Inside the rapid 'intensification' of Trump’s ruthless power grabs: Bill Kristol

U.S. President Donald Trump at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, U.S., May 25, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

With the 2026 midterms only five months away, many GOP strategists are sounding the alarm about President Donald Trump's low approval ratings in poll after poll. Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) fears that his party, in November, could suffer the "inverse of 2010" — meaning a midterms wipeout not unlike the one Democrats experienced during Barack Obama's first presidency. But Never Trump conservative Bill Kristol, in The Bulwark, warned that Trump's unpopularity won't discourage his "power grabs."

Kristol predicted that Trump, rather than feeling discouraged, is "intensifying" and ramping up his "power-grabbing efforts."

"Just yesterday," the journalist explains in the conservative Bulwark, "Trump signed an executive order converting some 8000 career, non-partisan civil service positions into political appointments, making those employees hirable and fireable at will. We all should be 'really, really freaked out.' Because it's clear that Trump's power grab over the executive branch is not just proceeding apace, but is intensifying. Yes, Trump is less popular than he used to be, and he has less of an absolute sway over Republican members of Congress than he once did. But this seems to be causing not hesitation on Trump’s part, but an intensification of his power-grabbing efforts."

Kristol continues, "He seems no longer to care much about political backlash, or electoral consequences. As he said last week, 'I don't care about the midterms.' It's almost as if he doesn't expect elections to matter because he's not going to do everything he can to allow them not to matter."

Trump's "power-grabbing," according to Kristol, is asserting itself with recent appointments — including Todd Blanche as acting U.S. attorney general and Bill Pulte as acting national intelligence director.

"Trump has been a fantastically successful demagogue, a master flatterer of the people," Kristol argues. "But at some point in an authoritarian takeover, one has to explain why one is taking over power despite or against the wishes of the people. What we are seeing is a president who is going full steam ahead on his centralization of power in a way that should make one doubt he intends to give it up — whether over the next two years, whatever a Democratic Congress tries to do, or in 2028, whatever the people try to do at the polls."

Trump, the Never Trump conservative observes, is claiming that he's trying to protect the U.S. from "communists."

"Over the past century, in many nations, fascist movements and authoritarian coups have sought justification in the need to save their respective countries from the communists," Kristol notes. "One hopes and trusts that American exceptionalism will win out, and that we will not go down in history as merely another chapter in this sad story. We're in no way destined to succumb to such a fate."

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