Overview

• In Oval Office and Cabinet Room remarks this week, the president said "maybe we'd like to have a dictator" and declared "I have the right to do anything I want," asserting broad unilateral authority.
• More than 2,000 armed National Guard troops are patrolling Washington, D.C., and the president has threatened to send soldiers and tanks into Democratic-run cities including Chicago, Baltimore and New York.
• The White House fired CDC director Dr. Susan Monarez less than a month into her tenure after disputes over political directives, prompting resignations by senior health officials who said scientific integrity was being undermined.
• The administration moved to remove Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook on unproven mortgage-fraud allegations pushed by a loyalist at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a step Cook is challenging in court as an unlawful bid to influence rate-setting.
• Federal power has been trained on critics and the press, with a pre-dawn FBI raid at John Bolton’s home and office reported last week and public suggestions that ABC and NBC should lose their broadcasting licenses.