James Speyer, writing in The New York Daily News, says:

It is time to acknowledge what has become tragically obvious: the Trump administration is essentially acting as a massive criminal enterprise. It lies, steals, extorts and murders — all while cloaked in the awesome authority of the state. It is on a crime spree that puts Al Capone to shame.

This is not hyperbole or hyperventilation. It is our reality, as the facts amply demonstrate. This administration has:

• Murdered Renee Good and Alex Pretti, slandered them as “domestic terrorists” and “assassins,” and allowed their killers to walk free;

• Unleashed thousands of minimally trained ICE agents, recruited with explicitly white supremacist messaging, to inflict terror on people of color;

• Repeatedly violated the constitutional rights of citizens and non-citizens by arresting them for First Amendment-protected speech, raiding their homes without judicial warrants, and imprisoning them without due process;

• Killed dozens of civilians on the high seas solely on the unsubstantiated claim that they were drug runners (not that being drug runners would justify their summary executions without due process anyway);

• Released hundreds of imprisoned felons who brutally beat Capitol police officers on January 6;

• Converted the once-independent Department of Justice into an instrument of personal retribution via the prosecution of cooked-up lawsuits against the President’s enemies;

• Threatened to seize the territory of a sovereign nation (a NATO ally no less);

• Sought to imprison United States Senators simply for exercising their free speech rights by reminding military personnel of their undisputed duty to disobey illegal orders;

• Tried to impose ruinous and unconstitutional sanctions on some of the country’s largest law firms simply because Trump doesn’t like them;

• Violated court orders on a massive scale. As the Chief District Judge of Minnesota recently wrote, “ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence;”

• Shaken down some of the country’s largest universities by illegally threatening to withhold funding; and

• Engaged in breathtaking corruption: as the conservative writer David Frum stated, “Trump’s scale of stealing and bribe-taking has never been remotely paralleled in any democratic country ever before.”

MSNBC commentator Lawrence O’Donnell adds:

Of the most powerful crime syndicate in history, all of Donald Trump’s violations of the Emoluments Clause¹ to enrich himself, including accepting the gift of a 747 aircraft from the Middle Eastern dictatorship of Qatar. And the billions of dollars Donald Trump is making in cryptocurrency ventures and other rackets that he is running during his presidency.

Donald Trump knows that all of that apparent corruption could be effectively investigated by congressional committees, if, and only if, Democrats win the House of Representatives this year, or win the Senate this year. And to prevent that, Donald Trump has not come up with a new campaign message for Republicans. He has not come up with a new economic policy. He has not reversed his economically crushing, illegal, and unconstitutional tariffs.

Instead, he has seized the voting records of Atlanta voters in Fulton County, Georgia, to set the precedent that he can send the FBI anywhere he wants to seize any voting records, including ballots, at any time. Donald Trump is the first president in history who wants to take the administration of elections away from states and, in effect, count all American ballots cast in every election inside the Trump White House.

Donald Trump publicly appears to be planning an election crime spree even worse than the conspiracy he was indicted for running to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

That is the most important story of this year. Will Donald Trump commit election crimes all over the country to try to crush democracy? That is not an alarmist question. That is the question of the year. Will Donald Trump commit election crimes all over the country to try to crush democracy?

As of tonight, the most powerful force we have in this country to defeat the most powerful crime syndicate in history remain the voters of the United States of America.

¹ The U.S. Constitution contains two Emoluments Clauses designed as anti-corruption safeguards to prevent federal officials from being influenced by foreign states or domestic entities. The Foreign Emoluments Clause (Article I, Section 9, Clause 8) prohibits officials from accepting gifts or payments from foreign governments without Congressional consent, while the Domestic Emoluments Clause (Article II, Section 1, Clause 7) bans the President from receiving benefits beyond their salary from the U.S. or state governments.