Trump's Radical Reign (with Anne Applebaum)

What It Covers

Preet Bharara interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Anne Applebaum about the Trump administration's radical departure from constitutional norms. They examine ICE operations in Minneapolis that killed two US citizens, the erosion of rule of law, comparisons to Bolshevism rather than conservatism, and the rupture in America's relationships with democratic allies worldwide.

Key Questions Answered

• •Administrative Warrant Policy: A leaked Department of Homeland Security memo claims ICE agents can bypass judicial warrants and forcibly enter homes using administrative warrants not signed by federal judges. Two ICE whistleblowers disclosed this policy, prompting Senator Richard Blumenthal to demand hearings and Boston immigrant advocacy organizations to file the first constitutional challenge in federal court arguing Fourth Amendment violations.
• •Minneapolis as Turning Point: ICE operations in Minneapolis galvanized opposition because masked, militarily-armed agents appeared in suburban neighborhoods targeting daycare centers and schools, killing two US citizens including Alex Priddy, a white Veterans Administration worker and gun owner. The administration immediately slandered victims before evidence emerged, violating basic decency norms that resonate across political divides and causing Trump's immigration polling advantage to collapse underwater.
• •Radical vs Conservative Framework: The Trump administration represents Bolshevism, not conservatism, according to Applebaum. Conservatives preserve institutions and move slowly to avoid irreparable damage. This administration actively seeks to smash conventions and destroy programs without legal basis or congressional approval, populated by people who supported the January 6 assault on democracy and view institutional destruction as their mandate.
• •NATO Rupture Consequences: The relationship between America and its allies has experienced a rupture, not a transition, meaning fundamental changes that cannot be restored to their previous state. While military cooperation continues three levels below the presidency, the long-term economic impact will mirror Brexit, where businesses slowly redirect investments away from America, creating malaise and lost momentum that takes a decade to fully materialize.
• •Democracy's Fragility Redefined: Democracies are not inherently more fragile than autocracies, they are simply unusual in human history. Democracy emerged from Enlightenment thinking, popular education, and specific information systems of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The question is whether democratic systems can survive surveillance technology, AI, and the superficiality and speed of modern information distribution that has coarsened culture and eroded expectations of decency.
• •Connecting Democracy to Kitchen Table Issues: Democrats can successfully link rule of law issues to economic concerns by showing how ICE's private military operations drain money from healthcare, education, and infrastructure. This mirrors successful Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's strategy of connecting corruption and oligarch palaces directly to citizens' bad hospitals, making abstract governance failures tangible through budget trade-offs voters immediately understand.