State capture

State capture comes in many flavors. When Donald Trump won the election on a promise to punish his enemies, I expected him to follow the Hungarian model. MAGA Republicans have spoken admiringly of dissident-turned-strongman Viktor Orban, after all, and some of the elements of his transformation of Hungary into an "illiberal democracy" are already in motion here: politicize the courts, quiet the press, reward favored oligarchs.

But just days after the vote came word that Trump planned to actually follow through on the most radical measures in Project 2025. He will attempt by executive order to fire en masse "rogue bureaucrats" — aka the thousands of experts at federal agencies who keep our food unsullied and our transactions trustworthy. Worse, he will create a "warrior board" of retired officers to identify "woke generals" for sacking. That's far beyond what Hungary ever did; now we're in the realm of Turkey, where in 2016, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used the pretext of a small, easily overpowered coup attempt to launch a mass purge. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs: everyone from teachers and lawyers to newspaper and TV reporters to generals and admirals. Those left in government must be slavishly obedient to Erdogan's every whim, whether legal or not.

The U.S. turning into Turkey overnight would be bad enough. It gets worse. Both Orban and Erdogan take their roles seriously. They favor their corrupt friends, sure, but they are still intent on governing. Trump is stocking his administration with unqualified cronies whose characters stand in opposition to their agencies: Pete Hegseth, champion of war criminals, at Defense; Matt Gaetz, accused sex trafficker, at Justice; Tulsi Gabbard, propagandist for America's enemies, at Intelligence. He's even trying to skip FBI background checks and turn these lightweights loose unvetted, to annihilate their departments. Trump is keeping his promise of retribution. But it's now apparent that what he sees as his enemy is the entire U.S. government.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

This is the editor's letter in the current issue of The Week magazine.