Conservative writer Bill Kristol writes in his latest piece for The Bulwark that it's "less than a quarter of the way through the second [Donald] Trump administration" and "it's getting worse."
"I mean this neither as an expression of hyperbole nor a cry of alarm," Kristol writes, adding that "Trump’s authoritarian apparatchiks are tightening their control over the key power ministries of the federal government."
Kristol says that as President Donald Trump's administration gets more aggressive "asserting their power over the private sector and civil society," Department of Justice officials like Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel make it obvious that they aren't interested in the rule of law.
"They are directing that individuals against whom the president has a grievance be criminally prosecuted. And when told by subordinates — whether career lawyers or political appointees — that sound grounds for legal action don’t exist, they fire those honest attorneys and go ahead with the prosecution," Kristol says, referring to the recent indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Leticia James.
Trump, however, is "moving well beyond targeting individuals against whom [he] has a grievance," Kristol writes. "Any and all critics of the administration are now at risk of legal assault."
The administration's attacks on the imaginary "antifa" as a terrorist organization, Kristol says, is also quite ominous.
"They assert that such speech is a cover for and an incitement to violence. The administration is thus laying the groundwork for subjecting speech critical of it to suppression and prosecution. There are indications that new crackdowns on dissent, on dissenters, and on the institutions that employ them and their funders, are imminent," he says.
The Defense Department's recent attacks on Venezuelan ships under the guise of a crackdown on drug cartels, Kristol says, is also concerning.
"The Defense Department continues to kill unidentified people on the high seas while providing neither evidence nor legal justification for doing so," he writes.
And as media outlets refuse to sign a pledge allowing them to cover the Pentagon the way the Pentagon wants them to cover it, Kristol writes. "beginning today, media access to the Pentagon will be radically limited."
"So the Trump administration is becoming both increasingly aggressive and increasingly unaccountable," he says.
The only solution is to unite and organize, as millions are expected to this weekend at the "No Kings" protests around the country.
" We do ultimately depend on the common sense and common courage of the people. 'No Kings' is an expression of protest. But it is also an affirmation of responsibility. We the people ordained and established our free government. It’s up to us to keep it," he says.