Trump and His Style of Government

There are concerns about some of Trump’s aides and the power they have acquired because of their proximity to the president.

President Donald Trump seems determined to set precedents of all kinds in the U.S. government.

Many of his proposals are far from positive and, given their apparent transactional nature, they cast ethical questions on his presidency, cast a negative light on his country, and put the world in a position of having to choose between bad and worse.

For starters, during his first month in power in the United States, he has sought to become the axis of power by centralizing it in his office. The British newspaper The Guardian recently noted that “every national capital knows by now that in Trump’s world, power flows through personal connection to the president.”

The problem is that where decisions were previously made on the basis of suggestions and deliberation, today they come from “a volatile leader capable of swinging from fulsome support to public vituperation in a heartbeat, depending in large part on who has Trump’s ear.”

And Trump, according to The Economist, another British publication, “has assumed the role of kingpin; behind him are some of the main players in a new, mafia-like struggle for global power,” in a “might-is-right world in which big powers cut deals and bully small ones.”

During his first administration between 2017 and 2021, The Washington Post adopted a slogan: “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” but now, according to the growing number of critics of Jeff Bezos, who owns the newspaper, they claim that “democracy dies in broad daylight,” after reporting his growing closeness to the president.

After all, the White House seems to be planning to control at least the information coming out of the White House and to limit the action of traditional or critical media by determining who has access, who can travel in close proximity to the president, and who can ask questions at daily press conferences.

White House spokespeople said it was not about censorship or anything like it, but about giving voice and opportunity to nontraditional media and, incidentally, to organizations linked to the Make America Great Again movement.

But it is a transparent attempt to weaken organizations that do not follow the dictates of the president 100%: the now expelled Associated Press agency, which refused to use the name “Gulf of America” as Trump has christened the “Gulf of Mexico,” in one of his first decrees.

Trump is not alone. Leaders of other powers proceed in a similar way. But this is the nation that until two months ago presented itself as a beacon of democracy.

At the same time, there are concerns about some of Trump’s aides and the power they have acquired because of their proximity to the president — and for the potential conflicts of interest this causes for Trump himself and his collaborators.