A new message from your friends at People For the American Way.
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Friend,

Welcome to our weekly “Trumptastrophe” email series, that will serve to
remind us all of the destructive policies, decisions, and actions we
encountered during the Trump presidency and the threats that he and others
in the MAGA movement still pose – and to keep those moments clear in our
memory as we fight to defeat Republican extremists during the upcoming
elections.

This week’s recap focuses on Trump’s disdain for those who are unwilling
to put loyalty to him above everything else – including the rule of law or
the Constitution. We can’t forget how he has treated not only his
political opponents but also those who were once considered allies and
confidants – by weaponizing the Department of Justice and other government
agencies to do his bidding:

Trump [ [link removed] ]fired his first attorney general, former Sen. Jeff Sessions, on
Nov. 7, 2018, demanding Sessions’ resignation the day after midterm
elections gave Democrats a majority in the House of Representatives. The
ouster followed more than a year of harsh personal criticism by Trump
after Sessions became “[ [link removed] ]one of Trump’s favorite targets of ritualistic
humiliation,” in the words of one observer.

Why did Trump spend so many months publicly berating and [ [link removed] ]belittling the
far-right attorney general as “VERY WEAK” and “DISGRACEFUL”? After all,
Sessions had been the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump’s campaign. As
attorney general he was aggressively implementing Trump’s anti-immigrant
agenda and advancing the anti-LGBTQ goals of Trump’s religious-right
backers.

Sessions’ unforgivable sin in Trump’s eyes was recusing himself from the
investigation of ties between Russian operatives and the Trump campaign—an
investigation begun by the FBI and ultimately handed off to special
counsel Robert Mueller—rather than shutting the investigation down.
Sessions recused himself in March 2017 amidst criticism that he had said
during his confirmation hearings that he had not met with Russian
ambassador Sergei Kislyak during the campaign, which [ [link removed] ]turned out not to
be true.

Trump was furious that Sessions failed to shut down the investigation.
“Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse
himself he should have told me before he took the job and I would have
picked someone else,” Trump [ [link removed] ]told the New York Times. Trump could have
fired Sessions earlier than he did, but advisers thought it would be a bad
move politically after Trump had already fired FBI Director James Comey.

Here’s how Trump’s public abuse and ultimate firing of Attorney General
Jeff Sessions reminds us that we must prevent Trump from returning to the
presidency:

* Trump’s overriding demand for people who work for him is for personal
loyalty—not to the Constitution, the rule of law, or even a right-wing
policy agenda, but to Trump himself.
* Trump has made it clear that if he returns to the White House, the
Justice Department would be turned into an [ [link removed] ]instrument of personal
retribution against anyone he believes has wronged him.
* Trump’s desire for vengeance is combined with a strong streak of
sadistic cruelty that is displayed by his need to punish, humiliate,
and destroy his political opponents, not just defeat them. Rolling
Stone magazine recently [ [link removed] ]reported that an entire arm of Trump’s
campaign apparatus is “dedicated to making [Ron] DeSantis’ life hell,
sometimes in a flamboyantly childish, taunting approach that more
closely resembles teenage cyberbullying than it does a White House
run.”
* Trump’s right-wing allies are explicitly rejecting the tradition that
the Justice Department’s decisions about upholding the law should be
insulated from partisan politics or the personal demands of the
president. “You need an attorney general and a White House Counsel’s
Office that don’t view themselves as trying to protect the department
from the president,” [ [link removed] ]says Russ Vought, a former Trump aide who
started a [ [link removed] ]think tank to continue [ [link removed] ]pushing MAGA priorities.
* “To facilitate Trump’s ability to direct Justice Department actions,
his associates have been drafting plans to dispense with 50 years of
policy and practice intended to shield criminal prosecutions from
political considerations,” the Washington Post [ [link removed] ]reported this
month. “Critics have called such ideas dangerous and
unconstitutional.”
* Project 2025—a plan by a huge coalition of right-wing political and
legal groups for an [ [link removed] ]ideological purge and takeover of federal
agencies under a new Trump administration—includes planning for Trump
to invoke the Insurrection Act to [ [link removed] ]deploy the military against
Americans who protest his actions. Some far-right Trump supporters had
[ [link removed] ]urged him to use the Insurrection Act to stay in power after
losing the 2020 election.
* Trump’s treatment of Sessions is also a reminder of how fear of and
loyalty to Trump has infected and corrupted the Republican Party. In
2017, Sen Lindsey Graham said there would be “holy hell to pay” if
Trump fired Sessions, but a year later, he had [ [link removed] ]nothing bad to say
about Trump dumping Sessions and replacing him with loyalist Matthew
Whitaker as acting attorney general.

These are just some of the reasons we need YOU in this
fight. So, find your
favorite way to unwind after reading through this week’s recap, and then
make a plan for how you will fight back THIS week, this MONTH, this
election cycle.

[ [link removed] ]If you’d like to opt-out of this series but still continue receiving
our other email content, you can do so here >>

Thanks for all that you do to defeat Republican extremism.

– People For the American Way

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