Latest news with #Trump-dominated
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Spooked By Trade Wars, Trump Officials Hoard Supplies: ‘It Would Be Stupid Not To!'
Donald Trump's trade wars with China and other nations are widely expected to cause sharp economic pain, but some experts have warned consumers not to hoard supplies and goods before prices skyrocket, arguing that mass stockpiling could backfire spectacularly. Well, many Americans aren't listening to that advice, according to survey data this year, instead preparing for the possibility of store shelves being bare amid a Trump-inflicted recession. Funnily enough, this includes a number of government officials and staffers working directly for the man who launched these massive new trade wars, all on the grounds of bad tariff math and the flimsy premise that he would bring economic 'liberation' to America and make the country 'wealthy again.' Two Trump administration officials and a Trump aide tell Rolling Stone that they have done some stockpiling of their own in recent weeks or months, and that they know others working in Republican politics — inside and outside of the administration — who are doing the same. One of the Trump officials says they have already run to Target to bulk-buy toilet paper, some types of food, and other household supplies. When asked why they're doing this, the Trump aide — who says they and their partner have done similar household-supply hoarding lately, and are also 'stashing cash' reserves in their D.C.-area home — simply replies: 'Because it would be stupid not to!' The aide adds that they still believe in Trump's tariffs regime, though, citing the supposed advantage of 'short-term pain' in exchange for long-term 'prosperity.' The trend is symptomatic of a larger panic taking place within the Trump-dominated Republican elite. A significant share of the GOP luminaries on Capitol Hill, members of the Republican donor class, and some top-ranking officials in the Trump administration are privately (and sometimes publicly) extremely fearful that Trump's trade warfare is going to throttle the U.S. economy and further drive down his and the party's approval ratings ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. But because Trump commands a towering personality cult among the Republican base and rules over his party with catty malice, these GOP bigwigs mostly have to just go along with it and smile. They'll tell the American people one thing (Trump's got this, they'll claim), and behave privately another way (hoarding toilet tissue for themselves, and occasionally trying to talk the president off his Peter Navarro-shaped ledge). In the corridors of power within Trump's own administration, there is a growing belief that the Chinese government indeed has the upper hand in this stage of the trade standoff, and that Trump is strategically flailing and looking for easy wins that don't actually exist, multiple sources with knowledge of the matter attest. Many in the GOP's upper echelons are keeping their fingers crossed that the president will find some outs and declare imaginary victory before his economic war inflicts too much damage on the average American voter. Nobody — not even Trump, it seems — knows how long this is going to last. The American public has been trying to tell the president that they won't put up with it for very long. 'U.S. consumer confidence plummets to Covid-era low as trade war stokes anxiety,' the Associated Press reported on Tuesday, referencing the last time Trump was in office overseeing a crisis that also involved numerous Americans hoarding toilet paper, amid a supply chain crisis. (A similar supply shock is on its way.) In recent days, multiple high-quality polls have separately shown the president's approval rating sinking, in some data to the thirties. The poor numbers have infuriated Trump enough for him to call for criminal investigations of pollsters. He has reason to be upset. Widespread dissatisfaction with the American economy is a primary reason Trump won, and why the last president had his legacy ripped apart. As CNN reported on Monday: 'A 59 percent majority of the public now says President Donald Trump's policies have worsened economic conditions in the country, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, up from 51 percent in March and on par with the worst numbers Joe Biden saw during his presidency.' On Tuesday, after it was first reported by Punchbowl News that Amazon planned to 'display how much of an item's cost is derived from tariffs — right next to the product's total listed price,' the Trump White House slammed it as a 'hostile' act, and a reportedly 'pissed' Trump quickly got Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on the phone. The president later claimed, 'Bezos was very nice' and 'solved the problem very quickly. Good guy.' By Wednesday morning, when news broke that the American economy had shrank and, per The Wall Street Journal, that 'the 0.3 percent decline in GDP fell short of the 0.4 percent growth that economists surveyed' predicted, the president did the only thing he could think to do: He took to the internet to try to pin the blame for the mess he's made on former President Joe Biden. 