How Trump Used Fear to Push His Agenda Through Congress
With enactment of his Big, Beautiful Bill, Donald Trump achieved an astounding legislative victory. Just about everything he wanted, he got. He set an impossible target date for passage, and it was met.
How did this happen? Was he extraordinarily persuasive about the many features of the bill in selling it to legislators? If so, he’s more lucid and knowledgeable in private than the unscripted Trump the public sees. Was he more deft at legislative engineering than most presidents, this man with no prior legislative experience? Doubtful.
What is it about Trump that prompted Republicans who had never voted to increase the national debt ceiling to vote to raise it by $5 trillion? Or vote for a trillion dollar cut in Medicaid knowing they would face angry constituents back home? And why would they cede to him so many of their legislative prerogatives, or proper vetting by their own financial people? And why would this legislative body known for its meandering schedule rush to pass such a mammoth bill in record time, just to meet Trump’s arbitrary deadline?
The Role of Intimidation in Trump’s Legislative Wins
Conventional media wisdom attributes his success to GOP members’ fear of being challenged in Republican primaries by Trump endorsed candidates. Certainly, that was a factor for some members in some districts. But with Trump there’s more to fear than just losing an election.
With Trump henchmen in charge of the Department of Justice and FBI there’s real fear of being targets of “investigations.” What kind of investigations?
We know enough about crooked cops to know that if they want to find evidence against you, they will. Maybe something you did while you were drunk and in college. Maybe something to do with one of your children or other members of your family. Maybe a visit from an unfriendly IRS auditor. Maybe something they just make up.
Maybe none of the above, but given Trump’s loose association with legality and truth, just knowing he’s not above trying to ruin your career, your reputation, or your family is enough to keep you from straying.
How Fear Became a Governing Strategy in the Trump Congress
And then there’s not just the fear, but the near certainty that crossing Trump could well trigger personal and physical harassment, death threats, and more from his minions.
The fact is that fear is now a major factor in how we are governed and who we are governed by.
Doubt it? Listen to Alaska U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski. When Murkowski lost the 2010 Republican primary for reelection to a right-wing opponent, she fearlessly ran a write-in campaign as an independent that November. And won. In 2017, she fearlessly cast one of the three Republican votes that saved the Affordable Care Act. In 2022 she defeated another Trump-backed opponent in the Republican primary.
But she voted this time to give Trump the vote he needed to enact his Big Beautiful bill. Why?
She told us why just a few weeks ago.
Addressing a question about how to respond to people who are afraid in the current political climate, Murkowski responded: “We are all afraid.” She said fear of retaliation under President Donald Trump’s administration is rising to levels she’s not seen before, and that even she was “oftentimes very anxious” to speak up out of fear of recrimination.
She told the Anchorage Daily News, “We’re in a time and place where — I don’t know, I certainly have not — I have not been here before. And I’ll tell you, I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice because retaliation is real.” Here’s how she described the pressure.
Murkowski promised not to be “cowed into compliance.” But on the final votes, she complied.
You can be sure that it wasn’t just to win tax breaks for whaling boat captains, as the reports said.
Why Some Republicans Are Stepping Away From Politics
North Carolina Republican Senator Tom Tillis was prepared to cast the deciding vote to stop the obviously unqualified Pete Hegseth from becoming defense secretary. But then, according to one Senate aide, the White House “sicced their MAGA goons on Tillis.” Tillis told people he had been warned by the FBI of death threats. Tillis caved. Here’s the story.
He didn’t cave on his vote against the Big Beautiful bill. But then he announced he no longer wanted to be a victim of the MAGA protection racket. He’s retiring from the Senate.
So how did Trump achieve his remarkable legislative victory?
Credible fear can be a very persuasive legislative argument. See this article from Mother Jones magazine. Scary stuff urgently calling for a democracy-saving SWAT team with firmer backbone.
Comments? Criticism? Contact Joe Rothstein at jrothstein@rothstein.net
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What happens when a fun-loving, charismatic, reform-minded Mexican-American billionairess becomes president of the United States and strikes fear in the pocketbooks of a cabal of the rich and powerful?