With his poll numbers in the dumps, especially when it comes to how Americans feel about the economy and high prices, Donald Trump is desperate for some quick fixes this year. One of them was the attack on Venezuela and the subsequent looting of the country’s oil. Apparently, another is to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell with a patsy who will allow the president to dictate the country’s monetary policy.

To do so, Trump needs a reason, which he hopes the Department of Justice will deliver.

Before we get into that, it is important to remember that every accusation the president makes against anybody is either an admission of guilt or a statement of intent. For example, he has been railing for years against a “weaponized” DOJ because it dared to prosecute him. We have pointed out repeatedly that this is nonsensical. The crimes he has been accused of have been extremely well documented in detailed indictments, and, under the previous administration, plenty of Democrats were prosecuted (including Joe Biden’s own son) while Republicans were not.

It’s a different story now, when Pam Bondi and other Trump loyalists are using DOJ to go after the president’s perceived enemies. Like Powell.

On Sunday night, the chairman of the Fed revealed that the Department of Justice threatened him with a criminal indictment related to testimony he gave before the Senate Banking Committee last year about the cost of the renovation of the Federal Reserve building.

Powell noted that this is all just a contrived justification for getting rid of him.

“This unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration’s threats and ongoing pressure,” he noted. “This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings.

“Those are pretexts,” he added. “The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.”

And that pretty much sums it up.

Trump hopes that, by destroying the independence of the Federal Reserve, he can set interest rates in a way that gives the economy a boost before the midterms.

Otherwise, he and his Republicans are facing a shellacking that would result in Democrats winning control of at least one chamber of Congress, which would be devastating for Trump because, in that case, the criminal enterprise that is this administration would be subject to real oversight.

Which is why we are of two minds when it comes to the threat of indicting Powell for lying to Congress.

On the one hand, this is an egregious abuse of power.

DOJ is functioning like a political hit squad instead of an independent arbiter of justice. Anybody who crossed Trump is a target while those who support him seem to be immune from punishment.

On the other hand, we welcome that the president and his administration are setting some important precedents that will be used to punish actual criminal wrongdoing when he leaves office. It is becoming abundantly clear that, while there is zero accountability now, people will have to go to prison eventually for violating the Constitution and breaking the country’s laws.

And when they are being prosecuted, including for the same things that DOJ is accusing Trump’s “enemies” of now, then even the most hypocritical MAGA supporters won’t be able to claim that this is some sort of unique weaponization of DOJ (although we are certain that they will try).

There is one other thing, though: The president and his supporters must know what losing in the midterms, and, more importantly, in 2028 would mean for them personally.

A lot is at stake for them, and this latest overreach is further proof of the extreme measures they are willing to take in order to stay in power.

This will be the story of 2026: How much of an autocracy will the United States have become by the time Americans get to vote in November, and how fair will that election be?

We are gravely concerned that we will not like the answers to these questions but nevertheless hold out hope that the midterms will be too big to rig, even for the Trump regime.