That’s a good question
Attacks and guardrails … Not what the court ordered … And a sassy veto!
The other day, a reader asked us a question that got at something we’ve been discussing behind the scenes at the Agendaverse for a while.
Why did we say President Donald Trump was trying to “dismantle civil society”? Is that really what we think the president is trying to do?
The question came from a conservative perspective and appeared to be made in good faith. It’s also a question that liberal readers who are curious about how we’re handling this historic moment might want clarified.
In simplest terms: Yes, we believe Trump is trying to dismantle civil society. That wasn’t just a throw-away line as we talked about Tucsonans protesting the Trump administration.
Every day, we watch Trump put the full weight of the presidency behind attacks on anyone or anything that can challenge him, whether that’s a high-powered law firm, a prestigious university, or news outlets, big and small.
So after we considered the reader’s question, we started making a list of all the concrete actions Trump has taken to dismantle civil society.
We’re not just riffing on vibes here. These are actual things Trump officials have done.
It’s more than a little depressing. So we also made a list of times where the guardrails held.
Here we go.
Big law firms — because they can launch massive legal challenges to Trump policies.
Trump didn’t just talk about being upset with law firms. He cited them by name in executive orders.
He started with the Paul Weiss law firm, which often fights the federal government over civil rights issues and was home to an attorney who investigated Trump. Less than a week after the executive order, the firm pledged $40 million worth of free legal work for causes Trump supports. Trump then rescinded the executive order.
“The signal this sends to the whole bar is: Watch out. We’re watching. If you’re litigating against the government or you’re not litigating against the government, your behavior can be punished,” one lawyer said. “And there’s just no way to practice law under those circumstances.”
Universities — because they can provide the intellectual firepower to challenge Trump.
Universities were among the first targets of dictatorships in Latin America in the 20th century. Scholars and teachers had enough public respect to challenge officials, and students had the youth and vigor to speak out.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Hungary already used this tactic with the Central European University in Budapest, and Trump appears to be using a similar strategy.
Trump bludgeoned Columbia University with threats from the Oval Office after pro-Palestinian protests on the school’s campus. He pulled $400 million in federal funding and threatened to put the school under federal control, before the school struck an agreement with him.
Researchers — because they can dig up the facts.
All those funding cuts you’ve been hearing about won’t just impact the federal budget. They’ll cut down on important research that provides objective data that can’t just be blown apart by Trump’s social media posts.
The most recent move was to propose cutting more than half of the National Science Foundation’s $9 billion budget and end hundreds of previously approved grants that “were not aligned with agency priorities.” Trump officials told NSF staff on April 30 to “stop awarding all funding actions until further notice.”
That money goes toward a long list of worthwhile projects.
“Next time you talk on a cell phone, hear a weather report, search the web, or get an MRI, remember the U.S. National Science Foundation helped make that all possible, and more,” the NSF website states.
Business leaders — because they can apply pressure to government officials.
Now that Trump has a vast, poorly defined set of tariffs at his disposal, he can bludgeon to death any business that displeases him, and give a leg up to businesses that stroke his ego.
Just look at what happened when Amazon executives considered displaying the costs of the tariffs on product listings, which they are well within their rights to do.
That prompted White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt to call what Amazon did a “hostile and political act.”
Amazon shares dropped 2% and just hours later, Amazon backed off the idea entirely.
In case you weren’t aware, this one has implications for the news business. Amazon owner Jeff Bezos also owns the Washington Post.
Reporters — because they are a perpetual thorn in his side.
The news media hassled Trump to no end during his first term, and he has put them front and center of his revenge tour.
Trump is unleashing his legal hounds on the big news outlets. He already extracted $15 million for his presidential library from ABC News.
The news outlet’s infraction: George Stephanopoulos said Trump was “found liable for rape” and “defaming the victim of that rape,” when in fact Trump was found liable for sexually abusing a woman and then defaming her.
If you had to read that last sentence twice, it’s because the legal distinction under New York state law is that small, as the judge in both of the lawsuits against Trump pointed out in court.
