When ‘burning it all down’ becomes reality: The toxic mix of personal rule and zealous ideologues threatens to dismantle federal power.
What happens when the new Trump administration’s transition to power includes explicit plans for its own demolition?
As former President Donald Trump’s return looms, the machinery of American democracy faces an existential threat in which the quest for personal power, personal vendettas, and radical ideology merge to create a perfect storm of institutional destruction.
In this urgent follow-up to our recent conversation, Harvard professor emerita Nancy Rosenblum goes deeper into how Trump’s drive for unchecked personal rule, combined with ideological extremists in his orbit, creates a uniquely dangerous form of “ungoverning” — where decisions about everything from antitrust cases to public health are based on personal grievances rather than public good.
And meanwhile, zealous appointees systematically dismantle the administrative state around him.
Rosenblum explains how the blueprints are already drawn: Schedule F, Project 2025, and plans to gut federal agencies will make previous administrative changes after an election look like mere tinkering.
She reminds us that early targets like the Justice Department and immigration enforcement are just the beginning, as professional expertise and legal procedures give way to loyalty tests and personal whim.
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