Trump’s A Fascist Authoritarian, Not A Communist Authoritarian— Too Fine A Line In Many Ways

This is probably illegal and the fascists running the Trump Regime— primarily Russell Vought and Stephen Miller— are clearly looking for a fight: Trump orders the government to stop enforcing rules he doesn’t like. Yesterday, Maxine Joselow, Hannah Natanson and Ian Duncan reported that “Trump recently ordered Energy Department staff to stop enforcing water conservation standards for shower heads and other household appliances. And at one Labor Department division, his appointees have instructed employees to halt most work related to anti-discrimination laws. Across the government, the Trump administration is trying a new tactic for gutting federal rules and policies that the president dislikes: simply stop enforcing them. ‘The conscious effort to slow down enforcement on such a broad scale is something we have never seen in previous administrations,’ said Donald Kettl, a professor emeritus at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy. ‘It amounts to a dramatic assertion of presidential power and authority.’… Critics say the administration is breaking the law and sidestepping the rulemaking process that presidents of both parties have routinely followed. ‘They’re making across-the-board decisions not to enforce whole categories of standards, and it is of very dubious legality,’ said Richard Revesz, who led the White House regulatory affairs office under President Joe Biden and is now the faculty director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law.”

At the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, a division of the Transportation Department that enforces pipeline safety regulations, officials have opened five cases against potential violators of those rules since Trump’s inauguration, federal data shows. That marks a 95 percent drop from the 91 cases that PHMSA officials opened in the same period under Biden, as well as a 93 percent drop from the 68 cases in the same period in Trump’s first term and a 90 percent drop from the 52 cases opened in that period under President Barack Obama.

… In some cases, Trump has personally ordered a halt to enforcement. The president on May 9 signed a memorandum directing the Energy Department “not to enforce” what he called “useless” water conservation standards for home appliances including bathtubs, faucets, showerheads and toilets.

… Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, a coalition of groups that advocate for energy conservation, said he had never seen such a directive to bypass the standard rulemaking process. He said Trump’s actions may violate the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires agencies to solicit public comments on rules, as well as the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which prohibits the Energy Department from weakening existing efficiency standards.

“It’s patently illegal, so hold your horses,” deLaski said.

At the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, a little-known branch of the Labor Department charged with rooting out discrimination among government contractors, enforcement of equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws has also sputtered.

… And at the Environmental Protection Agency, Trump officials have scaled back enforcement of rules intended to curb air and water pollution from power plants, oil refineries, hazardous waste sites and other industrial facilities.

The EPA’s enforcement office has been initiating 19 fewer cases per month on average than the Biden administration during its last year in office, according to an analysis of federal data conducted by the Environmental Integrity Project, a watchdog group. The Trump administration filed 92 cases per month on average during its first three full months in office— February, March and April— the analysis found. The Biden administration brought 111 cases per month on average in 2024. During the first three months of Trump’s first term, the EPA opened an average of 116 enforcement cases per month.

“We are deeply concerned about EPA slowing down or walking away from enforcement, particularly for violations at fossil fuel and petrochemical operations,” said Jen Duggan, the executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project.

Overall, EPA enforcement actions have fallen during the past decade because of budget cuts and staffing declines. Under Trump, however, a March 12 memo stated that the agency would no longer take enforcement actions that could “shut down any stage of energy production” unless there’s an “imminent” threat to public health.

This directive could benefit the oil and gas sector and could “violate a fundamental rule of enforcement, which is that there should be no favored or disfavored industries,” said David Uhlmann, who led the EPA’s enforcement office under Biden. “No one gets special treatment.”

Spokespeople for the Energy and Labor departments and the EPA did not respond to requests for comment.

Experts on presidential power said the wide-ranging enforcement slowdown in Trump’s second term has no modern precedent.

Trump is “saying across the board that ‘if I don’t like it, I’m not going to enforce it,’” said Peter Shane, an emeritus law professor at Ohio State University and a scholar in residence at NYU. “To my knowledge, no other president has taken that kind of stance.”