'We will get back to the GDP, etc., moving forward, and we remain convinced and confident this president knows exactly what he is doing. He is the ultimate dealmaker,' Trump's Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins insisted to a Fox News host, who really did not sound like he was buying what she was selling. Rollins' appeal to good vibes aside, as indicators have worsened by the week, some close Trump allies and conservative-economics stalwarts aren't bothering to dissuade the American people — and Trump officials, evidently — from hoarding certain goods and products. In fact, some are openly saying it's a perfectly rational response to the Trump administration's tariff salvos. 'We had a pretty good consumer spending report a few days ago and the hunch is that people are buying in advance of the tariffs; that sounds plausible,' says Stephen Moore, a conservative writer and Project 2025 contributor who has advised Trump on economic matters for years. 'That's just logical consumer behavior,' he adds. 'The tariffs in the short term will probably bump prices up, [so] it might make sense to buy in advance of that. This is like a tax increase; basically, you buy before the tax increase takes effect … But the problem is that now it is getting too late to buy in advance because tariffs are already having an effect. Consumers are gonna change their behavior based on these things, if it's something that's imported. If Trump starts to get a few of these deals done, then it'll alleviate some of that pressure, but I don't know where they are on that right now.' Moore is just one example of a long-established figure in the national GOP ecosystem and right-wing media who continues to counsel and support Trump, despite his and other conservative diehards' misgivings about the tariffs. For years, the president, unlike more traditional Republicans, has viewed massive tariffs as a net-positive for the country and as his perfect negotiating tool in high-stakes international trade standoffs. He also believes he can impose his tariff blitzes unilaterally as president, a legally dubious claim that is currently working its way through the courts. 'When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win,' Trump tweeted in 2018, when he was president the first time and toying with trade warfare on a smaller scale than now. 'When we are down $100 billion with a certain country and they get cute, don't trade anymore — we win big. It's easy!' Senior officials from Trump's first administration are about as convinced by that argument today as they were when they worked for him. 'If we continue down this path, I think it's going to be pretty bleak for the economy,' says Marc Short, who once served as Trump's White House legislative affairs director and as a top aide to Mike Pence. 'There's likely going to be significant job losses and potential supply problems in your stores. I do think the president is very adept at claiming victory and reversing his policies, so there's a question about how long this actually goes. But if you look at the data on trucking and shipping right now, I think by the end of May you're going to see more shortages and supply disruptions.' Short continues: 'On Tuesday morning, there was data that showed how the monthly trade deficit ballooned to one of the highest levels ever, and the tariffs in theory were about fixing that deficit. But it's only gotten worse. I think this could mean a lot of Americans — not just White House staff — are out there ordering supplies ahead of what they expect to be a rougher period. Thankfully we live in a relatively free economy that's dynamic, but in the past we [in the Republican Party] have criticized central planners on the left. But I think there are currently central planners in this White House who think they can control what Americans buy and sell through their trade policies.' He concludes: 'I don't think it works.' More from Rolling Stone Kamala Harris Slams Trump's 'Narrow, Self-Serving Vision of America' in Gala Speech Trump Goes Full Grinch as Tariffs Threaten to Ruin Christmas Sheryl Crow Says an Armed Man Got on Her Property After She Ditched Her Tesla Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Challenger raises 18 times as much campaign money as Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick
Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick's campaign has almost no money in its coffers after it raised a miniscule amount during the first three months of the year. The incumbent was vastly outraised by a little-known Democratic primary challenger, Elijah Manley. In the two months after announcing his candidacy in early February, Manley raised $273,389 — more than 18 times the $14,875 Cherfilus-McCormick raised during the entire quarter. And Manley reported significantly more cash in his campaign bank account as of March 31 than the incumbent. He had $161,394. She reported just $3,937 in cash on hand. The fundraising numbers contained in reports filed with the Federal Election Commission don't necessarily mean Cherfilus-McCormick is in danger of losing her seat, but the totals are extraordinary. Even a Republican candidate — who has virtually no chance of victory in Florida's most overwhelmingly Democratic district — raised slightly more than Cherfilus-McCormick. Manley crowed about the results, asserting they show that 'the people are saying loud and clear — enough with out-of-touch incumbents.' Cherfilus-McCormick said there was no cause for alarm and that everything was going according to plan. Sean Foreman, a political scientist at Barry University, said the incumbent's fundraising was 'really unusual.' 