The Trump Dictatorship Is Cracking Up

In the president’s warped world, his increasingly deranged demands are never the problem—only his underlings’ failures to meet them.

Almost without exception, those who enjoy the great honor of serving President Donald Trump have ultimately collided with two all-consuming dictums. The first is that Trump’s underlings must always elevate his personal interests above those of the institutions they run. The second is that they will always fall short of honoring the first, incurring his inevitable wrath.

Two big events late Thursday—Trump’s firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s axing of a top military official—demonstrate the deep perils of what political theorists refer to as “personalist” rule. This mode places one charismatic leader’s vainglory and self-enrichment, unbound by procedural neutrality, at the center of all decisionmaking. Flattery, tribute, attunement to the Big Man’s ever-shifting whims, and the effective humiliation of his enemies are what secure one’s place in the highest circles of glory.

The president’s banishment of Bondi tightly followed this template. An illuminating tick-tock from The Wall Street Journal tells us that Trump was “incensed” at her failure to prosecute his enemies, and her inability to bury the Jeffrey Epstein files left him “frustrated.” In both cases, Bondi deeply corrupted the institution she purported to serve in a fruitless effort to please Trump.

For instance, in bringing cases against numerous Trump foes—including Democratic senators like Adam Schiff and Mark Kelly, among others—her handpicked prosecutors twisted the law and Justice Department protocols so badly that the efforts buffoonishly fell apart while prompting resignations from career officials.

The Journal reports that after Trump berated Bondi in a Truth Social post that he reportedly intended to send privately, she grew upset and called top White House officials. Surely Bondi protested that she was trying very hard to be corrupt on Trump’s behalf, but he was demanding the unachievable: prosecutions untethered from law or fact. No matter: The absurdity of Trump’s demands could not be the problem. Only the failure........

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