Shane said presidents in both parties have taken smaller steps to stop enforcing laws they disliked. Richard Nixon refused to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act because he opposed busing children to limit racial segregation in schools. Obama deprioritized the deportation of certain undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, leading to complaints from conservatives that the administration was not enforcing certain immigration laws.

With the downturn in enforcement and a possible recession looming, many big law firms have slowed recruitment and hiring for their practices that defend companies against enforcement actions, legal recruiters said.

“Do we see a slowdown coming in the enforcement landscape? The answer, by and large, is yes,” said Lauren Drake, the comanaging partner in the D.C. office of the legal recruiting firm Macrae.

The trend is especially pronounced, recruiters said, at law firms that specialize in defending clients against actions by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Trump administration has sought to shutter the CFPB, which was established in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to combat unfair, deceptive and abusive financial practices. In March, the administration fired motor the agency’s workforce, a move that a federal judge has temporarily blocked.

While the litigation plays out, political leaders have instructed CFPB employees not to work on most earlier-stage enforcement cases, according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations. Since Trump took power, the CFPB has also dropped at least 21 lawsuits against entities including Walmart and Bank of America, a review of news reports and other public records shows.

“CFPB enforcement work is dormant completely,” said Stephen Springer, a managing partner in the D.C. office of the legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa.

“I don’t think anybody expects those enforcement areas to be particularly busy for the next three years,” he said, “unless there’s a dramatic change.”

And that’s just one piece of an ever bigger and even clearer  authoritarian puzzle that Naftali Bendavid tackled Sunday: ‘I own the store’: Trump seeks a direct role in the economy. This is both communism and fascism of the authoritarian type: “Trump,” wrote Bendavid, “is trying to force down drug prices to specific levels. He has directed tariff rates on virtually every country. He declared that the Federal Reserve ‘must’ lower interest rates. He takes a personal interest in the fate of individual companies like TikTok [not to mention Tesla and all other Musk endeavors]. He appears frequently with CEOs to tout investment deals, including many that were hatched before his presidency.

And in his just-concluded Middle East trip, Trump pitched business leaders on doing business in America for one big reason: his personal involvement in the U.S. economy. “There’s no better place to make a future or make a fortune— to do anything, frankly— than what we have in the United States of America under a certain president, Donald J. Trump,” he said. “I have the right attitude.”

In the opening months of his second term, Trump has taken an unusually direct and high-profile role in attempting to manage the sprawling American economy— an approach that could bring him enormous benefits if it thrives or danger if it stumbles. It’s a departure from decades of Republican orthodoxy and arguably from Trump’s own history; during the 2024 campaign, he called Democrat Kamala Harris a communist and a Marxist because her vow to tackle price gouging could have led to price controls.

As president, Trump is not hesitating to issue dramatic economic proclamations or edicts. “In this administration, policy decisions seem to be made only based on the president’s personal views, not after systemic analysis,” said Douglas Elmendorf, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office and a top economic official under President Bill Clinton.

“The president of our country is not the CEO of our businesses,” Elmendorf said. “I think this president likes the idea of being the CEO of businesses, but that’s not the role of the president. They should be setting broad polices, not intervening for particular companies.”

…Trump’s attempted interventions frequently include threats, whether against companies or countries. On Saturday, Trump upbraided Walmart for warning that prices were likely to rise due to Trump’s tariff policies.

“Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING,” he wrote on his Truth Social account. “I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!”

Few Republicans have challenged Trump on his highly personal style, despite its clear departure from traditional free-market economics. Nor have they taken issue with the overlaps between his personal interests and the nation’s.

… Conservative economists tend to frown on decision-making that is too centralized, let alone spearheaded by a single individual. Republicans have long railed against “picking winners and losers.”

Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute, said Trump is aggressively seizing powers that Congress has ceded to the White House over the years— notably the authority to declare an economic emergency, which has paved the way for Trump to unilaterally impose tariffs.

“This is not at all what the founders thought would happen, that he can say some magic words like declaring a national emergency and he can do whatever you want,” Nowrasteh said.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) took to the Senate floor last month to attack Trump’s emergency declaration that allowed him to impose tariffs on Canada, saying it was a form of one-man taxation.