'These are not good signs for a sitting congressperson because they are usually very well equipped in their fundraising early on to help them keep their seats,' Foreman said. 'If that's all she's raised so far, that puts her at a disadvantage compared to other incumbents.' Cherfilus-McCormick raised just $875 from individuals, plus another $14,000 from political action committees, from Jan. 1 through March 31. Incumbents running for reelection routinely report exponentially higher fundraising, even when the election is far off, hoping their large campaign bank accounts will dissuade potential challengers. 'I would think she'd be raising money to scare off primary challengers,' Foreman said. The campaign reported spending $16,360. Incumbent members of Congress usually report much higher spending well in advance of elections as they build and maintain their campaign operations. As many Congress members avoid anger-filled town halls, a few still take place 'Venal depravity': Countering Trump, South Florida Democrats decry budget-cutting plans Resist or cooperate? Broward's congressional Democrats attempt to navigate Trump-dominated Washington Health care company says it didn't refuse to return $5.8 million demanded by state Ethics report details allegations of campaign violations by Cherfilus-McCormick 'World on fire': Guaranteed another term in Congress, Cherfilus-McCormick reflects, looks ahead Other South Florida Democratic incumbents raised and spent much more during the quarter and had significant bank balances on March 31: — U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel raised $269,000 in the quarter and ended with $494,350 in cash. — U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz raised $169,000 in the quarter and ended with $392,500 in cash. — U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz raised $312,300 and had $1.1 million in the bank. Frankel, Moskowitz and Wasserman Schultz represent districts in which Republicans are much more competitive than Cherfilus-McCormick's districts, so their financial situations aren't completely comparable. Still, it's a remarkable change for Cherfilus-McCormick, who put seven figures of her own money into her campaign in 2021 and 2022. She won a special congressional primary in 2021 for the nomination to succeed the late U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings by just five votes. She won a full term in 2022. In 2024, she was the only Florida member of Congress returned to office without facing a primary or general election after no Democrat or Republican came forward to challenge her. Manley raised $273,389 during the quarter. Manley, who has unsuccessfully run for office several times before, announced his candidacy on Feb. 4, which means his money came in over the course of 56 days, which works out to about $4,882 a day. As is often the case with candidates who aren't well known, he spent heavily to raise money. Manley's campaign spent $111,490 during the quarter, with much of the spending going to activities related to fundraising expenses. The vast majority of his contributions — 89% — came from small, unitemized contributions of less than $200. And as often happens with candidates whose fundraising is powered by online contributions, lots of it comes from a broad national base, not locally. At least 80% of the contributions listed on his finance report came from people with addresses outside Florida. He ended the quarter with $161,390 cash on hand. Cherfilus-McCormick's campaign reports it has $4.3 million in debts. The vast majority — $3.7 million — is previously reported loans from Cherfilus-McCormick to her earlier campaigns, mainly the 2021 special primary election that led to her first victory, and the 2022 primary that led to her winning her first full term. Many of those loans were for amounts in five figures; some were six-figure loans. During the most recent quarter, the report shows three loans from Cherfilus-McCormick to her reelection effort for $700, $200 and $354. Entries for the 2026 amounts list her occupation as CEO of Trinity Health Care Services even though she has said she left that job at her family-owned company during the course of the 2021 campaign. It's unclear if Cherfilus-McCormick has the resources to personally fuel a competitive race the way she did in the 2021 and 2022 primaries. Her most recent financial disclosure, filed last year with the clerk of the House, reported assets for 2023 worth between $1,001 and $15,000 and assets belonging to her husband between $65,002 and $150,000. A 2022 filing reported that at the end of 2021 she and her husband had combined assets worth from $1.4 million to $5.9 million. Members of Congress aren't required to provide complete details about their assets and liabilities, which are reported in broad ranges, making it impossible to figure out a lawmaker's net worth. The campaign finance report shows the cost of ongoing ethics investigations. The Office of Congressional Ethics referred its findings of multiple