Trump has become the most power-hungry president of all time

Donald Trump was musing this week, as he is wont to do. Yes, he was musing about becoming a dictator. He said that he wasn’t one and didn’t like the idea of it, but he thought a lot of Americans would quite like it if he were.

Another thing he said this week – and this time it wasn’t him spitballing – was: “I have the right to do anything I want to do. I’m the president of the United States of America.” He said it defiantly, angrily. Now, whether that is the way a true democrat thinks, I leave it to you to judge.

But rather than spend the next few minutes trying to parse the meaning of his words and sentiments, it would probably be more useful to look at his actions.

It seems that in the human resources playbook there are two schools of thought on workforce culture. There is the cuddly “bring your best authentic self to work” idea – in other words we want diversity of background, diversity of ideas, diversity of thought. And then there is the more brusque school – “You either fit in, or you f*** off.”

The Trump management style is undoubtedly, unapologetically, unflinchingly the latter. It’s brutal. But it doesn’t just extend to the White House. Trump is running the country where every institution and every company must conform, must obey – and mustn’t question or doubt.

If you want to see this made flesh, you really must watch the most recent Trump cabinet meeting, where his various cabinet ministers go into a wild auction over which can be the most snivelling arse-licker. “I see your obsequiousness and raise you a fawning sycophancy.” “I see your sycophancy and raise you a squirm-inducing encomium.” Honestly, I challenge you to watch any more than 90 seconds of it before you start retching and have to reach for the sick bucket. Mid-air turbulence has nothing on this.

But look what happens if you do show independence of thought. Or worse still, you follow the facts and follow the data and follow the science.

This week we saw the firing of the head of America’s crucial public health body, the Centers for Disease Control. Dr Susan Monarez had been in the job less than a month, but fell foul of the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr. The White House said the reason for her departure was that she was not aligned to the president’s agenda. Yep, she followed the science.

Her lawyers wrote: “When CDC director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted.”

This White House interference proved too much for many others at the top of the CDC. The country’s chief medical officer, Dr Debra Houry, was one of many to quit, and penned a scathing resignation letter. “I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health. The recent change in the adult and children’s immunisation schedule threaten the lives of the youngest Americans.”

That’s what’s happened at the body responsible for the health of 300 million Americans. At the organisation responsible for the nation’s economic health, something similar has been unfolding.

The Federal Reserve has been one of the reasons for America’s astounding economic power and success over many decades. Its secret sauce is its independence from the day-to-day pressures of electoral politics and capricious politicians. Like the Bank of England, it sets interest rates that will sometimes delight the politicians, and other times enrage. But its judgement will be solely based on what is best for the country; not what is best for whoever happens to be in power at the time.

And Donald Trump is in a near permanent state of rage about it. He wants to seize control. He wants to cut interest rates, and he wants to be able to decide when and by how much. The trouble is if he goes after the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, then that could bring fresh turbulence on the bond markets. So instead, he has fired one of the seven governors of the Fed board, Lisa Cook – the first African American woman ever to serve. But let’s leave that bit to one side, and be generous and put that down to coincidence.

Her crime? Well, a right-wing influencer accused her of committing an act of mortgage fraud in a previous life when she was an academic (think the Angela Rayner hoo-ha). Nothing has been proved, there’s been no investigation – but who cares about due process. It’s given the president the excuse he wanted to sack her. Now there is a whole separate argument about whether that is within his purview, and Ms Cook has filed a lawsuit claiming that the firing is unlawful and void.

Because with Ms Cook out of the way he gets to appoint a governor to his liking – and then the Fed board will be made up with a majority of Trump acolytes. In other words, he will have effective control of the most crucial economic body in the US. And that will be all part of a piece with his firing of the head of the Bureau for Labor Statistics for giving him – well – statistics that he didn’t like.

But it’s not just those in power who are in the crosshairs. Look at what’s happening to those who’ve opposed and been critical of the president. Last week the FBI raided the home of Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton. It looks like an act of pure vengeance. Others, less high-profile than Mr Bolton, have experienced similar things.

In academia, in the intelligence services, in the arts and the media – wherever you look – there are similar patterns unfolding. Mike Allen, the founder of Axios and a Washington journalist with decades of experience, described Trump’s MO as “Capture what he can, contest what he can't and punish those who resist.”

Are these the actions of a dictator or a proto-fascist, as some have charged? That seems to me reductive; glib, almost. But is America in the grip of the most authoritarian, power-hungry and power-concentrating president we have seen? That’s an easier one to answer.