Hegseth Purges Service Members and Carr Jawbones ABC to Get Jimmy Kimmel Canceled for Criticizing Charlie Kirk: An Executive Watch Roundup
Our mid-September selection of the president's latest and greatest assaults on the rule of law
The Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism (ISMA), the publisher of The UnPopulist, launched Executive Watch earlier this year. This one-of-a-kind project, designed to track presidential abuses of power as they are happening, has been meticulously documenting each illicit action emanating from the White House.
Below is our biweekly selection of new entries posted in Executive Watch. You should bookmark this page that contains a chronological scroll of the abuses and this post that sorts and lists them under our 5 P categories:
After reading this roundup, tell us in the comments: Which of these abuses do you take to be the most troubling, and why?
Sept. 17, 2025
FCC Chief Carr Engages in State Cancellation by Getting Jimmy Kimmel Fired on the Threat of Revoking ABC’s License
Category: Power Consolidation
In a monologue, comedian and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel derided conservatives for exploiting the shooting of Charlie Kirk to “score political points.” They immediately proved him right, using threats from the FCC to get Kimmel’s show pulled from the air in an open exercise of government censorship.
The New York Times gives a basic description:
ABC announced on Wednesday evening that it was pulling Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show “indefinitely” after conservatives accused the longtime host of inaccurately describing the politics of the man who is accused of fatally shooting the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. …
In his opening monologue on Monday, Mr. Kimmel addressed the killing of Mr. Kirk by saying: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” …
[FCC Chairman Brendan] Carr, in a Wednesday interview on a right-wing podcast, said that Mr. Kimmel’s remarks were part of a “concerted effort to lie to the American people” about Mr. Robinson’s beliefs, and that the F.C.C. was “going to have remedies that we can look at.”
“Frankly, when you see stuff like this—I mean, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Mr. Carr told the podcast’s host, Benny Johnson. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the F.C.C. ahead.” …
As F.C.C. chair, Mr. Carr wields power over the broadcast licenses that are granted to local TV stations by the federal government, which allow them to operate their businesses. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday evening.
The musicians’ union that represents Kimmel’s band sums it up: “This is not complicated: Trump’s FCC identified speech it did not like and threatened ABC with extreme reprisals. This is state censorship.”
Sept. 17, 2025
There Is No Legal Category of a Domestic Terrorist Group But That Is Not Stopping Trump From Putting Imaginary Groups In It
Category: Policy Illegality
In yet another bizarre display of presidential play-acting, Donald Trump announced that he is designating “Antifa,” which is not an organization, as a “terrorist organization,” which is not a designation that exists for domestic groups under American law.
CNN describes this bewildering phenomenon:
President Donald Trump said he is designating the far-left anti-fascism movement Antifa as a terrorist organization, announcing the move on his Truth Social platform in the early hours of Thursday morning UK time. …
But Antifa, short for anti-fascists, is not a structured group, but rather, a more nebulous social movement. And while it is illegal to provide “material support” to groups designated by the government as foreign terrorist organizations, there is not an analogous law for domestic groups. …
Aside from designating certain left-wing groups as terror organizations, Trump earlier this week also raised the possibility of revoking tax-exempt status for liberal non-profit organizations, and his attorney general has raised the prospect of bringing criminal charges against groups or individuals who are allegedly targeting conservatives.
The very absurdity of this action is the danger, because it shows that presidential action is now unmoored from facts and law.
The advantage for a tyrant of targeting an organization that doesn’t exist is that he can claim anybody is part of it, and citing a law that doesn’t exist lets him pretend that it authorizes him to do whatever he wants.
Sept. 16, 2025
South Korea Accuses the Trump Administration of Abusing the Human Rights of its Workers Detained by ICE
Category: Policy Illegality
Donald Trump’s lawless mass deportation campaign is turning America into the kind of “Third World” country foreigners from “First World” nations fear to visit. That’s the upshot of an ICE raid in Georgia that shackled and mistreated hundreds of South Korean workers here on temporary visas.
