I was struck by something J. Michael Luttig, a former federal appeals court judge appointed by President George H.W. Bush, wrote recently to columnist Thomas Edsall.
Referring to Trump, Luttig said there has never
“been a U.S. president who I consider even to have been destructive, let alone a president who has intentionally and deliberately set out to destroy literally every institution in America, up to and including American democracy and the rule of law. I even believe he is destroying the American presidency, though I would not say that is intentional and deliberate.”
I’m not questioning Luttig’s conclusion. There’s far too much evidence for it. But the deeper question remains: Why do Trump and his regime — and Republicans in Congress who are complicit with them — want to destroy every institution in America?
Let me list several possibilities:
1. Personal demons are driving this. Trump is a pathological narcissist who doesn’t give a damn about anyone else. His only goals are money and power. Around him are a collection of people who are crazed in different ways. JD Vance, Russell Vought, Elon Musk, Stephen Miller, Peter Navarro, David Sacks et al. are filled with rage at the American system. I’m no psychoanalyst, so I’m not sure where the rage comes from, but there’s evidence that many of them (including Trump) were abused or neglected by their parents. They want to tear everything down.
2. Trump and his inner circle believe it’s necessary. A second possibility is that they genuinely believe that the nation is so corrupt, ossified, stagnant, and incapable of being reformed that every major American institution must be destroyed in order to make way for a wholly new and superior system. They think of it as a giant disruption, similar to technological disruptions that generate entirely new waves of invention — but on a far vaster scale.
3. Russia and/or other foreign powers are behind this. Vladimir Putin must be jubilant about the destruction of America. Xi Jinping is likely to be no less pleased. Add in Kim Jong Un, Ali Khamenei, and other global thugs and you have a plethora of forces that could be behind this. Whether they’re directly bribing Trump and his cronies to destroy the nation or are building popular support for what the Trump regime is doing through social media and other payoffs, they could well be the real forces seeking to destroy America.
4. The oligarchic titans of corporate America and the super-wealthy are behind this. As wealth and power have moved to the top of America, the corporate titans and super wealthy who have been aggregating them don’t want to lose them to a majority of Americans who could — if given the chance — take them away. No longer dependent on the rest of America because they’ve insulated themselves physically and economically, they have everything to gain and little to lose by destroying the institutions of the nation.
So, today’s Office Hours discussion question: Assuming that Judge Luttig is correct, and that Trump and his accomplices are intentionally and deliberately seeking to destroy every institution in America, why are they trying to do so?
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Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.