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When Donald Trump on Saturday used a social media post to instruct Attorney General Pam Bondi to expeditiously go after his political enemies in retaliation for his being indicted and impeached, the reaction was predictable: The president’s critics were horrified by the brazenness with which Trump shattered the firewall that is supposed to exist between the White House and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

It didn’t help that news broke at the same time alleging that DOJ killed an investigation into border czar Tom Homan for accepting a bag of cash in return for promising undercover agents that he would help them secure government contracts.

Our take on these stories is a bit different.

First of all, we weren’t surprised.

The only thing that would shock us is the news that Trump is not telling Bondi what to do, or Bondi not doing his bidding, or that DOJ wouldn’t shield their immigrant hunter from a corruption probe.

Frankly, we find it a bit flabbergasting that so few people in the media and in politics seem to understand this. Because that indicates that they still don’t grasp the seriousness of the situation.

This isn’t a game that plays out on social media and cable news shows. Unfortunately, that is how so many media types are still treating it.

This is an existential crisis. It’s about whether the United States will become a full-fledged authoritarian state.

That is the goal of this administration, and we are seeing more proof every day.

The open admission of wanting to use Charlie Kirk’s assassination to “eliminate” the opposition, the intimidation of political enemies, the rigging of the midterms, the suppression of information that runs counter to the narrative Trump is selling to Americans, the annihilation of an independent judiciary, the extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean… all of that and more happened just in the past week.

At this point, nothing Trump does should surprise anybody.

Is there somebody in the White House making plans right now to keep him in office beyond the end of his term? Almost certainly.

Are there lawyers dusting off arcane laws to see if they can be used to grant the president additional powers? No doubt about it.

Are Trump’s underlings sifting through documents to find dirt on his opponents? Of course.

Are right-wing political operatives like Stephen Miller plotting all kinds of unconstitutional and illegal actions right now? It would be shocking if they weren’t.

Are they also destroying evidence that any of this is happening? Absolutely.

We could go on and on and on.

But are there any plans being made to hold anybody who is advancing Trump’s agenda to account, even if they break the law? Highly unlikely.

And what is the “resistance” doing in response? Hand-wringing and social media posts, with some strongly worded letters from Democrats sprinkled in.

That’s not enough.

Of course, most of them probably think that they will be fine. They shouldn’t be so sure because authoritarians will come after anybody standing in their way.

And that is why we have a message to the corporate media, to the pundits we see pontificating on X, Bluesky, MSNBC, and CNN, and to Democratic lawmakers: If you don’t start treating this moment with the seriousness it deserves, then history will not only judge Trump and the GOP harshly, but you as well.