View from K Street: Fear itself

Thomas Jefferson is credited with having said, “When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”

When Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)—all but invulnerable, with her term ending in 2029— announces that “we are all frightened,” it’s time to recognize that our country has suffered a serious, dangerous change.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, then-Candidate Trump announced that “I am the retribution.” He never mentioned retribution for what precisely, but it was a clear signal of his intent to use the enormous power of the presidency as the tool for some form of vengeance. His supporters most likely imagined a “house-cleaning” at various openly targeted departments, notably the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and parts of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

It’s hard to believe anyone fully realized that the signature aspect of the second Trump term was revenge—not merely against identified targets like Special Counsel Jack Smith or FBI Director Chris Wray, but against whole departments, entire programs, thousands of blameless civil servants, and hundreds of skilled scientists and researchers working at suddenly disfavored agencies and institutions. Nothing so symbolizes the careless, rage-filled animus of this administration and its leader as the grinning Elon Musk, gleefully brandishing his chainsaw—the richest man in the world, converting his power and wealth into becoming Trump’s convenient hit man, an administrative Luca Brasi. Musk seems not yet to realize that the exercise of power can diminish the wielder, even as he succeeds in sowing fear.