Punishment and pain

Yes, we're headed toward what many of us never thought possible. Here's some of the exact routes.

Feb 20, 2025

∙ Paid

Upgrade to paid to play voiceover

Screenshot of a video shared by the White House playing “ASMR” of migrants being chained and deported.

What is DOGE doing inside the IRS? Treasury? Any of the other agencies that DOGE has infiltrated? Good questions. There are more questions than answers these days, and that’s by design.

But the biggest question of all isn’t about DOGE, or Trump necessarily, or Congress. It’s a much deeper existential question that comes in some version of Is this really happening here? Yes, I think, it is—and many Americans are very happy about it.

“I solely voted for liberal tears,” reads one meme making the rounds on Facebook, making it clear that for Trump voters this was never about the economy. This has always been about inflicting pain upon their perceived enemies.

They don’t care how many plane crashes there are because the FAA is understaffed as long as it means a gay man isn’t the Secretary of Transportation. They don’t care if the price of eggs is through the roof because bird flu is running rampant as the USDA and CDC are gutted. They don’t care about any of that because pain is the point.

We are headed toward something that looks very different from what we have always thought of as America—a different type of government that works differently for different people in ways that are much more nakedly partisan than they have ever been. It will be corrupt and brutal.

The goals are classically authoritarian: crush dissent by punishing and intimidating anyone who is deemed opposition. This includes the courts, which are, at the moment, the last line of defense for what we understand as a constitutional republic.

The following are things that the Trump administration specifically and the American right more broadly would like to happen. That doesn’t mean they will, but the American right is certainly making headway.

Normally I’d put a paywall here to try to recoup expenses and pay for the many, many hours I spend tracking all this madness, but I think the following list is too important not to make available to all. But I sure could use your support with a paid subscription or a contribution to our Doom Coffee Fund. I’m an independent journalist and it’s just me and a partner here at Doom. There are about 4,600 of you receiving this email, so if even a few of you chip in a couple bucks it goes a long way. All your support is appreciated.

Refer a friend

The Trump administration has already defied court orders and plans to defy more. Meanwhile, influential Republicans have lined up in defense of this open defiance of the last check on executive authority. House Speaker Mike Johnson last week mocked Democrats for complaining about Trump’s defiance of court orders, saying they had a “new, shiny object called the rule of law,” and defending Trump’s “legitimate executive action.” Trump will continue to challenge the judiciary by defying orders , daring anyone to stop him.
Congressional Republicans will help Trump’s defiance of court orders by punishing or removing judges who rule against the Trump administration. This gets us closer to a fully unaccountable executive branch that can act with impunity.
The attempted quid pro quo in the Eric Adams case at the Southern District of New York shows that we’re already living under a weaponized Justice Department. If the Adams case is dismissed, it increases Trump’s abilities to punish opponents and reward supporters.
The Heritage Foundation, which produced Project 2025, is shopping model legislation that would make it illegal to provide assistance to undocumented immigrants. This gets us closer to making all non-white immigration illegal.
Election denialism continues from the top, with Trump questioning the validity of the number of votes Kamala Harris received in the 2024 election. This is further evidence that Republicans will refuse to accept the results of any election they lose.

Refer a friend

Continued language about threats “from within,” like those made by Vice President JD Vance, will galvanize Americans against one another and foment appetite for extrajudicial punishment and politically-motivated prosecution of Trump opponents and political dissidents. Eventually, this will mean the persecution of anyone who does not fully support everything that Trump says or does.
That includes Trump’s own supporters, who are only immune from political persecution so long as they tow the party line. As soon as they don’t, they’ll join the ranks of other dissidents who find themselves in the administration’s crosshairs. We should welcome these newly disillusioned Americans instead of ostracizing them for their support of a president who they thought cared about them.
Russia is on a war-footing, not just against Ukraine but against democracies like the United States. Further support of Russia from Trump will result in calamitous consequences for democracy.
Purposeful dismantling of the immigration court system will result in more backlogs and inefficiencies. The administration will use these self-imposed failures to argue for more authority to reduce the number of non-white immigrants.
DOGE is accessing personal tax information inside the IRS. They’re likely doing so in order for the Trump administration and congressional Republicans to go after non-profits and advocacy groups they don’t like—like immigration advocacy organizations that have been advising migrants of their rights in recent weeks. Trump immigration czar Tom Homan complained about this very issue on Fox News recently, saying that ICE’s raids in Chicago were largely unsuccessful because of the work of migrant advocacy. He’s also asked the Justice Department to investigate Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her work advising migrants of their rights. Accessing tax information will allow the administration and the right to target opponents for harassment by the public and politically-motivated prosecutions. It will have a chilling effect for non-profit fundraising.

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to American Doom to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.