On the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration, this analysis out from the New York Times is alternately infuriating and depressing in its account of how the powerful are rushing to accommodate themselves to Donald Trump’s rule, and how those who should be his opponents are either urging cooperation or wandering about in a demoralized daze:
Defiance is Out, Deference is In: Trump Returns to a Different Washington
As Donald J. Trump prepares to take the oath of office for a second time, much of the world seems to be bowing down to him and demoralized opponents are rethinking the future
Much of the world, it seems, is bowing down to the incoming president. Technology moguls have rushed to Mar-a-Lago to pay homage. Billionaires are signing seven-figure checks and jockeying for space at the inaugural ceremony. Some corporations are pre-emptively dropping climate and diversity programs to curry favor.
Some Democrats are talking about working with the newly restored Republican president on discrete issues. Some news organizations are perceived to be reorienting to show more deference. The grass roots opposition that put hundreds of thousands of people in the streets of Washington to protest Mr. Trump just a day after he was sworn in back in 2017 generated a fraction of that in their sequel on Saturday.
Yet, for all its reporting on acts of submission and deference, the piece curiously avoids noting the most basic reasons why any of this behavior is happening. The reality is that many of the rich and powerful are accommodating themselves to Trump because they expect him to rule in a lawless, vindictive fashion, a prospect that some fear and others welcome. He has already indicated that he will illegally set federal law enforcement on his “enemies,” while his first term demonstrated that he is happy to corruptly use the federal government’s vast indirect powers, like the rewarding or withholding of government contracts, to punish perceived corporate opponents and reward his cronies. In other words, the rich and powerful are accommodating themselves to Trump because they expect him not to be a normal president but an unrestrained dictator willing and able to break the law in pursuit of power.
This unspoken reality haunts the article like a lost conscience, making the piece an exemplar of the double-think currently at play in coverage of Trump. As when CNN reports that President Trump aims to “push the boundaries” of the Constitution as it describes his plans to violate and negate it, major news sources are suppressing basic, known facts about Trump’s plans and why he has seen corporate America metaphorically kiss his feet.
Likewise, the article’s reporting of demoralization among those who oppose Trump is tellingly selective. It quotes people who are exhausted and discouraged by Trump’s victory, but it downplays the fear they are also feeling, as well as the prime reasons why: because Trump appears set to further erode American democracy, including our ability to elect officials who oppose him. Plans to persecute and jail political opponents, and to staff the federal government with religious bigots, lackeys, and ideologues, are demoralizing because they reveal a man who seems bent on permanently ensconcing himself and his allies in power. Those who are used to working to win democratic elections are understandably dismayed at the prospect of challenging unchecked power — power that under our Constitution should be considered illegitimate, and described by ethical members of the press as such.
Not once does the article note that much of the political world is abasing itself before Donald Trump because so many fear his illegal and illegitimate abuses of power. Not once, even though this is the black hole around which all their actions and fears orbit. It’s a fact so fearsome, in fact, that even the New York Times seems afraid to name it.