“Our Constitution doesn’t allow any one man or woman to raise taxes— it must be the body of Congress,” Paul said. “And yet here we are today before the Senate because one person in our country wishes to raise taxes. This is contrary to everything our country was founded upon. One person is not allowed to raise taxes. The Constitution forbids it.”

But most Republicans have been silent or supportive of Trump’s moves— a stance that carries political risks for the president and his party. Trump regularly predicts a golden future at a time when many economists say his tariffs will likely spur significant inflation and as consumer confidence sinks.

An Ipsos poll in late April found that more than 6 in 10 Americans disapproved of Trump’s handling of the economy, an issue where he previously had strong support. Nearly 2 out of 3 Americans disapproved of his handling of tariffs, his flagship economic policy.

… Trump himself has attacked Democrats for wanting to micromanage the economy, referring to Democratic nominee Harris during the 2024 campaign as “Comrade Kamala.”

“She is a communist, I guess,” he said on the Shawn Ryan Show, adding, “This country is not ready for a Marxist or a communist.”

When a fact-checking organization pressed the Trump campaign on what he meant, a spokeswoman pointed to Harris’ support for banning price-gouging by food companies. “Kamala Harris has literally suggested price controls as a matter of economic policy,” the spokeswoman said. “[I] would encourage you to inspect the well-documented list of Marxist and communists who’ve suggested the same.”

On Monday, Trump signed an executive order to impose “most-favored-nation” pricing on pharmaceuticals, meaning Americans would pay the same for drugs as people in other industrialized countries. If companies do not begin charging similar prices, the administration would adopt a rule to “impose” them.

… All presidents try to shape or influence the economy, including by attracting investment and fighting what they consider unfair trade practices. President Joe Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act provided $52 billion for the semiconductor manufacturers, for example, in hopes of regaining the U.S. edge in a crucial industry.

But no president in recent memory has put the sort of personal stamp on his efforts that Trump has. The CHIPS Act passed both chambers of Congress with bipartisan votes, requiring numerous compromises and input from an array of lawmakers and private companies.

Trump often seems to be working on his own, like a CEO or a mayor trying to attract business to his city. In recent days, he personally urged Apple CEO Tim Cook to abandon his plans for expanding production in India.

“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said Thursday. “I said to him: ‘Tim, you’re my friend. I’ve treated you very good. You’re coming here with $500 billion [in U.S. investment], but now I hear you’re building all over India. I don’t want you building in India.’”

Before becoming president, Trump ran his family’s real estate empire, so unlike other politicians, he had little experience making decisions collaboratively with lawmakers or government agencies. Trump’s goals are different as well; he appears far more concerned with winning what he considers economic victories for the U.S. than building a stable system of global commerce.

“It’s just a major problem with the American system that one man has so much power,” Nowrasteh said. “It’s been persistent for a long time, but it is far more outrageous now than it’s been in the past.”

You’ve probably noticed that Señor Trumpanzyy’s record and his current approach to governance reveal a pattern of self-serving decisions, disregard for established norms and a tendency to prioritize personal gain over public interest. Despite his claims of being a self-made billionaire, Trump inherited over $400 million from his father, a substantial inheritance that completely contradicts his narrative of building an empire from a modest loan. Throughout his career, his ventures, including casinos and real estate projects, have faced multiple bankruptcies, highlighting a pattern of financial mismanagement. 

As anyone not in the MAGA cult can tell you, his shady dealings and financial irresponsibility extended beyond his own ventures, affecting countless others. He has a history of not paying what he owes to workers and small contractors and to major financial institutions. This pattern of behavior led over 30 entities, including major insurers like Berkshire Hathaway and Allianz, to decline providing him with a surety bond for his legal damages, citing reputational risks. Even Deutsche Bank, once his primary lender, severed ties with him. His consistently unethical practices have not only tarnished his business reputation but have also led to legal consequences. More recently, in a landmark ruling, a New York judge ordered Trump and his companies to pay $355 million in penalties for deceiving banks and insurers by inflating his wealth on financial statements. Additionally, he is barred from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation and from obtaining loans from state-registered banks for three years. Despite these failures and unethical practices, Trump managed to rebrand himself as an actor on The Apprentice, creating an illusion of success that propelled him into the political arena.