campaign transactions and official government office activities that its investigators said may have violated House rules and federal law to the House Ethics Committee. It's unknown when the office started its examination; the referral was in September 2023. In December 2023, the Ethics Committee formed an Investigative Subcommittee. Cherfilus-McCormick has said that the review 'does not indicate any violation has occurred' and in January said that she was 'continuing to collaborate' with the subcommittee. That has proven costly. At the end of the quarter, the campaign had outstanding legal bills totaling $550,000 with the Elias Law Group in Washington, D.C., a prominent national election law firm. The campaign incurred $66,000 of those charges in the first quarter of 2025. The campaign also owes $56,000 to Kaiser PLLC, another Washington, D.C., law firm. One of Kaiser's main practice areas, according to its website, is congressional investigations. Another creditor, owed $46,354, is Angerholzer Broz Consulting for 'Fundraising and Compliance Consulting Fee.' Outstanding bills to the Washington, D.C., firm as of March 31, including $20,481 incurred in the first three months of the year, the report said. Firm partner Randall Broz is Cherfilus-McCormick's campaign treasurer. 'These are debts incurred from responding to the ethics filing fueled by the opposition. Complaints aimed at one goal: draining my campaign financially to stop us from doing the work we need to do. But let me be clear: The fight to protect, defend, and stand in the gap for the constituents will continue. It must,' Chefilus-McCormick said in her emailed statement. On April 7, the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit government watchdog organization, said it filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging violations of federal campaign finance law from her first election. Also named in the complaint are business entities associated with her family, political organizations, and political consultants. Relying largely on information contained in 2023 Office of Congressional Ethics referral made public in January, the Campaign Legal Center said the congresswoman 'appears to have violated federal campaign finance laws by transferring or directing over $250,000 in 'soft money' — funds that do not comply with federal contribution limits, source prohibitions, and reporting requirements.' Cherfilus-McCormick downplayed the group's complaint: 'These are the same set of circumstances, they keep flipping and changing. There's nothing new here. Every opponent has pushed the same line and narrative, but the district sees through it. There is one goal behind these attacks: Financially drain my campaign to stop the work I'm doing for the people of D-20.' Cherfilus-McCormick said raising money hasn't been her focus this year. 'I've been spending most of my time fighting in the community, hosting town halls, listening sessions and roundtables, dealing with the crisis in Middle East, dealing with deportations and TPS challenges for Haitians and Venezuelans, dealing with the escalating crisis in Haiti, fighting back the tariffs that are affecting both ports in Palm Beach and Port Everglades' and fighting to preserve veterans' Social Security and Medicaid benefits, Cherfilus-McCormick said via email. She said she has always planned to implement an aggressive fundraising strategy in the second quarter. 'Our opposition has been solely focused on filing complaints, trying to ignite investigations, trying to distract us from effectively fighting for our constituents,' she said. Stephen Gaskill, a political communications consultant and former president of the Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus, said he is 'sure (that) when the campaign kicks in to gear' the congresswoman 'won't have trouble raising the money she needs to be reelected, especially in what we are expecting to be a Democratic year.' Manley's communications efforts are somewhat biographical as he introduces himself to potential donors, and have criticized what President Donald Trump and Republicans who control Congress have been doing. He's also been pummeling Cherfilus-McCormick, and did so again in his response to her campaign finance report. 'While my opponent is mired in campaign debt and scandal, our campaign is earning the support of working-class Democrats across South Florida and the country,' Manley said in a statement. 'Voters are ready to replace a corrupt healthcare CEO with a working-class teacher and organizer who will fight for them.' Manley's prospects are uncertain. He's 26, and has already made several unsuccessful bids for office. Manley ran for Broward School Board in 2018, receiving 18.6% of the vote. He's also run three times in Democratic primaries for state representative: in August 2020 (30.1% of the vote), January 2022 (25.1%), and August 2022 (29.2%). Foreman said a candidate with higher name recognition would likely have a better chance at defeating an incumbent. But, he added, 'you never know. Politics is about being in the right place at the right time. If Cherfilus-McCormick has a lot of negative publicity toward her campaign, that could help her opponent no matter who it is.' Cherfilus-McCormick said she is taking his challenge seriously. 