“The world is a den of thieves and night is falling. Evil breaks its chains and runs through the world like a mad dog.”
Uncle Gustav in “Fanny and Alexander” (1982)
Note to Readers: It is not my intention to use this blog to focus on American politics. Far from it. However, if one looks beyond the chaos of the “flooded zone”, one can see occurences that are genuinely startling and concerning. I cannot in good conscience ignore them.
There are two principal preoccupations of serious people in the United States right now: is the country in a constitutional crisis?; and if so, what is to be done about it? The “constitutional crisis” is the apparent refusal of the Executive Branch of America’s government (i.e. the President) to respect and obey the authority of the other two branches, the Judicial (the courts) and the Legislative (Congress). Based on the facts as can best be determined, that crisis has arrived.
The Congress: President Trump has disregarded the authority of Congress, in particular its spending authority, since he began his second term. The clearest and most notable example is that of USAID, which is an agency of the government that was created when Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act in 1961, and affirmed when it later passed the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998. It operates by virtue of ongoing funding regularly approved by Congress. In signing Executive Order 14169 on January 20, 2025, which ordered a 90 day “pause” on all U.S. foreign development assistance programs, combined with Elon Musk/DOGE’s wholesale displacement of USAID staff by administrative leave and the termination of hundreds of contractors, the Executive Branch has clearly undermined the will of Congress by incapacitating the ability of USAID to carry out the function that Congress had approved and funded it to do.
The Courts: Trump’s disregard for the courts is similarly blatant: Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a legal resident of the State of Maryland who, in a court order of 2019, was expressly protected against being removed to El Salvador because of danger that he would face there, was (in spite of this court order, and in spite of the fact that Mr. Garcia has never been convicted of any crime, neither in the USA nor in his homeland of El Salvador) in March of 2025 pulled over by US federal agents and within three days was flown to El Salvador to be housed in the notorious CECOT prison (Trump’s administration is paying $6 million to El Salvador to house alleged Venezuelan gang members there). In spite of the acknowledgement by federal government counsel that Mr. Garcia had been sent to El Salvador in “error”, the Trump administration is refusing to comply with the decision of the Supreme Court that they must act to facilitate the return of Mr. Garcia to the United States. Rather, they have put the lawyer who admitted to the error “on leave”, and Trump has argued that he has “certified statements” that Mr. Garcia is a terrorist and “a very violent person”, the implication being that the President’s satisfaction in this regard is sufficient to deny Mr. Garcia’s right to due process as guaranteed by the fifth amendment to the US constitution.
Mr. Garcia is not a one-off. Trump has stated publicly that “we cannot give everyone a trial”, and he also indicated his desire to extend these extra-judicial removals to “homegrowns”. His standards for removal are known only to him, not to be examined or questioned. In responding to the administration’s attempt to justify Mr. Garcia’s removal with the wartime Alien Enemies Act, Judge Millett said that “even Nazis got better treatment” that what was accorded Mr. Garcia, which is true: those accused of being Nazis under that Act were given a 30 day notice to contest the accusation, and a hearing. History is full of examples of behaviour like this from authoritarian regimes: when General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the socialist government of Salvador Allende in 1973, over one thousand people (estimates vary) were “disappeared”, meaning not just that they are suddenly simply not there, but that the government denied their very existence or any knowledge of them or their whereabouts. More recently, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines notoriously had thousands of alleged or suspected drug dealers executed by the police “extra judicially” i.e. without the benefit of due process and trial. This stuff happens. (If you enjoy film, you might want to watch “The Official Story”, the Academy Award’s Best Foreign Film of 1985, or “I’m Still Here”, which was a Best Picture nominee at last year’s Oscars). It is difficult to find much daylight between these events and what the Trump Administration is currently doing.
Having resolved the first question I posed, we must now consider the second: what is to be done about this? The experts suggest that the options are few. Even if the courts find the Administration to be in contempt or otherwise in violation of federal law, the levers of executing a fine or imprisonment are controlled by the Executive: US Marshalls answer to the Department of Justice. One struggles to see Pam Bondi ordering the removal of the President or senior officials into jail, and incarcerating a President with approval ratings still in the 40 per cent range would likely lead to serious civil disobedience. The best hope (if one can call it that) is that the Congress, which still has powers of impeachment, might act if public opinion is sufficiently outraged, but the removal of all of Trump’s minions seems unlikely, and cutting off the head might not kill this serpent, given the most likely replacements.
An astronomy professor once told his students that our sun was likely to burn out in about 5 billion years. One of her students stood up and asked “What can I, as an individual, do?” In these circumstance, one sympathizes. But there are vestiges of hope, both in the recurring Anti-Trump protests across the USA and the Bernie-AOC “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, which have both drawn significant numbers. If one can raise one’s voice, now is the time. But it is clear from their actions that the Trump Administration will not go gentle into that good night.
P.S. When I began composing this blog a few days ago, the case of Mr. Garcia and related articles were dominating the news. Today, when I went back to check a couple of quotes, I found all of these articles buried behind the most recent antics of the Trump regime, including: i) their efforts to bully Ukraine into giving into Russia’s demand; ii) the ongoing tariff battle with China; iii) the latest security breaches of Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth; and iv) Trump asking the Supreme Court to ban transgender troops in the Army. This is how “flooding the zone” works: even a discussion as crucial to American democracy as this constitutional crisis gets hidden behind the blur of all this other noise. I urge my readers to do your best to keep your eye on the ball.