'Concentrated power': Robert Reich details Trump’s scheme to 'replace American democracy'

31 January

President Donald Trump's freezing of federal government funds didn't last long.

Trump ordered the freeze on Monday night, January 27. But the following day, federal Judge Loren AliKhan temporarily blocked the freeze — which the Trump Administration rescinded on Wednesday, January 29, according to a memo from Matthew J. Vaeth (acting director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget).

Nonetheless, the freeze lasted long enough to create what liberal economist Robert Reich describes as "chaos on a huge scale" in a January 30 column for The Guardian.

Reich, formerly secretary of labor in the Clinton Administration, explains, "That Monday-night order had caused wild confusion across America. Hospitals, schools, nonprofits, research organizations, pre-school programs and police departments wondered if they lost federal financial support. The Medicaid system that provides healthcare to millions of low-income Americans was interrupted."

Trump's nominee for a permanent director for the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is Russell Vought, one of the architects of Project 2025 — the Heritage Foundation's blueprint for a second Trump Administration.

"Chaos," Reich argues, is exactly what Trump wanted to create with the funding freeze and an e-mail offering millions of federal government a buyout if they resign.

"My betting is we’ll see another version of Monday night's order emerge once Vought is installed," Reich warns. "It will be somewhat more detailed to avoid the confusion of the first attempt. But the Trump White House views the order as essential. It's part of a much larger plan…. These new initiatives are not about shrinking the size of the federal government. They're about centralizing control of the federal government in Trump's hands."

Reich continues, "Trump aims to put people into these jobs who are more loyal to him than they are to the United States. Trump's attempted takeover of the U.S. government is itself part of a larger strategy to replace American democracy with an oligarchy. Concentrated power promotes concentrated wealth, just as concentrated wealth promotes concentrated power. The two are symbiotic."

Robert Reich's full column for The Guardian is available at this link.

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