The Washington Post reports on South Korea’s reaction:
The South Korean government said it will look into whether human rights violations were committed against the 317 South Koreans who were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Georgia earlier this month. …
The move appears aimed at soothing an outraged South Korean public, analysts said, after ICE agents detained South Korean workers with shackles and chains on Sept. 4 while they were trying to build a joint Hyundai Motor Group-LG Energy Solution battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia. …
Nearly all of the Korean workers who were detained by ICE have since returned to their home country voluntarily, with some telling local media that they faced poor conditions at detention centers such as having to use and eat near open toilets. Others have said they felt they were being treated like violent criminals. …
Some South Koreans have pointed out that the U.S. lacks a viable visa framework that allows skilled South Korean workers to promptly set up high-tech plants such as the one in Georgia. Companies have also faced challenges navigating the U.S. visa process given the cap on specialized work visas, such as the H-1B, which has in turn led businesses to rely on other short-term visas to send skilled workers to the U.S.
The South Korean newspapers are filled with outraged stories about the inhumane conditions in ICE detention, and many of the detained workers vow never to return. But these are the same conditions suffered by all immigrants who are pulled into the constitutional void America has built around immigration enforcement.
Sept. 16, 2025
Attorney General Pam Bondi Threatens to Go After Critics by Deploying Non-Existent ‘Hate Speech’ Laws
Category: Policy Illegality
As part of the administration’s attempt to use the shooting of Charlie Kirk as a pretext to suppress dissent, Attorney General Pam Bondi threatened to “go after” Kirk’s critics for engaging in “hate speech.” The irony is that criminalizing so-called “hate speech” was an old crusade of the left. It never succeeded so there are no laws against “hate speech.”
Given the flurry of threats from the administration, this incident largely went under the radar and I could only find it reported on a somewhat obscure website, with links to the original statement:
Bondi has vowed to go after anyone who targets somebody else with hate speech, but it was quickly pointed out that that is impossible due to the First Amendment, which protects the freedom of speech.
Speaking on The Kate Miller Podcast, Bondi said: “There’s free speech and then there's hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society.” She continued: “We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech … and that’s across the aisle.”
People were left baffled that the government’s chief legal advisor didn’t seem to understand that her suggestion is not legally possible without possibly breaking the Constitution.
“Unreal. There is no ‘hate speech’ exception to the First Amendment. There is no constitutional basis for pursuing anyone for hateful words about Charlie Kirk (or anyone else). Hateful words are immoral. They are not illegal,” someone pointed out.
That “someone” in the last quote is David French, The New York Times columnist who had a long career as a litigator on free-speech cases. He knows the law on this issue, and it is appalling—but hardly surprising for this administration—that the nation’s attorney general does not.
Sept. 15, 2025
Exploiting Charlie Kirk’s Killing, the Trump Administration Announces It Is Plotting a Broad Crackdown on Organizations Who Criticize the Right or Fund Those Who Do
Category: Power Consolidation
Exploiting the shooting of Charlie Kirk by a gunman whose motives are still unclear and incoherent, the Trump administration is now announcing that they are preparing a broad crackdown to punish political dissent.
The New York Times provides a summary:
President Trump and his top advisers threatened on Monday to unleash the power of the federal government to punish what they alleged was a left-wing network that funds and incites violence, seizing on Charlie Kirk’s killing to make broad and unsubstantiated claims about their political opponents.
Investigators were still working to identify a motive in the death of Mr. Kirk, a prominent conservative activist who was shot last week in Utah. …
Two senior administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal planning, said that cabinet secretaries and federal department heads were working to identify organizations that funded or supported violence against conservatives. …
One tactic has been to target the tax-exempt status of nonprofits that are critical of Mr. Trump or conservatives. …
“With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, eliminate and destroy this network and make America safe again for the American people,” said Stephen Miller, the president’s top policy adviser.
