The Justice Department on Thursday secured an indictment of former FBI Director James Comey<\/a>, just days after Trump urged it to prosecute him and forced out the prosecutor who resisted charging the president\u2019s political foes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The situation epitomizes how, over the last few weeks, we\u2019ve seen an even more radical version of Trump\u2019s already brazen effort to transform the federal government and centralize power with himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The president has taken rapid and drastic steps to remove any obstacles within the government, to enforce loyalty, to punish his enemies and to quell the possibility of public dissent that might arise from his moves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump is creating a system around him that appears increasingly devoid of friction, with the ultimate goal, it seems, to allow him to get whatever he wants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s been a stunning period, even by Trump\u2019s own often-stunning standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps the most significant developments are in his suddenly more overt efforts to target his political enemies \u2014 with Comey the preeminent example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Former FBI director James Comey walks through a corridor on the way to a secure room on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 8, 2017. J. Scott Applewhite\/AP<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump has regularly accused many of his <\/a>perceived<\/a> <\/a>political opponents of crimes<\/a> and sometimes weighed in on ongoing legal matters in a way that flouts the norms against politicizing the justice system. But this is different. This is Trump not only getting a long-sought prosecution of a foe, but effectively making it happen himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Former Trump White House counsel Ty Cobb told reporters Erin Burnett on Thursday night that it was a \u201ctragic day,\u201d calling the Comey indictment a \u201cclear vindictive\u201d and \u201cselective prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe way in which they brought it is problematic for the entire country,\u201d Cobb said. \u201cThis is either the end of the rule of law in America or it\u2019s the tipping point against the authoritarian activities that we have seen from this president and his attorney general.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the past week, Trump has begun to wrest control over his long-desired retribution campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He effectively fired a US attorney in Virginia over his refusal to bring charges against Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James. The next day Trump complained that US Attorney General Pam Bondi wasn\u2019t moving fast enough<\/a> in such cases. Then he installed a loyalist<\/a> as the new US attorney in Virginia\u2019s eastern district. And now Comey has been indicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump claimed earlier Thursday that he was \u201cnot making that determination\u201d on charging Comey. But the progression seems unmistakable. Trump made his desires known and removed the obstacle to it; now it has happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even as that news was developing, we learned Thursday that Trump\u2019s Justice Department is taking another <\/em>extraordinary step against someone Trump explicitly called to prosecute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump said late last month that George Soros and his son should face criminal charges<\/a>. Two weeks ago he said that \u201cwe\u2019re going to look into Soros.\u201d And on Thursday, The New York Times reported<\/a> that a top Justice Department official instructed more than a half-dozen US attorneys across the country to draft plans to investigate the Democratic billionaire donor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The memo reportedly even lists possible criminal charges that could be used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bondi, speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday, declined to confirm that Soros was being investigated, but she said \u201ceverything\u2019s on the table right now,\u201d while Trump soon chimed in saying Soros was a \u201clikely candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi attends the signing of an executive orders at the White House on September 25, 2025. Kevin Lamarque\/Reuters<\/p>\n\n\n\n So that\u2019s two instances of Trump explicitly saying who he wants charged. And in one case, after he fired someone who refused to do it, we soon learned that officials had acted in accordance. Whether Trump explicitly ordered anything is kind of beside the point \u2014 the pressure was explicit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Administration officials in Trump\u2019s first term often resisted his impulses. Even Attorney General William Barr, who regularly took extraordinary steps that aligned with Trump\u2019s political agenda<\/a>, at one point said Trump\u2019s missives about ongoing cases \u201cmake it impossible for me to do my job<\/a>.\u201d He suggested Trump had tried to bully him and said it wouldn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s now working. Trump is publicly laying the retribution roadmap, and the Justice Department is following it. The impulses that were once checked are being acted upon, and Trump is effectively advertising it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Running parallel to this effort is Trump\u2019s growing campaign to minimize dissent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even as he\u2019s moved increasingly to use the justice system against his foes and consolidate power, he\u2019s sought to make those who would criticize him over such things think twice about the rhetoric they use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And it\u2019s hardly just Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr\u2019s extraordinary threat, which preceded Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s temporary suspension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even as some on the right tried to minimize Carr\u2019s role and pretended this was just the free market at play, Trump doubled down<\/a> on using the federal government to do very similar things. He suggested that broadcast outlets that are too critical of him should lose their licenses. He signaled they \u2014 including Kimmel \u2014 could even be charged criminally for illegal campaign contributions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think we\u2019re going to test ABC out on this,\u201d Trump said on Truth Social earlier this week when Kimmel returned to air. \u201cLet\u2019s see how we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Protesters outside of Jimmy Kimmel Live in Hollywood on September 18, 2025. Juliana Yamada\/Los Angeles Times\/Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n The president and allies have sought to use Charlie Kirk\u2019s assassination to assert that criticisms of Trump\u2019s moves as \u201cauthoritarian\u201d or \u201cfascist\u201d are beyond the pale (this despite Trump having lodged the same attacks on his own foes<\/a>). They\u2019ve leapt to suggest the political left\u2019s rhetoric is to blame even before there was any evidence about motive in the Kirk case and a later shooting at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s also launched dubious lawsuits against media outlets like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. And his Pentagon recently launched an extraordinary effort to make credentialed journalists not publish material it doesn\u2019t authorize<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Trump\u2019s efforts to police speech are largely predicated on the Kirk assassination, they\u2019re going well beyond it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And these aren\u2019t the only issues on which the handbrakes are apparently off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s Office of Management and Budget this week threatened mass firings<\/a> of federal employees if Democrats don\u2019t agree to avoid a shutdown next week on Trump\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The president has also seemingly turned Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. loose and pushed his administration more into sensitive medical areas. And it\u2019s not just the vaccine moves<\/a> and the bizarre event this week linking autism to Tylenol<\/a>; it\u2019s also new actions that suggest the administration could soon limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone<\/a> on safety grounds, despite years of studies showing it\u2019s safe and effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The administration has also in recent days floated a remarkable potential economic bailout of Argentina \u2014 a move that is clearly aimed at helping its embattled, Trump-ally president, Javier Milei<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Former](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/ap25268834599171.jpg?w=696&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"U.S.](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/2025-09-25t205500z-812315066-rc28zgaz69fn-rtrmadp-3-usa-trump-tiktok-20250926015933861.JPG?w=696&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nTrump\u2019s efforts to crack down on dissent<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Protesters](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/gettyimages-2235617620.jpg?w=696&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nMore examples of pushing boundaries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n