Trump also sued CBS News for supposedly editing a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris in a deceptive way.
It’s baseless, but CBS is getting ready to settle and pay Trump. Why? Executives at Paramount, which owns CBS, need Trump to sign off on a merger.
Another lawsuit is flying under the radar, but could have a huge impact on local news.
In December, Trump sued the Des Moines Register, a metro daily in Iowa, claiming a poll published shortly before the November election, which showed Kamala Harris leading, was “brazen election interference.”
It’s an absurd argument, but it doesn’t really matter. What matters is every local newspaper publisher in the country was put on notice that Trump won’t just mess with the major news outlets, he’ll go after the small fish, too.
The lawsuits “are not so much geared toward winning as much as threatening,” Samantha Barbas, a law professor who specializes in the media, told the New York Times.
And last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi opened the door for law enforcement to search reporters’ phones and computers when government whistleblowers leak information to them. You know, like the Pentagon Papers.
Now seems like an appropriate time to ask you to support local journalism.
Where the guardrails held
That was quite a depressing list, eh?
Now let’s get to the encouraging news. For all the scary moves Trump has made, there are more than a few instances of regular people, lawyers, and judges standing up for their principles — and sometimes they even win.
When Tesla owner Elon Musk tried to turn the federal government into his idea of a business, a la “move fast and break things,” the public didn’t take it lying down.
Protests at Tesla dealerships — starting in Tucson — led to a nationwide wave of protests. Tesla profits plummeted, and now Musk is considering leaving government and trying to salvage his leadership of Tesla.
When the executive producer of “60 Minutes” resigned after Paramount pressured him to back off of the Trump administration, his colleagues didn’t just complain about it behind closed doors. They ended their broadcast with a clear explanation of what happened.
Federal judges ripped the Trump administration’s argument for demanding schools either get rid of DEI policies or lose federal funding.
Three judges blocked the new policy, including two who were appointed by Trump in his first term. They said that if you want to make demands, you have to explain what you’re talking about and what is or isn’t allowed anymore.
Basically, you can’t rule by decree, the judges said.
Although Paul Weiss collapsed in the face of Trump’s intimidation, other law firms are standing strong. The firms that stood up to Trump’s demands sued and now judges are taking a close look. At least one is comparing those demands to extortion.
“No American president has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue,” Judge Beryl A. Howell wrote, adding, “In purpose and effect, this action draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare, who penned the phrase: ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.’”
After watching what happened to Columbia University, as well as the stand Harvard took, universities are considering forming a “NATO for higher education” to present a united front against Trump attacks.
Last month, hundreds of universities signed onto a letter objecting to “unprecedented government overreach and political interference.”
So sue me (again): Gov. Katie Hobbs has fully given up on sending state agency directors to Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman’s vetting committee, saying she’s “quite frankly done” with his refusals to approve her nominations, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer reports. Hoffman previously won a court ruling saying Hobbs’ appointment of deputy directors as “defacto” agency directors was illegal, and he says the governor is “once again making rash, emotional decisions and, quite frankly, flying by the seat of her pants without any due diligence or thought behind her actions.”
“If somebody’s upset about it, they can sue me again,” Hobbs said.
Bill stampede: Friday was a busy day for bills — Hobbs signed 34 of them while another 23 got the life stamped out of them by her dreaded veto. 12News’ Jeff Vinton has the whole rundown of all 57 bills. But we saved our favorite veto letter for today’s “What We’re Laughing At” section.
Millions in campaign contributions: Democratic U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego was among a group of Dems previously backing a pro-crypto stablecoin regulation bill who has turned against it, per Politico, which called it “a stunning twist that could jeopardize the bill’s path forward.” Republicans are working on amendments to appease them.
Foot-in-mouth disease: Republican Corporation Commissioner Nick Myers apologized for being a total asshole to a man whose 82-year-old mother had died after APS cut off her power over an unpaid $500 bill, per the Republic’s Sasha Hupka. We mentioned the online dust-up in last Thursday’s laugh.
