Afrasianet - Former U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has warned that fear is quietly creeping into key state institutions under President Donald Trump.
He said he has seen this fear over the past months "seeping into our military, our civil service, universities, law firms, and leadership positions in corporations and nonprofits."
In an article in the New York Times, Kendall, who served as a secretary in former President Joe Biden's administration, compared the current political climate in the United States to those of previous administrations.
For example, opposition to government policies — especially President George W. Bush's torture program — did not provoke the fear of reprisals as it does now.
Kendall is referring specifically to the "enhanced interrogation" program used by the CIA against terrorism suspects after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C .
He noted that he was an opponent of the torture program, as it was possible to oppose the government's policies without fear of its reaction and without worrying about arbitrary arrest or interrogation, cutting off any government funding or being subjected to brutal personal attacks on social media and in the press.
Today, as he put it, army officers are being fired from military service without justification, state employees are fired, and professionals are blacklisted, including himself, simply for criticizing the administration of President Trump, who "does not accept dissent and uses fear to suppress it."
In his article, Kendall touched on what is currently happening in the main state institutions separately, starting with the military and the civil service, as he has a long experience with them and maintains close contact with them.
He said that the fear in the Pentagon today is clear and palpable, as the dismissals of senior officers in the armed forces for no reason were a "terrifying" message to everyone in uniform.
He described the dismissal of senior military officers and mass expulsions of federal government employees and civilians at the Pentagon as unprecedented measures aimed at eliminating dissent, replacing professionals with political loyalists, and creating a climate of fear.
Kendall noted the fear among lawyers and said the Trump administration was seeking to force big law firms to refuse to represent clients it did not like, which has sown fear in many professionals and led some to make "deals" with the current administration to protect their interests.
The former U.S. official observed anxiety and fear among graduate students and professors at Harvard University about the impact of the Trump administration's attacks on academic freedom and freedom of speech on campus.
He also noted that the current U.S. administration has vowed to prosecute former government officials and private citizens, and has threatened companies with the loss of government contracts, and nonprofits across the U.S. to cut off funding.
This climate of intimidation and intimidation has extended to companies that want to hire people who are critical of Trump and his administration, he said, revealing that he was one of them, as several organizations that applied to work for told him after he left his position in government last January that they could not hire him.
But the clearest example of Trump's weapon of intimidation was targeting irregular immigrants and immigrant communities more broadly.
Although he acknowledges that Americans support deporting irregular migrants who commit violent crimes, the former secretary of the Air Force says the Trump administration has been terrorizing immigrants of all categories, including those who are legally residing in the United States.
Kendall sees this widespread fear as a feature of authoritarian regimes, and it portends a profound threat to American democracy.
Trump lays off thousands of employees
U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a number of executive orders, in parallel with his decision to force senior officials in the archives to resign and fire thousands of employees, in addition to continuing to face the Associated Press over the Gulf of Mexico issue.
CNN quoted a source familiar with the matter as saying that the US president's administration is forcing senior officials in the National Archives and Records Administration to resign as part of a major change process.
The move comes after Trump last week fired Colleen Shogan, the archivist of the National Archives in the United States.
The administration is responsible for overseeing government records and heading the National Archives, a body Trump has repeatedly criticized for notifying the Justice Department of Trump's handling of classified documents in early 2022 after the end of his first term.
The report said the White House is expected to announce its plans for new leadership in the coming days.
Thousands laid off
The U.S. president and his chauffeur Elon Musk's campaign continued to fire more than 9,500 employees who had been carrying out various tasks, from federal land administration to veterans' care.
Staff at the Ministries of the Interior, Energy, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Health and Human Services have been terminated in a campaign that has so far mostly targeted first-year probationary employees with lower levels of job security.
In addition to the layoffs, the White House said about 75,000 employees had accepted an offer from Trump and Musk to voluntarily resign. That equates to about 3 percent of the civilian workforce's 2.3 million.
Trump says the federal government is too bloated, and a lot of money is being wasted on waste and fraud.
The government's debt stands at about $36 trillion and its deficit reached $1.8 trillion last year, and the two parties agree on the need for reforms.
But congressional Democrats say Trump is encroaching on the legislature's constitutional authority over federal spending, even as Republicans with majorities in both houses of Congress largely support the moves.