'Menace': Former Air Force secretary says Trump using 'universal tool of authoritarians'
In a New York Times op‑ed published Monday, former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall warned that the United States is living under a growing cloud of fear due to President Donald Trump’s tactics.
“Like the fog in Carl Sandburg’s poem, fear has come on little cat feet, seeping silently into various parts of American society,” Kendall wrote. “It sits, looking over not just harbor and city, but all of America.”
Kendall further said the insidious fear brought on by Trump's second term has penetrated not only military and civil services, but extends into “universities, law firms, C‑suites and the leadership of nonprofit organizations.”
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Kendall, who led the Air Force under former President Joe Biden until January, said that in today’s Pentagon, “The firings of general officers without cause have sent a chilling message to everyone in uniform.” He notes a sweeping purge of federal civil‑service roles — moves he viewed as aimed at stifling dissent and replacing professionals with loyalists, reinforcing a climate of intimidation.
He contrasted this with a moment earlier in his career under former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, when he attended a celebratory gathering marking the end of the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” program. He said he felt secure enough at the time to oppose official policies. But today, he claimed criticism of the president is no longer tolerated, saying: “President Trump does not accept dissent and is using fear to try to suppress it.”
Kendall also spotlighted how Trump's policies have pressured major law firms. He described efforts to coerce them as an instruction to “to refuse to represent clients whom it disfavors and to represent clients it favors.”
At Harvard, Kendall recounted, students and faculty shared concerns about threats to academic freedom and funding tied to political speech, saying: “The loss of funding for research and the fear of interrupted studies are very real."
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He added: "Fear is the universal tool of authoritarians, and it is a clear sign that our democracy is in danger that so many Americans now have reason to fear their government. Fear has come to our country, and unlike Sandburg’s fog, it isn’t moving on any time soon."
Kendall reminded Americans, and especially leaders, that democracy depends on the freedom to dissent. The creeping “climate of menace” he described, if left unchecked, jeopardizes institutional independence and silences the next generation of voices in public service.