To be clear, there are no such organizations involved in this case. The idea of a vast left-wing conspiracy to fund political violence is an invention. The point is to simply target criticism of conservatives.
Elsewhere, Miller has been more explicit about what he has in mind: “The power of law enforcement, under President Trump’s leadership, will be used to find you, will be used to take away your money, take away your power, and, if you’ve broken the law, to take away your freedom.” He is trying to push the rest of the administration to take the final plunge over the cliff into a totalitarian system.
Sept. 15, 2025
Trump’s Spectacularly Corrupt Crypto-for-Chips Deal With the U.A.E. Will Compromise National Security But Enrich Him
Category: Personal Grift
The second Trump administration will be remembered for some of the most spectacular official corruption in our nation’s history—and that’s saying something. The latest story is an exposé of a corrupt deal in which Trump’s Middle East envoy served as the go-between for an Arab sheikh to pump billions into the Trump family fortune.
The New York Times has the scoop:
Over the past few months, [Steve] Witkoff and Sheikh Tahnoon had become both diplomatic allies and business partners, testing the limits of ethics rules while enriching the president, his family and his inner circle, according to an investigation by The New York Times. …
In May, Mr. Witkoff’s son Zach announced the first of the deals at a conference in Dubai. One of Sheikh Tahnoon’s investment firms would deposit $2 billion into World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency start-up founded by the Witkoffs and Trumps.
Two weeks later, the White House agreed to allow the U.A.E. access to hundreds of thousands of the world’s most advanced and scarce computer chips, a crucial tool in the high-stakes race to dominate artificial intelligence. Many of the chips would go to G42, a sprawling technology firm controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon, despite national security concerns that the chips could be shared with China. …
Steve Witkoff advocated to give the Emirates access to the chips at the same time that his and Mr. Trump’s family business was landing the crypto investment, despite an ethics rule intended to prohibit officials from participating in matters that could benefit themselves or their relatives.
A senior executive based in the U.A.E. worked simultaneously for World Liberty and Sheikh Tahnoon’s G42, creating a link between the two companies as the Emiratis were pushing to gain access to A.I. chips.
Donald Trump campaigned as the populist champion of the regular guy against “the elites.” Yet his actual administration has been entirely about building a giant gilded ballroom at the White House where rich guys in tuxedos can trade favors, and holding meetings on mega yachts with Arab sheikhs so he can line his own pockets.
Sept. 13, 2025
Trump’s Federal Housing Finance Chief Abused His Office to Dig Up False Accusations Against Fed Governor to Fire Her
Category: Presidential Retribution
Donald Trump asked Federal Housing Finance Agency head Bill Pulte to abuse his power by digging up accusations against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, providing Trump with a fake excuse to fire her “for cause.” And Pulte obliged by rummaging through her mortgage applications and cooking up something. Cook and the Fed have refused to accept her firing and are challenging it in court.
Now Reuters reports evidence that Pulte’s accusation against Cook is false:
A loan estimate for an Atlanta home purchased by Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor accused of mortgage fraud by the Trump administration, shows that Cook had declared the property as a “vacation home,” according to a document reviewed by Reuters.
The document, dated May 28, 2021, was issued to Cook by her credit union in the weeks before she completed the purchase and shows that she had told the lender that the Atlanta property wouldn’t be her primary residence. The document appears to counter other documentation that Cook’s critics have cited in support of their claims that she committed mortgage fraud by reporting two different homes as her primary residence, two independent real-estate experts said. …
Administration officials led by Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, have used mortgage documents from her Atlanta and Michigan properties to accuse Cook of claiming both as her “primary residence.” The allegedly false claims of residence, which could improve mortgage and tax implications for a homeowner, led Pulte to refer the matter to the Department of Justice, prompting a federal investigation and an order by President Donald Trump to dismiss her. …
In another point that could help Cook’s case, she never requested a tax exemption for the Georgia home as a primary residence, according to property records and a Fulton County tax official.