'I take every opponent seriously, it could be anybody. Why? Because I take the job I do seriously. Especially during this time when there's so much to fight for,' she said. 'Anyone who is trying to interfere with the fight, disrupt or interrupt the American people, we take them very seriously. This is a moment when we should be unified, not fighting each other.' The 20th Congressional District takes in most of the African American and Caribbean American communities in Broward and Palm Beach counties. It includes much of central Broward, including all or parts of Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, Lauderdale Lakes, Plantation, Lauderhill, North Lauderdale, Sunrise and Tamarac. It also takes in a large swath of the Everglades and goes north to the Glades communities near Lake Okeechobee and extends back east to include parts of Royal Palm Beach, West Palm Beach and Riviera Beach. The partisan voting index from the Cook Political Report rates the district as D plus 22, which means it performed 22 points more Democratic than the nation during the past two presidential contests. That makes it the most Democratic district in Florida and one of the most heavily Democratic in the nation. It is so overwhelmingly Democratic that the winner of the August 2026 primary is all-but-guaranteed to win the November election. Still, Republican Rod Joseph has filed paperwork to run. Joseph came in fourth in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in 2024. He soon switched parties and endorsed U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., for reelection. Joseph reported raising $16,847 in the quarter, spending $12,517, and finishing with $4,330 in the bank on March 31. Anthony Man can be reached at aman@ and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.
Washington Post
15-03-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Inside the Democrats' new media strategy to reach voters and take on Trump
The day of President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress last week, Democratic lawmakers flooded social media with videos to try to break through the Trump-dominated news cycle. On the Senate side, more than two dozen Democrats, including Sens. Cory Booker (New Jersey) and Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), posted videos under the headline 'Sh*t that ain't true,' reading from the same script and fact-checking Trump's promise to lower prices.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - Courts and the Trump administration: Obi-Wan Kenobi saving us or speed bumps?
One month into the second Trump administration, it has become the conventional wisdom that the courts are the only real forum for the opposition. Democrats are locked out of power in the House and Senate. Democratic governors can't do anything about the assaults on the agencies and employees of the national government. The victims of the government's self-dismantling are too scattered to mount effective opposition in the streets. What can we expect from the courts, though? Sometimes it seems as if the right metaphor for the courts is 'Star Wars' — 'Help us, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're our only hope.' The courts, on this view, will step in and stop the worst excesses of the Trump administration. The initial successes of litigation against the administration seem to support this view — scorecards so far show many more wins than losses for the opposition. Many are skeptical, however. Initial successes might be overturned on appeal. The courts might block some administration initiatives but let others, perhaps more damaging to the polity, go forward. The courts of appeals are roughly evenly divided between Republican and Democratic appointees, and victories before a favorable district judge might be overturned by panels on the appeals courts. Then of course there's the Trump-dominated Supreme Court. No matter what happens at the end of the road, litigation takes time, during which the Trump administration will be eroding the foundations of our democracy. Obi-Wan Kenobi might not try to save us, or he might arrive too late to matter. Underlying all this is a concern that only a nation's people can save itself. The slow pace of litigation suggest that we should use a different metaphor. Scholars of authoritarian takeovers of democratic governments say that institutions in place when attacks on democracy begin aren't firewalls that prevent disaster. They're more like speed bumps that slow down the pace at which proto-authoritarians are able to put their programs in place — the pace at which Trump can dismantle the government. Here too scholars have come up with important evidence. Courts as firewalls basically don't work. You can count on the fingers of one hand the nations where courts effectively blocked or reversed an authoritarian takeover. The evidence also shows that speed bumps sometimes work — not always but often enough to make the strategy of going to court sensible in conjunction with other ways of blocking takeovers or when other ways aren't readily at hand. Speed bumps work when they do because they give the opposition time to get its act together. It takes time — more than a month — to figure out what political strategies are going to work against a nation's proto-authoritarians. When lawsuits