Opinion – Bill Straub: It didn’t take long to get on path to American unexceptionalism

It didn’t take long, a couple days, really, before President Donald J. Trump and his core of lickspittle worshipers entered the “defending the indefensible” phase of his burgeoning administration.

There have been so many atrocities, some of them downright laughable, over the first three-plus weeks since Trump returned as a resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that it’s impossible to pinpoint the most ghastly. A favorite was the firing of Coast Guard Commandant Linda Fagan, a four-star admiral and the first woman to attain the position, on his second day back in office, apparently because he considered her a DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion – hire.

But wait, there’s more. The Coast Guard initially granted her 60 days to find a new residence. Two weeks later, according to reports, The Department of Homeland Security instructed her successor, acting Commandant Kevin Lunday, to evict her from the place she called home with only three hours’ notice, an insufficient time to gather her personal belongings, because “the president wants her out of quarters.”

Now, considering that our boy has spent his time back in office setting the nation’s constitutional order ablaze, canning the Coast Guard commandant, which also offered him the simultaneous delight of picking on a woman, is small potatoes. But it outlines and provides a perfect example of the lack of integrity and decency of the person serving as the president of the United States of America and his unending zeal for ousting anyone from the government who deviates from his often-skewed view of the world.

They call such a person a dictator. And the nation is seriously as close to having one at the helm as it ever has since the founding of the republic.

Since taking the oath, Trump has sought to institute a wide-ranging spending freeze intended to undermine the constitutional duty of Congress to control spending. That effort has, at least temporarily, been blocked by a federal court.

The Lord of Mar-a-Lago has fired, in defiance of federal statutes, a host of inspectors general, which raises the question of what good is an inspector general if the actions of the person they’re inspecting can dismiss them on a whim. He has halted enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars American-based companies – including the Trump organization – from paying off foreign officials. He’s pulled out of the World Health Organization. He’s decimated the U.S. Agency for International Development and will look to kill it when the opportunity arises. He has ordered federal government websites to remove references to climate change. He has…

Oh hell, let’s just stop here. The bloody list of incomprehensibly corrupt actions is simply too long to consider in one sitting, a result he’s counting on by flooding the zone with so much garbage that no one could possibly keep score. We haven’t even talked about his ideas to invade Greenland and Panama, annex Canada and assume control of Gaza so it can be transformed into a clone of the Riviera, constructed, no doubt, by the president’s own firms, or letting some unseemly rich doofus who doesn’t have the sense God gave to a goose troll through the innards of the federal government.

Oh my gosh! I almost forgot the pardons of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists, who he motivated, including those who literally beat the living daylights out of several police officers.
It goes without saying that several of the dupes the good voters of the Commonwealth have sent to Washington to represent their interests are following him around as if he was the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

Trump, said Rep. Andy Barr, R-Lexington, the toadiest of the toadies, writing on X, “is delivering on his promises, and hardworking Americans are seeing results. I’ll keep fighting with him to advance policies that put Kentucky families and businesses first.”

Really, like his tariff fantasies that will harm bourbon exports and the idea to essentially kill foreign aid that will hurt the commonwealth’s farmers? Those promises? And when is he going to cut consumer prices and bring inflation under control?

And you can always count on Rep. Jamie Comer, R-Whereverhehangshishatishishome, who this week introduced the Reorganizing Government Act of 2025, which he said will streamline government operations by requiring Congress to take an up or down vote on any Trump reorganization plans that might be forthcoming.

“Americans elected President Trump to reform Washington, and his team is working around the clock to deliver on that promise,” Comer said.

Yeah, right. Bully for you boys.

Frankly, there’s one outrage that outranks all others to this point – turning the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation into an American Stasi.

First a quick note of history. In January 1969, then-President Richard Nixon nominated his campaign manager and confederate, John Mitchell, to serve as attorney general, a choice approved by the Senate. Mitchell was still in office in June 1972 when burglars associated with the Committee to Re-Elect the President broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters, located in the Watergate Office Building in Washington DC and were caught in the act.

Subsequently it was determined, through Nixon’s infamous Oval Office tape recordings, that Mitchell helped plan the break-in and met with Nixon on at least three occasions to invent a cover-up through illicit means like witness tampering.

To cut to the chase, Nixon resigned and Mitchell served 19 months in prison for his role. A series of reforms were enacted to ensure that the Department of Justice thereafter remained independent from the White House.

And so it went. Until now.

On Jan. 27, then-Acting Attorney General James McHenry fired more than 12 Justice Department officials who worked on federal criminal cases involving Trump, explaining he did not believe they “could be trusted to faithfully implement the President’s agenda because of their significant role in prosecuting the president.”
 
Then on Wednesday, in what might be termed a Wednesday Night Massacre, the White House fired an unverified number of U.S. attorneys across the country. At this point, Thursday evening, it has not been determined how many of the local federal prosecutors had been purged.

Trump is not only knocking down the wall between DOJ and the White House, he’s also essentially running the joint, turning it into his own, private law firm. His attorney general, former Florida Attorney General Pamela Bondi, a former lobbyist and close ally who to this day has refused to acknowledge that Trump lost his re-election bid to former President Joe Biden in 2020, is already doing his bidding.

On Tuesday, DOJ dropped corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who nonetheless has been sidling up to Trump over the past few months trying to gain his favor. The indictment claimed Adams accepted illegal campaign contributions and bribes that included discounted travel from individuals who sought to buy his influence.

In a letter to the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, Emil Bove III, Bondi’s top official at DOJ, ordered the dismissal and acknowledged that the decision to drop the case was made without assessing the evidence. Instead, Bove said the indictment interfered with Adam’s ability to work with the Trump administration in its ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration. He also hinted the now-dismissed charges interfered with Adams’ upcoming re-election campaign.

In other words, evidence and facts mean nothing to this Justice Department. It’s all about who can help Donnie. Interim U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, Danielle Sassoon, resigned rather than carry out the order.

Adams supports Trump’s efforts to deport certain undocumented migrants. In a side note, Bondi is suing the state of New York and certain officials, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, for refusing to cooperate in the administration’s anti-immigration endeavors.

Like Lola in the Broadway play Damn Yankees, whatever Trump wants, Trump gets.

During her confirmation hearing, Bondi showed she is more loyal to Trump than the rule of law, asserting that the DOJ under President Biden was picking on poor, ol’ Donnie.

“They targeted Donald Trump,” Bondi said. “They went after him — actually starting back in 2016, they targeted his campaign. They have launched countless investigations against him.” She added, “If I am attorney general, I will not politicize that office.”

You bet.

Wait a moment, we’re not quite finished. On Thursday the Senate Judiciary Committee forwarded Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel to serve as FBI director to the floor. Remember the job opened up because the previous office holder, Christopher Wray, resigned under pressure from Trump, who initially appointed him in 2017, who said Wray lied to Congress about President Biden’s feeble physical condition. Also, perhaps, because Wray’s department investigated Trump’s mishandling of government documents.

By the way, Patel, who likely will be confirmed, has exhibited a desire to seek retribution against Trump’s perceived enemies. He has expressed an intent to “come after the people … who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections … whether it’s criminally or civilly.”

Ah, American exceptionalism, we hardly know ye.