#RuthBenGhiat is a professor of #history & Italian studies at NYU & the author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. She argues that this effort is part of a larger autocratic project to maintain #power.

#SevenMountainMandate #law #Constitution #FirstAmendment #AcademicFreedom #dictatorship #authoritarianism #autocracy #MafiaState #RevengePolitics #Trump

Joan Brugge has worked for nearly 50 years as a cancer scientist, studying the earliest signs that someone might become sick. Then the #Trump admin canceled her lab’s funding. The admin’s attacks on #medicine, #culture, & #education — which include verbal #threats & #funding cuts—are about more than just budgeting & bravado.

#SevenMountainMandate #law #Constitution #FirstAmendment #AcademicFreedom #dictatorship #authoritarianism #autocracy #MafiaState #RevengePolitics

This week, the #DOJ took the extraordinary step of obtaining a search warrant for the home of a #WashingtonPost reporter #HannahNatanson. #FBI agents arrived early on Wednesday & seized Natanson’s phone, 2 computers & her Garmin watch.

Inside the WaPo newsroom, the impact was immediate.

#law #Constitution #democracy #FreePress #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #journalism #FourthEstate #censorship #authoritarianism #autocracy #despotism #dictatorship #fascism #tyranny #SevenMountainMandate

The Smithsonian’s federal budget is appropriated by #Congress but disbursed by the Office of Management & Budget, which is controlled by the White House. Under #Trump, #OMB has previously withheld congressionally approved funds….

Historically, the #Smithsonian, which is a public-private trust of the US govt and overseen by its board of regents, has operated largely #independently —but Trump has showed a new interest in influencing arts & culture during his 2nd admin.

#law #SevenMountainMandate

“The American people will have no patience” for any museum that is “uncomfortable conveying a *positive view of American history*,” wrote Domestic Policy Council director Vince Haley & White House budget director [#Project2025 architect] #RussVought.

#Trump #extortion #law #art #history #Smithsonian #museums #Constitution #FirstAmendment #democracy #censorship #Revisionism #whitewashing #dictatorship #SevenMountainMandate

…After months of relative quiet on the issue, the #Trump admin threatened in a Dec 18 letter addressed to Bunch to withhold federal funds for the #Smithsonian if it did not comply with a request to submit extensive documentation of its current & upcoming exhibits, wall labels, programming plans for America’s 250th birthday, & other aspects of its operations.

#extortion #law #art #history #museums #Constitution #FirstAmendment #democracy #censorship #dictatorship #SevenMountainMandate