It shouldn’t be necessary to write this. The way Trump is running the presidency is so obviously hostile to liberty that libertarians should be unanimous in opposing him. Some people who call themselves libertarians, though, don’t quite get it. A few actually support him.
The Democrats aren’t good, but the issues with them aren’t as urgent. The first thing is to stop the country from sinking into dictatorship, then we can worry about excessive regulation and runaway deficit spending. Let me outline the main reasons Trump is a major danger and requires unequivocal opposition.
A lot of this will be familiar to many of you. I’m sorry that I have to belabor the obvious. Even if it’s all familiar, you might find some value in having all these items in one place.
Arbitrary abductions
Trump’s masked ICE secret police have been grabbing people from streets and courtrooms, not disclosing whom they have abducted, and not presenting charges. The kidnapping of Rümeysa Öztürk in Somerville, Massachusetts is one of the best-known cases. She was not in the US illegally. Her offense was writing an op-ed that the government disliked. ICE’s operations are part of Trump’s campaign to conduct “the largest deportation program in American history.”
Trump’s government illegally transported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a prison in El Salvador. He was given no hearing, and the administration is defying court orders to return him, using the very fact that the government put him in a prison outside the reach of US law as justification for not bringing him back.
Trump has invoked the Alien Enemies Act as justification for deportation of Venezuelans without legal process. This amounts to unilaterally asserting a state of war with Venezuela.
Arbitrary abductions are what a dictatorship does.
Taxation by decree
The Constitution has separation of powers to make it more difficult for the government to do bad things. It’s quite clear that taxes should come only from legislation passed by Congress and signed by the president (or overriding a veto). Trump has been using emergency powers and inventing emergencies, which he claims need to be solved by taxing what we buy from anywhere else in the world. He hates free trade and wants the US to become economically isolated and self-sufficient, which will make many things more expensive. He’s contemptuously told his subjects, “I don’t think that a beautiful baby girl needs — that’s 11 years old — needs to have 30 dolls. I think they can have three dolls or four dolls because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable.”
He’s telling us to cut back our consumption because he’s decided we don’t need so many things. Trump hates the free market and consumer choice. His use of tariffs to give some industries an advantage while hurting everyone else amounts to economic central planning, except that “planning” is too generous a word for his constant shifts and reversals.
Attacks on the news media
Trump has repeatedly used his power to intimidate the news media. He has brought a lawsuit against Paramount, the owner of CBS News, for editing the news in ways that aren’t to his liking. Paramount seems inclined to settling this apparently baseless suit just because it’s easier. The suit claims “unlawful acts of election and voter interference,” treating unfavorable coverage as illegal “interference.” Through his puppet Brendan Carr, he is using the threat of not approving an acquisition to pressure Paramount into submission. Trump has encourage Carr to impose “maximum fines and punishment” on CBS.
Trump banned Associated Press from White House briefings because it continued to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its old name rather than the one that Trump prefers.
You remember that you don’t have to approve of an organization’s reporting to defend its rights, don’t you? Acts of intimidation and the use of licensing to discourage unfavorable courage are marks of despotism.
Selective enforcement of the law
Donald Trump has used his pardon power to reward his supporters while others are still subject to the law. I know the legal process is in horrible shape and many people are convicted without a trial because of plea bargaining, but his pattern shows little correlation with the dubiousness of the charges. Most notably, he issued clemency to all of the rioters (over 1,500 of them) who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an effort to overturn Biden’s election. (I do not, however, think Trump was responsible for the riot.)
Some of the sentences might be considered excessive, but giving clemency to everyone who participated amounts to rewarding violence committed in an effort to keep him in power.
Paul Walczak, convicted of tax evasion, got a pardon shortly after his mother, Elizabeth Fago, attended a million-dollar-a-plate dinner for Trump. If you’re a tax rebel and ever face criminal charges but can’t throw that kind of money around, don’t expect much help from Trump. Yes, Biden also abused the pardon power, issuing blanked, preemptive pardons for his inner circle, but Trump has taken the abuse to new levels.
Attacks on educational institutions
Harvard is terrible in a lot of ways, but Trump’s actions against it are attacks on the independence of all educational institutions and on free speech. Harvard is just his first target. He has demanded that Harvard provide the federal government with information on legal, peaceful protests by students. He has ordered Harvard to stop having international students, effectively expelling a quarter of the student body. Many institutions of higher learning have openly engaged in racial discrimination, but Trump’s approach isn’t legitimate, and it’s largely aimed at suppressing protests rather than eliminating racial preferences.
Attacks on the legal system
Trump has used governmental power to retaliate against lawyers and judges who have opposed his power-grabs. Law firms have had their security clearances revoked and federal contracts terminated. He has extorted free legal services from some firms. He demanded the removal of Judge James Boasberg for issuing a restraining order against his illegal deportations.
Expansion of the surveillance state
While allegedly looking for government waste to cut, DOGE has sought and sometimes gained access to detailed personal data on the US population. Its people have obtained access to departmental databases with little or no oversight on what they can do with it. Yes, it’s bad enough that the government has so much information on us, but at least there are legal restrictions on how it can use it. Information on us, used without restrictions, can be used to target people with no legal oversight.
Threats against foreign territory
Trump has aggressively promoted the idea of annexing Canada. He has called it “highly unlikely” that the US would use military force, which means he hasn’t fully ruled it out. He has endorsed the use of “economic force” — closing off trade and maybe access to ports — to make Ottawa surrender. With Greenland, his line has been more aggressive, saying “I think there’s a good possibility that we could do it without military force.” He has said the same about the Panama Canal. That may be a polite threat, but it’s still a threat. An unprovoked war of aggression is one of the most un-libertarian things a government can do.
Attacks on free speech
The president has threatened targeted tariffs against businesses, including Apple and Mattel, that point out that his tariffs will raise costs and moving all production to the US isn’t feasible. His attack dog Tom Homan has called for an investigation of a member of Congress for informing people about their rights when facing the ICE.
Trump considers his oath of office a guideline at most. When he was asked if he had to uphold the Constitution, he said “I don’t know.”
There is normal bad, and there’s critical danger to the level of freedom that we have. We’re facing a future where the government controls the news, masked secret police haul people away, and it’s unsafe to say anything our rulers don’t like. Anyone who values liberty needs to concentrate on opposing Trump’s assaults. Don’t forget the rest, but don’t offer him excuses.