“I apologize for any harm my comments may have caused the family. That was not my intent. The views and opinions I expressed on my personal social media account were my own and not those of the Arizona Corporation Commission,” he wrote in a statement.
Purple state status: The 2026 Arizona governor’s race is a “toss up” per Sabato’s Crystal Ball, which put the Grand Canyon State as the only state with an incumbent governor running for reelection in the toss up category. The political prediction site says Republican Karrin Taylor Robson will be formidable, since she “quite possibly would have beaten Hobbs had she not lost the 2022 primary to (Kari) Lake” and that Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs “would be the more enticing opponent for Hobbs.”
Everyone’s a reporter: Prescott Valley1 City Councilman Bill Williams resigned last week after warring with members of the council, the city manager and Mayor Kell Palguta. The mayor told the Prescott Daily Courier that his resignation shows Williams “did not take the responsibility of the position seriously enough to fulfill the duties entrusted to him by the voters.” Williams told his side of the story to the Prescott E-News, which is run by disgraced and creepy former lawmaker David Stringer, who printed the resignation letter in full. Now Williams is launching his own “investigative news” publication that’s just investigating the mayor.
Don’t subscribe to Stringer’s paper! Subscribe to the Agenda instead!
Bennett’s back: Former state lawmaker Ken Bennett, a relatively moderate Republican who lost his reelection bid last year to Mark Finchem, wants to be the next city manager for Cottonwood, the Verde Independent’s Tony Capobianco reports. He’s one of three candidates for the gig.
“I want to be a manager that when I do my job it makes the job of the seven mayor-and-council members easier to do their job,” Bennett said.
The Greatest Generation: The May Day Protest on Thursday was a big hit — from Phoenix and Tucson to Wickenburg. The Phoenix New Times’ Morgan Fischer spoke to organizers about what happens next. And if you’re wondering about the craziest thing that happened at the protests — well, that would probably be 79-year-old former Senate Democratic Leader Alfredo Gutierrez snatching a flag from MAGA counter-protesters. Yes, there is video in that link.
"I think I would do it again. And frankly, it felt good to bring that flag down," Gutierrez told the Republic’s Taylor Seely.
The “Sassiest Veto of the Year Award” goes to Gov. Katie Hobbs for her veto of Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman’s Senate Bill 1086.
The bill would have changed the kinds of factors the Arizona Department of Transportation could use for performance evaluations of roads.
We gotta say, Hoffman — who was pulled over for speeding recently and got out of a ticket because he’s a lawmaker — really teed this one up for her.
“I know transportation and driver safety is not a concern for the bill’s sponsor given his track record, but I take the responsibility of keeping our roads safe very seriously,” Hobbs wrote in her official veto letter.
And for more fun dunking on Hoffman, check out this op-ed from Democratic Sen. Lela Alston, the longest-serving member of the Legislature, who notes Hoffman is known for two things: “owning an online troll farm that employed teenagers to post disinformation on social media, and being one of Arizona’s fake electors.”
CORRECTION: The original version of this email said Williams resigned from the Prescott City Council. It’s Prescott Valley.
Karrin Taylor Robson is running ads where she says she's running for governor. First, of course, she must beat Andy Biggs in a primary. To do that Robson is tying herself to trump's endorsement of her. (trump also endorsed Biggs.)
I hope the Democratic Party gets screen shots of her ad, where she posts trump's endorsement with pictures of them next to each other. I'm also hoping that by November 2026, Arizona voters have had it with 47 and want no one who aligns with him.
Did anybody watch the Meet the Press interview with Donald Trump? Part of it is included in the Agenda. Trump looks like King George or Donald the III. The Mad King. He’s definitely gone around the bend. So much to unpack in that interview but my basic point is this; here is a man in his 5th year as POTUS and he has never ever ever read the Constitution of the United States of America. If that doesn’t scare the shit out of you nothing will.