Not only did Pulte abuse his power to go fishing for dirt against a political target; he never investigated the case to determine whether the accusation was even true. But here’s the kicker in this report: “Last week, Reuters reported that Pulte’s own father and stepmother had declared two homes in two different states as their primary residence.”
It would be a kind of poetic justice if Pulte failed to dig up evidence against Trump’s enemies—but inadvertently exposed fraud by his own parents.
Sept. 12, 2025
Pete Hegseth Polices the U.S. Military to Ensure Political Loyalty to … Charlie Kirk!
Category: Power Consolidation
The Trump administration is already policing the political ideas of foreigners applying for visas to the United States, blocking entry for those who criticizes Israel—and now blocking anyone who criticizes slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is taking that a step further, banning criticism of Kirk for all members of the U.S. military.
NBC News reports:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth…and other senior Pentagon leaders posted messages on X this week calling on the public to report any posts that could be interpreted as negative about Kirk or unsympathetic about his murder.
Many social media users have heeded the call, assisting Hegseth and the Pentagon in finding and flagging posts. Dozens of service members and civilian Pentagon employees have had their posts highlighted and collected under the hashtag #RevolutionariesintheRanks.
Some of the posts in that collection don’t necessarily condone or mock Kirk’s murder but have been viewed as unfavorable—including one that read, “I don’t give a s--- about Charlie Kirk.” …
One U.S. military officer said troops know they are not allowed to condone political violence, but being fired for criticizing a person, particularly a civilian who has no ties to the military, is extremely rare.
“We can’t criticize the commander in chief, but I can’t remember anyone ever telling me we can’t say anything critical about a civilian like this. He was not in our chain of command or anything,” the officer said.
The purpose of all of these policies is to make the U.S. government itself into an instrument of domestic partisan politics, establishing the precedent that the government can wield its power to ban criticism of any private, partisan political figure who is an ally of this administration.
Sept. 11, 2025
Trump Uses Charlie Kirk’s Assassination to Threaten a Crackdown on His Political Opponents
Category: Presidential Retribution
Even before we know who killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk and why, Donald Trump is using his death as an excuse to make Trump’s own critics “directly responsible” for political violence.
NPR provides a summary of Trump’s address on this from the Oval Office:
“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now,” Trump said.
Trump said his administration would find “those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials and everyone else who brings order to our country.”
Trump drew a throughline from the assassination attempt at his campaign rally last year to the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the 2017 shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise at a congressional baseball practice.
Trump did not include any examples of political violence against Democrats, such as the June attack in Minnesota that killed a state lawmaker and left another wounded or the 2022 hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Trump’s statement is not a condemnation of hateful rhetoric and political violence in general. It is a condemnation of political violence only against his allies. And the threat that he issued is not against the perpetrators of violence but against those who engage in anti-conservative rhetoric.
Watch the video of Trump’s address and notice again this promise: “My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it.” He included in this the vilification of ICE agents.
We will see what this actually translates to in practice, but Trump’s own rhetoric is preparing the ground for a general crackdown on critics of the administration.
Sept. 9, 2025
Surprise! The ‘Bias Monitor’ Who Trump Imposed on CBS Turns Out to Be a Trump Crony
Category: Power Consolidation
As part of his illegal shakedown of CBS News, in which he blackmailed Paramount by holding up a merger, Donald Trump forced CBS to appoint a “bias monitor.” If that sounds like a government-appointed censor empowered to shape news reporting to Trump’s liking, this is exactly what CBS is getting.
The Associated Press tells us who got the job:
CBS News has a new ombudsman assigned to look into public complaints, but the job being assumed by Kenneth Weinstein bears little resemblance to how this watchdog role has traditionally operated in journalism.
Weinstein, appointed Monday by CBS’ parent company Paramount, has little background in journalism and his duties include no public role. He’s the former head of a conservative think tank and has made several donations to Republican causes, including President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign. …
In news organizations that employ ombudsmen—and the number who do has been shrinking—the job effectively reports to the public, said Kelly McBride, expert in media ethics at the Poynter Institute and NPR’s public editor. But Paramount said it does not envision Weinstein having any public-facing role.