slow the takeover, opposition politicians have a chance to think about and even test alternative strategies they can use when they don't control any formal levers of power. When things slow down, outside events can help derail the takeover. I'm not an insider to discussions about opposition strategies but I get a sense from what political journalists have written that Democratic politicians are hoping that Trump's policies are going to fuel inflation and weaken his political support. They also seem to be holding their breath to see if they can break Trump's grip on Congress when House and Senate Republicans have to come up with a budget and tax and spending bills that Democrats believe can't accommodate the few but crucial non-MAGA members of Congress within the Republican Party. Trump's opponents should celebrate every victory in court and use the time those victories provide to work out a policy agenda that includes but isn't limited to preserving democracy. And then remind their supporters that only the people themselves — not the courts — can effectively protect democracy from an authoritarian takeover. Mark Tushnet is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law (emeritus) at Harvard Law School. He is a former law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
26-02-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Courts and the Trump administration: Obi-Wan Kenobi saving us or speed bumps?
One month into the second Trump administration, it has become the conventional wisdom that the courts are the only real forum for the opposition. Democrats are locked out of power in the House and Senate. Democratic governors can't do anything about the assaults on the agencies and employees of the national government. The victims of the government's self-dismantling are too scattered to mount effective opposition in the streets. What can we expect from the courts, though? Sometimes it seems as if the right metaphor for the courts is 'Star Wars' — 'Help us, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're our only hope.' The courts, on this view, will step in and stop the worst excesses of the Trump administration. The initial successes of litigation against the administration seem to support this view — scorecards so far show many more wins than losses for the opposition. Many are skeptical, however. Initial successes might be overturned on appeal. The courts might block some administration initiatives but let others, perhaps more damaging to the polity, go forward. The courts of appeals are roughly evenly divided between Republican and Democratic appointees, and victories before a favorable district judge might be overturned by panels on the appeals courts. Then of course there's the Trump-dominated Supreme Court. No matter what happens at the end of the road, litigation takes time, during which the Trump administration will be eroding the foundations of our democracy. Obi-Wan Kenobi might not try to save us, or he might arrive too late to matter. Underlying all this is a concern that only a nation's people can save itself. The slow pace of litigation suggest that we should use a different metaphor. Scholars of authoritarian takeovers of democratic governments say that institutions in place when attacks on democracy begin aren't firewalls that prevent disaster. They're more like speed bumps that slow down the pace at which proto-authoritarians are able to put their programs in place — the pace at which Trump can dismantle the government. Here too scholars have come up with important evidence. Courts as firewalls basically don't work. You can count on the fingers of one hand the nations where courts effectively blocked or reversed an authoritarian takeover. The evidence also shows that speed bumps sometimes work — not always but often enough to make the strategy of going to court sensible in conjunction with other ways of blocking takeovers or when other ways aren't readily at hand. Speed bumps work when they do because they give the opposition time to get its act together. It takes time — more than a month — to figure out what political strategies are going to work against a nation's proto-authoritarians. When lawsuits slow the takeover, opposition politicians have a chance to think about and even test alternative strategies they can use when they don't control any formal levers of power. When things slow down, outside events can help derail the takeover. I'm not an insider to discussions about opposition strategies but I get a sense from what political journalists have written that Democratic politicians are hoping that Trump's policies are going to fuel inflation and weaken his political support. They also seem to be holding their breath to see if they can break Trump's grip on Congress when House and Senate Republicans have to come up with a budget and tax and spending bills that Democrats believe can't accommodate the few but crucial non-MAGA members of Congress within the Republican Party. Trump's opponents should celebrate every victory in court and use the time those victories provide to work out a policy agenda that includes but isn't limited to preserving democracy. And then remind their supporters that only the people themselves — not the courts — can effectively protect democracy from an authoritarian takeover.
