����Ӱ��AV

Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks has called for a mass uprising to oppose President Donald Trump. In a blistering piece, Brooks wrote that modern civilization is buttressed by several pillars, including “Constitutions to restrain power, international alliances to promote peace, legal systems to peacefully settle disputes, scientific institutions to cure disease, news outlets to advance public understanding, charitable organizations to ease suffering, businesses to build wealth and spread prosperity, and universities to educate the public.” He writes, “Trump threatens all of these because he is only interested in the acquisition of power “for its own sake” and is engaged in “a multifront assault to make the earth a playground for ruthless men.”

When President Trump took office in 2017, it was a shock to the political system. But his first term looks downright tame compared to the first year of Trump 2.0. President Trump’s most consequential accomplishment in his first term was cementing a center-right super-majority on the Supreme Court and moving the federal appellate courts to the right. Those appointments enabled legal victories — on abortion, affirmative action, guns and more — that strengthened Trump’s hold over Republican voters.

During his second term, Trump’s White House operates as a national extortion racket, using federal power to threaten and control the inner workings of universities, law firms, and corporations. Trump has politicized the Justice Department by launching partisan investigations against political foes. ICE has been turned into a massive paramilitary organization with unconstrained powers. It has treated the Constitution with disdain, assaulted democratic norms, diminished freedoms, and put military vehicles and soldiers on the streets of the capital and other cities. It embraces the optics of fascism and flaunts its autocratic aspirations.

Trumpism can be seen as a multi-pronged effort to amputate the higher elements of the human spirit—learning, compassion, science, the pursuit of justice—and supplant those virtues with fear, greed, retribution, ego, hatred and appetite.

Trumpism is now an attempt to make the world a playground for the rich and ruthless: Arab sheiks, dictators, far-right leaders and others willing to "buy" Trump’s favor. Most unconscionable are Trump’s pardons of convicted felons, drug dealers and the rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6th to prevent the legitimate transfer of power.

The new National Security Strategy released by the White House calls for asserting U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere and “cultivating resistance” within Europe, while reestablishing “strategic stability” with Russia and accepting the Middle East and its leaders “as they are.” The strategy builds on President Trump’s “America First” maxim, and marks a sharp escalation of his Administration’s criticism of our European allies and a broader realignment of U.S. foreign policy.

“This document is a roadmap to ensure that America remains the greatest and most successful nation in human history,” Trump wrote in the foreword. “In the years ahead, we will continue to develop every dimension of our national strength—and we will make America safer, richer, freer, greater, and more powerful than ever before,” he continues.

The document shocked our European allies. Not surprisingly, the Kremlin welcomed Trump’s document and claimed it is “largely consistent with our vision.”

“The stunning section devoted to Europe reads like a far-right pamphlet,” Gérard Araud, a former French ambassador to the United States, observed in an X post, noting that the document “largely confirms” perceptions that Trump is an “enemy of Europe.”

Trump's consolidation of power over all branches of government is dangerous and unprecedented. His appointment of Louisiana Governor Landry as special envoy to Greenland with the intent of acquiring it by force sends a message to adversaries that the powerful have the right to conquer the weak.

David Brooks concluded his editorial with “It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power.” The alarm is ringing. Are we listening?