "The president has dismissed Fed board member Lisa Cook for “cause.”

COME ON

www.npr.org/2025/08/25/n…

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— @NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) (@newsjennifer.bsky.social) August 25, 2025 at 6:40 PM

 

screenshot headlines trump firing fed chief

 

 

At 7:14 a.m., nine minutes after I started my livestream, the New York Post tweeted out a story about the search. I looked around. I was still by myself. Yet somehow, a mere nineteen minutes after the police action began on that street in a D.C. suburb, the New York tabloid was reporting details of the operation overtly sourced to administration officials.

In other words, part of the point of the exercise was that people should know about it. Part of the point was to create a theatrical display of law-enforcement power deployed against a critic of the administration. When Vice President Vance was asked about this display a few hours later, he didn’t even bother to pretend that there was some wall of separation between the Justice Department’s investigative functions and the administration’s political brass. He talked about the investigation as though it were something perfectly natural for him to know about—as though vice presidents normally know about why former officials five years out of office are under investigation. That was part of the point of the exercise too—that the administration will offer only the thinnest of denials that it is gunning for its political enemies. And it will offer these denials with a smirk (emphasis added).

Benjamin Wittes on the John Bolton raid, The Bulwark, August 26, 2025

One aspect of personalist regimes is that they will prioritize going after dissidents from within their own coalition. Trump appointee Bolton targeted this week, now Trump's former debate prep partner.

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— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn.bsky.social) August 24, 2025 at 6:05 PM