Milestones Toward an Authoritarian Government

[Busy_Bee4422]

Using government as a personal bank is definitely a huge milestone.

[Ezekial_Cumberland]

Placeholder for Pardoning Friends and Family for crimes they may or may not have committed.

[now_samantha]

Are you counting two campaign managers, the father of a son-in-law, a national security advisor, and a long time political advisor / inspiration, or are those old news?

[The_President]

Those people didn’t make EC’s news feed.

[Indy]

I’ll guess that in practice the overlap between “authoritarian government” and “keptocracy” is pretty substantial.

[ArthurItas]

Trump demands Republicans “kill” bill that would protect journalists from...

[Busy_Bee4422]

Trumps won this fight.

ABC News settles defamation suit with Trump for $15 million

ABC News settles defamation suit with Trump for $15 million | CNN Politics

[Maphistos_Sidekick]

Trump and His Picks Threaten More Lawsuits Over Critical Coverage (NYT, gift link)

Quotes within

The small flurry of threatened defamation lawsuits is the latest sign that the incoming Trump administration appears poised to do what it can to crack down on unfavorable media coverage. Before and after the election, Mr. Trump and his allies have discussed subpoenaing news organizations, prosecuting journalists and their sources, revoking networks’ broadcast licenses and eliminating funding for public radio and television.

Actual or threatened libel lawsuits are another weapon at their disposal — and they are being deployed even before Mr. Trump moves back into the White House.

Mr. Parlatore has also recently warned news outlets, including Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, that their planned articles about Mr. Hegseth’s past, including drinking and marital problems, could be defamatory, potentially exposing them to litigation, according to four people at the magazines and an email reviewed by The Times. Despite the warnings, both outlets published the articles. (Mr. Hegseth has denied having a drinking problem.)

Mr. Patel and Mr. Binnall have routinely threatened or filed libel lawsuits. In 2021, Mr. Patel created the Kash Patel Legal Offense Trust, in part to finance such suits. The trust helped bankroll a defamation suit that Richard Grenell, a senior official in the first Trump administration, brought against Ms. Troye in 2022, according to a court filing in the case. Ms. Troye has sought to have the lawsuit dismissed.

Mr. Binnall is also Mr. Grenell’s lawyer. His other clients in defamation cases have included Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn; a former Republican congressman, Devin Nunes; and Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson of North Carolina, who recently sued CNN for linking him to lewd comments on pornography websites. (Mr. Robinson denied posting the comments. CNN is seeking to have the suit dismissed.) Mr. Binnall also has a suit pending against The Times on behalf of the right-wing group 1st Amendment Praetorian.

[The_President]

I wonder what Trump has spent during his entire life on lawyers.

[ArthurItas]

2 year burn in February, and I imagine it’s ramped up since then

Trump spent $76 million over last two years on attorneys as legal troubles...

[Indy]

I expect that Trump will sue the federal government for malicious prosecution and he will win a large sum.

[The_Polymath]

I would be very concerned if I was you guys, because they (his minions) are starting to seed the pathway for this.

The underlying message was clear: with Trump back in the White House and with Bannon renewing his influence with the president-elect, the most extreme and polarizing proposals at the very least were up for consideration.

“The viceroy Mike Davis tells me, since it doesn’t actually say consecutive, that maybe we do it again in ’28?” Bannon said of Trump possibly running again in his remarks at the New York Young Republican Club gala dinner that also saw a Trump adviser keel over the lectern and fall off the stage.

Trump allies float extreme ideas, including Trump third term, at gala

[vjvj]

@The_Polymath

since it doesn’t actually say consecutive,

That’s a mind-bogglingly bad piece of logic.

[dr_t_non-fan]

@vjvj

That’s a mind-bogglingly bad piece of logic

“It doesn’t say consecutive” tells me that ANY two full elected terms would be the limit. What the hell is this guy smoking?
Only way I see him being able to run again is if they somehow make his first term invalid because they are the ones who actually cheated, thereby making him eligible for a new second term.

[Maphistos_Sidekick]

They only need five SCOTUS justices to say the 22nd Amendment was only intended to apply to consecutive terms.

I’d bet that there are at least three justices who would support that thinking.

[SteveGrondin]

I can’t see how, since a non-consecutive example pre-existed the amendment. You might as well say it only applies to 2 consecutive non-orange presidencies.

[Maphistos_Sidekick]

@SteveGrondin

I can’t see how, since a non-consecutive example pre-existed the amendment.

It doesn’t matter what you or I see. What matters is what folks like Thomas and Alito claim to see.

[SteveGrondin]

True, but even using originalism or whatever it is called, it doesn’t work. We will know within 4 years, though.

[dr_t_non-fan]

@SteveGrondin

True, but even using originalism or whatever it is called, it doesn’t work.

They will be activist judges when the money tells them to be activist judges

[FormerActuary]

I don’t see any way SCOTUS can allow Trump to run for a third term. The wording is pretty clear.
That reminds me of another thing to add to the amendment thread - I think someone ineligible to be elected as president should be disqualified from holding the office entirely.