Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.
Last week, Columbia University caved in to a long list of demands from the Trump administration in order to claw back $400 million in government funding that it lost in the wake of the arrest of pro-Palestine protester Mahmoud Khalil.
Then, top law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison agreed to do $40 million worth of pro bono work for the government after Donald Trump signed an order targeting the firm, which had been previously involved in cases against the president.
For The New Abnormal’s Danielle Moodie and Andy Levy, these concessions could trigger a domino effect of organizations bending the knee to the Trump administration in fear of retaliation.
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“The message that that sends to other universities, to other law firms, to other businesses is, ‘Holy s---, if these powerful institutions can’t fight back then, what chance do we have? We can’t fight back either,’” Levy said. “I think this is unfortunately going to lead to a domino effect. And what we’ve done here is the Trump administration has proved that its bullying works, that its blackmail works.”
“I wish that more of these institutions, these firms would actually band together and say, ‘We’re not bowing down,’” Moodie added. “Democracy does not die in darkness. It dies decision by decision in broad daylight of all of these individuals, institutions, companies deciding that they’re gonna cover their own a--es.”
Plus! Emmy-nominated writer Ben Schwartz talks about his latest piece for The Nation on “The Not-So-Golden Age of MAGA Troll Comedy.”
Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.
