The Economist (behind a paywall):
“Ted Cruz, a conservative senator from Texas, set a particularly striking example of consistency recently on free speech. … He couched his defence of speech not in high principle but in instrumental terms: ‘It might feel good right now to threaten Jimmy Kimmel, yeah,” he said on September 19th on his podcast, ‘Verdict with Ted Cruz’, ‘but when it is used to silence every conservative in America, we will regret it.’
“… But Republicans might reasonably draw a different conclusion from Mr Cruz’s warning, as they might from many actions Mr Trump is taking: that they need to do everything possible to prevent Democrats from regaining power, and turning this president’s methods against his party.
“Mr Trump is using his office to punish adversaries in ways that are without precedent. The actions are often alarming in themselves, but what may eventually matter more is that together they are intensifying not just the perceived stakes of politics, which have been climbing for years among hyperpartisans, but the actual importance for officeholders of political authority. The way Mr Trump uses power, in other words, is raising the real stakes for holding on to power. …
“It has always been crushing to lose an election, but the worthies of a defeated administration could count on lucrative corporate jobs or respectable postings at think-tanks or universities while they awaited the turn of the political wheel. This arrangement was cosy and could be corrupting, as some officials looked ahead to passing through the ‘revolving door’ to a lobbying job and then maybe back to power. But it was also stabilising. There was a good life to be had after government, along with the prospect of a return to public office, probably in a more senior role.
“Now, when they lose power, officials have reason to fear criminal investigation. …
“This is the context for Mr Trump’s bid to alter the electoral terrain before the midterm elections. He wants to defy history, which suggests the Democrats will win control of the House, by trying to impose new restrictions on voting and pressing Republican state governments to redraw electoral boundaries to favour Republican candidates. Mr Trump’s rewards for allies and punishment of foes may also account for the stunning gap in fundraising: after the first six months of this year, the political action committee associated with the president, maga Inc, had $196m in cash on hand; the Democrats’ main presidential pac, Future Forward, had all of $2,826.08. Even those advantages are not enough. Mr Trump has ordered an investigation into ActBlue, a fundraising platform for Democrats, and since the assassination of Charlie Kirk his aides have spoken of a broader offensive against nonprofits that support the left. A dangerous cycle is gathering momentum: the more Republicans treat their political opponents as criminals, the more reason they will have to fear them.”
David Frum in The Atlantic argues along similar lines, and goes even further, in a piece entitled The Comey Indictment Is Not Just Payback, and with this subtitle: “It’s a glimpse of Trump’s next attempt to seize power.” Frum writes:
“Trump faces a very immediate problem. He and his family have already amassed an enormous fortune in the first nine months of his second term, in great part from gifts and deals with foreign powers. That behavior is likely to be investigated if Trump’s party loses control of either house of Congress in November 2026. …
“Troops in the streets of Washington, D.C., have deterred residents from going to bars and restaurants in 2025. Those troops could be used to dissuade residents of blue cities in red states from standing in voting lines in 2026. Selective prosecution can be used to cut the flow of money to Democratic candidates.
“Yes, Trump’s politicization of the Department of Justice is a backward-looking expression of hurt feelings. It’s also another step in a forward-looking plot to shred the rule of law in order to pervert the next election and protect his corruption from accountability. James Comey’s rights and liberties are not the only ones at risk today. So is your own right to participate in free and fair elections in order to render a verdict on Trump’s invasion of those rights and liberties.”