There was a time (a long time, I must admit) that I thought Donald Trump was trying to transition the United States from a democracy to an authoritarian country. I was wrong.

That would presume that Trump cared what happens to the country or its people after he’s gone from office.

Now, I’ve concluded that he wants to be as authoritarian as he can be within the boundaries he sees put on him (none, but there still are times they will be forced by the court. That’s court singular because the lower courts he just ignores. He only worries about the Supreme Court.)

No, thinking Trump wanted to leave an authoritarian country to his successors would mean that he cares about those successors. He cares about no one except himself – and that is the concept I’ve finally accepted in all its implications.

Play footsy with Vladimir Putin? Only until he recognizes, which he may be doing now, that Vlad plays footsy with no one, except himself. All the lives and money Putin’s taken while in power will never be fully counted. Nope, Trump and Vlad are of similar character/personality traits. They care only for themselves.

Tariffs? Rather than seeing them as the flawed economic tool they’ve proven to be over the years, Trump sees tariffs as a further tool to wield the bully power he thinks he has. Don’t agree? Look at his tariffs on Brazil. He’s not just applying sanctions to the country’s exports but also on the judge who’s handling the case of the country’s former leader and (Trump has been convinced by that former leader's son) is persecuting that leader unfairly.
 
That’s none of his, or the United States’, business. But … sanctions!

(It's still to be formally adjudicated that the President even has the power to charge tariffs without Congress' approval, as the Constitution states.)

War and peace? Trump claims to have ended six wars (he hasn’t) but among the ways he claims he’s succeeded at that is to threaten economic sanctions. A war ends, he claims credit. (After all, he's building his resume to claim he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.)

The economy? The economy is chugging along. But as soon as the federal government released data he views is bad news (yesterday’s jobs report), he doesn’t reconsider his policies, he fires the messenger – the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics who he claims, without a smidgen of evidence, is “rigging” the numbers. That’s the same word he uses to explain his defeat to Biden – the numbers were rigged. (By the way, Trump's White House trade czar also has stated that Trump should win the Nobel for Economics.)

There can be no news about Trump that implies – in any way – that he was wrong about anything. He’s just that good!

Check that. He’s just that perfect!

That’s what an authoritarian does. Shoots messengers. Declares bad news fake news. Says bad statistics are rigged. 

Those numbers form the Bureau of Labor Statistics? They get adjusted about every month – whoever is President.

Why?

Here’s how the bureau develops those numbers: Companies, large and small, report their job statistics to the bureau every month. About 200 individuals at the bureau are involved in that collection/analysis every month. On a date certain, the bureau releases those numbers which become the official government data on jobs, who’s seeking them, who’s losing them etc.

Almost every month, the country’s largest companies are more reliable about submitting their reports regularly – they simply have the infrastructure to do that. The country’s smaller company’s – those most immediately affected by the twists and turns of the economy – are slower to report. Thus, the numbers the following month are updated to reflect more up to date reporting of jobs created/jobs lost etc.

No secret. No conspiracy. No rigging. Been done like that for decades in all the data-collecting and reporting agencies.

Something else: Typically those data-collecting agencies report their latest numbers to the White House 24 or 48 hours before their public release. Typically, those numbers are included in a report to the President of the United States.

I’m guessing that President Trump doesn’t get that report because he’s not big on details. So, his tantrum over the substance of those numbers were (or should have been) known to him in advance.

But Trump lives day to day, another function of his transactional life.

His firing of the bureau’s leader is a very, very bad thing. Because now he will appoint someone of his choosing who (likely) may  be more accepting that “correcting” the numbers submitted for public release is okay to do if that's what the President wants.

If that person does “adjust” those numbers based not on data but his or her boss’ politics, no business (nor the government) will have legitimate data to make decisions on – potentially destroying our economy equal or worse than what his tariffs will do.

This is an authoritarian move that he can get away with, with no changes to the Constitution, no push back from his compliant Congress – just his own authoritarian desires.

He doesn’t care if Vice President JD Vance succeeds him and takes over his authoritarian country – Trump will have made whatever ego and economic gains he corruptly took.

And that’s all  he cares about.