The Trump White House’s dangerously authoritarian response to criticism

By Aaron Blake October 10 at 9:53 AM

This post has been updated with Bannon's comments Monday night.

President Trump, as the White House will often remind us, is a counterpuncher. You hit him; he hits back twice as hard. You bring a knife; he brings a bazooka. ... But while the White House thinks Trump's counterpunching is only fair, this is not a two-way street. And yet again Monday, those close to Trump made the case that it is simply not okay to criticize the president in the manner he goes after others. ... After Trump attacked Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) over some veiled criticisms last week, Corker tweeted Sunday that the White House was an “adult day-care center” and later suggested Trump's threats to foreign countries could lead to World War III. Appearing on “Fox and Friends” on Monday morning, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said that this was not okay. ... Host Brian Kilmeade teed it up nicely, saying, “What a demeaning tweet at the president.”

“Well it is, and world leaders see that,” Conway responded. “We’ve all worked with Senator Corker over the years. We thank him for his service, but I find tweets like this to be incredibly irresponsible.” ... She added: “It adds to the insulting that the mainstream media and the president’s detractors — almost a year after this election, they still can’t accept the election results. It adds to their ability and their cover to speak about a president of the United States, the president of the United States, in ways that no president should be talked about.”

Former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon picked up that argument Monday night during an appearance on Sean Hannity's TV show. ... "It's totally unacceptable in a time of war," he said of Corker's comments. "We have troops in Afghanistan. In the Northwest Pacific and Korea, we have a major problem that could be like World War I. In the South China Sea, in the Persian Gulf, we have American lives at risk every day."

The subtext of all of this is: How dare you criticize the president? He is doing important things and speaking out against him only undermines his efforts to “Make America Great Again.” ... Whatever you think of Trump, that's a very authoritarian argument to make. It suggests dissent is unhelpful. It suggests it's unpatriotic. And it's hardly the first time Conway and the White House have gone down this road.
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Aaron Blake is senior political reporter for The Fix. Follow @aaronblake