The power is the point

Trump’s first week reveals his top goal, and his fundamental weakness

Ben Raderstorf

In 2017, Trump signed four executive orders in his first five days in office.

This time around he’s signed more than 40.

This is designed to be a deluge, a quite-literally made-for-TV event showcasing the purported power and decisiveness of an autocratic leader. Trump wants you — and every other American who thinks democracy is preferable to strongman rule — to feel overwhelmed and powerless.

Last week, we suggested four questions for parsing Trump’s noise: Is it tangible? Does it harm real people? Will it cause anticipatory obedience? Does it make the authoritarian faction more difficult to dislodge?

So what rises above the noise of the various actions and executive orders?

Trump is following the authoritarian playbook to a T

More than anything, this week revealed how Donald Trump’s goal is power. Power for its own sake, not as some means-to-an-end. He doesn’t see being in power as simply a tool to deliver change or material benefits to his supporters.

Consider: What’s the number one issue voters want Trump to address?

It’s prices. In our poll with YouGov last week, the top single issue voters wanted the president to focus on was “curbing inflation.” And what did Trump do this week on prices?

Here is, in full, the substantive part of his executive action on prices and cost of living:

I hereby order the heads of all executive departments and agencies to deliver emergency price relief, consistent with applicable law, to the American people and increase the prosperity of the American worker. This shall include pursuing appropriate actions to: lower the cost of housing and expand housing supply; eliminate unnecessary administrative expenses and rent-seeking practices that increase healthcare costs; eliminate counterproductive requirements that raise the costs of home appliances; create employment opportunities for American workers, including drawing discouraged workers into the labor force; and eliminate harmful, coercive “climate” policies that increase the costs of food and fuel. Within 30 days of the date of this memorandum, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy shall report to me and every 30 days thereafter, on the status of the implementation of this memorandum.

Seriously, that’s it. A single paragraph with no specifics, details, or footnotes. It’s hard to imagine an emptier, more vapid order than asking for an aide to deliver him a monthly report.

Contrast that with the bevvy of executive actions taken to consolidate power. A year ago, my Protect Democracy colleagues published a report on how authoritarianism could take over in the United States: The Authoritarian Playbook for 2025.

If you look, almost every single threat they described is in the first week’s actions, in numerous, complex, detailed ways. (The only one we haven’t seen in the executive orders yet is a refusal to leave office.)

• Pardons to license lawbreaking: There’s no other way to read Trump’s decision to pardon his most violent, criminal supporters than as an encouragement of future violence.
• Directing investigations against critics and rivals: So far, the investigations focus on members of the Biden Administration, former intelligence officials who signed a letter on the Hunter Biden laptop story, and members of the January 6th Select Committee.
• Regulatory retaliation: An executive order attempting to halt the disbursement of funds from Biden’s climate and infrastructure laws is an early test case for one of Trump’s main retaliatory weapons — impoundment of funds.
• Federal law enforcement overreach: In particular, some of his orders on immigration enforcement are designed to dramatically expand law enforcement presence and power in blue states and cities. (For instance, immigration raids can now target schools and churches.)
• Domestic deployment of the military: 1,500 active duty troops have been deployed to the southern border. Watch for whether they get deployed anywhere else.

The power is the point.

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