Why So Many Key Institutions Have Folded Rather Than Challenge Trump

And the Post has in some ways changed its management structure. The paper has gone from an owner who almost never intervened in journalism decisions to one who blocked an endorsement of Kamala Harris and then revamped the Opinion section in a pro-Trump direction. Bezos owned the Post in 2017 and does now, but his leadership approach has shifted so much it’s as if the paper was sold from a liberal billionaire to a conservative one.

There is still a lot of strong journalism in the Post’s news section that is fact-based and therefore portrays Trump negatively. But the paper is less anti-Trump than from 2017 to 2020, with its opinion pages no longer including Dana Milbank, Eugene Robinson, Jennifer Rubin, and many other eloquent critics of the president.

What do pro-democracy forces do when key institutions accede to an authoritarian leader? That will be a subject of many of my future columns. But part of the puzzle will be creating and fostering alternative institutions. My hope is that readers worried about rising authoritarianism in America invest in publications that are unabashedly anti-Trump, such as many of the Substacks run by individual writers, The American Prospect, The Nation, and yes, The New Republic. Donors who want to support universities should consider giving money to Wesleyan University, whose president, Michael Roth, has been a singular voice calling out the administration’s attacks on higher education and urging a collective response. I urge people to start posting on Bluesky, even if they remain on Twitter too.