Trump's authoritarian streak

A five-alarm fire tore through the economic establishment Friday after President Trump ousted the government's top labor statistician, accusing her — without evidence — of "rigging" a weak jobs report.Why it matters: It's just one glaring example from a week that bore many authoritarian hallmarks — purging dissenters, rewriting history, criminalizing opposition and demanding total institutional loyalty.The big picture: The overwhelming, all-consuming nature of Trump-driven news cycles makes it difficult to discern partisan hysteria from true democratic backsliding. But apply any of these five storylines from the past week to a foreign leader — or even a past U.S. president — and it reads like an authoritarian playbook.1. Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner Erika McEntarfer, a 20-year government veteran, after BLS announced massive downward revisions for job growth in May and June."We're doing so well. I believe the numbers were phony. ... So you know what I did: I fired her," Trump told reporters, without explaining why he believed past jobs reports were credible when they were positive.William Beach, who led the BLS during Trump's first term, blasted the firing as "totally groundless" and warned of a "dangerous precedent" of politicized economic data.2. The stunning move came in the midst of Trump's months-long campaign to oust Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, or at least pressure him to cut interest rates.Trump's stream of insults, which escalated after the Fed held rates steady this week, has prompted comparisons to Turkey's disastrous experiment with bringing its central bank under political control. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers speaks out against McEntarfer's firing .Screenshot via X3. Eager to shift scrutiny from his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, Trump has demanded his Justice Department prosecute former President Obama for "treason" over the 2016 Russia investigation.Top Trump aides are engaged in an all-out effort to rewrite the history of "Russiagate" and exact revenge on Obama-era intelligence officials, including through criminal referrals.4. In his crackdown on liberal power centers, Trump has extracted more than $1.2 billion in settlements from 13 of the most elite players in academia, law, media and tech, as Axios reported this week.The Trump administration is reportedly eyeing up to $500 million from Harvard and $100 million from Cornell, paving the way for a cascade of other universities to follow suit.5. Dozens of Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador's notorious CECOT megaprison say they were beaten, sexually assaulted and denied access to lawyers and medical care, according to a Post investigation.Many of the men had no criminal records and had entered the U.S. legally — some with refugee status or temporary protected status, according to the Post.Human rights experts say the reported abuse may violate international law, and raise serious questions about the Trump administration's responsibility for alleged torture on foreign soil.What they're saying: "President Trump is holding the federal government and elite institutions accountable for their political games, longstanding corruption, and terrible incompetence," White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement.With regard to CECOT, a White House official told Axios: "These are criminal terrorist illegal immigrants and the American people are safer with them as far away as possible. President Trump is putting the safety of Americans first."Between the lines: Trump has little reason to curtail his maximalist impulses.Vast swaths of society are falling in line: The Smithsonian, for example, quietly removed references to Trump's two impeachments from its presidential exhibit last month, the Washington Post reported.The museum says the exhibit was always meant to be temporary, but its content review comes after Trump signed an executive order in March ordering the removal of "improper ideology" from Smithsonian properties.Trump's consolidation of power also comes at the same time he's attempting to unilaterally reset the global trading order — with tariff rates set to his personal whim.Brazil now faces 50% tariffs — among the highest rates of any country — due to its prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro, which Trump has denounced as a "witch hunt."The stakes of Trump's centralized command were accentuated Friday, when he ordered two nuclear submarines repositioned in response to saber-rattling by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.The bottom line: Trump is only six months into his term, and he has already stretched the limits of executive power further than any modern president.

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