Of course this “ombudsman” won’t report to the public. He’s there to report to Trump, who now has the final say on what gets reported by CBS News.
Aug. 12, 2025
Trump Tells Goldman Sachs to Fire its Economist for Showing that Trump’s Tariffs Were Exacerbating Inflation
Category: Power Consolidation
Many on Wall Street seem to be banking on the idea that even if Donald Trump wants to make himself into a political strongman, he will somehow leave them free to run their businesses with fewer restrictions. They are discovering their error the hard way.
CNN reports on one of these lessons:
Days after Goldman Sachs’ top economists published research claiming price increases stemming from higher tariffs are poised to soon be borne mostly by consumers, President Donald Trump is urging the bank’s CEO, David Solomon, to get a new economist.
“Tariffs have not caused Inflation, or any other problems for America, other than massive amounts of CASH pouring into our Treasury’s coffers,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Tuesday. “David Solomon and Goldman Sachs refuse to give credit where credit is due.”
“I think that David should go out and get himself a new Economist or, maybe, he ought to just focus on being a DJ, and not bother running a major Financial Institution,” Trump added. …
A report Goldman Sachs economists published over the weekend estimated Americans “absorbed 22% of tariff costs through June,” but that this share will rise to 67% by October if tariffs “follow the same pattern as the earliest ones.”…
On tariffs, Hatzius’ team’s forecasts share similarities with that of other leading financial institutions that are warning that consumers will experience tariff-related sticker shock.
This is just a criticism leveled by Trump on social media. But given the degree of power Trump wields over trade and regulation, and his demonstrated willingness to abuse it, this has be taken as a threat.
It is a clear indication that Trump will interfere in all aspects of the private economy, including meddling with their hiring decisions and trying to bend their own internal forecasts to suit his political needs.
Aug. 11, 2025
Trump’s Unconstitutional Demand to Chipmakers to Fork Over Profits to Uncle Sam in Exchange for an Export License
Category: Policy Illegality
After intimidating Intel into selling the government a significant ownership share, Donald Trump went on to shake down two other chipmakers for illegal kickbacks on their sales to China, further extending his style of gangster government in the U.S. economy.
The Washington Post has the details:
U.S.-based chipmakers Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices have agreed to pay the United States 15 percent of their revenue from sales of artificial intelligence chips in China, a highly unusual arrangement that some experts warn may be unconstitutional.
Under the financial agreement, the companies will give the U.S. government a portion of their sales as a prerequisite to obtaining export licenses for China, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter in public. …
In a White House news conference on Monday, he said he had had a conversation with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, whom he called “a great guy,” about allowing the chip’s export. “I said, if I’m going to do that, I want you to pay us as a country something because I’m giving you a release.”
The latest deal quickly drew criticism from some scholars who said it may violate the Constitution’s prohibition on taxes on exports. …
“Export controls are in place to protect national security, not raise revenue for the government,” [Christopher] Padilla said. “This arrangement seems like bribery or blackmail, or both.”
The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to set taxes on imports—and expressly forbids taxes on exports (Article I, Section 9, Clause 5). Yet Trump has just imposed a de facto tax, on no authority at all and with no accountability about how the money is to be used.
© The UnPopulist, 2025
Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and X.
We welcome your reactions and replies. Please adhere to our comments policy.
Reminds me of the hilarious Klingon line at the end of one of the very best Star Trek episodes, when all was revealed in the “The Chase”- “That’s it”. We the Living in Idiocracy. Here we are now, Trump entertain U.S. And may the piper lead U.S. to reason and Trump finally be impeached, removed and incarcerated for use and abuse of power. Fourteen “suspected drug traffickers” still cannot be reached for comment. At this point one can only hope and pray, because one side of Congress has happily joined the Trump rain and the other is in park on the other side of the tracks. God help U.S.