We are no longer in the muzzle velocity stage of this presidency, where Donald Trump is trying things in seeing what sticks.

We are in the authoritarian consolidation stage of this presidency. I want to be very clear about what I'm saying here. Donald Trump is corrupting the government. He's using it to hound his enemies, to line his pockets, and to entrench his own power.

He is corrupting it the way the mafia would corrupt the industries it controlled.

You could still, under mafia rule, get the trash picked up by cement.

But the point of those industries had become the preservation and expansion of the

mafia's power and wealth. This is what Donald Trump is doing to the government. This is what

Democrats cannot fund. This is what they have to try to stop. Just in the last few months, we've watched

Trump fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics

because he didn't like the jobs data. We watched him fire the head of the Defense Intelligence

Agency. Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.

After the agency suggested that the administration's strike on Iran only set their nuclear program

back by a couple of months.

We watched Trump muse about firing Jerome Powell because he wanted interest rates lower.

Powell, of course, being the chair of the Federal Reserve.

And now we're watching to try to fire Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve governor for alleged mortgage

fraud.

We've watched Trump sick as government on Senator Adam Schiff, an attorney general

Tish James of New York.

Again, allegations of mortgage fraud.

I'm going to note that this is not coming after the Trump administration conducted an

exhaustive review of the mortgage documents of every person serving in the executive branch

right now.

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