OUR PICKS: DEMOCRACY WATCHHow Trump Has Pocketed $1,408,500,000 in His First Year in Office | DOJ Is Now Trump’s Personal Law Firm | Pardoned by Trump, Jan. 6 Rioters to Demand Money from the Government, and more

·  How Trump Has Pocketed $1,408,500,000  (Editorial Board, New York Times)
One year ago, Donald Trump took an oath to serve the American people. Instead, he has focused on using the presidency to enrich himself.
President Trump has never been a man to ask what he can do for his country. In his second term, as in his first, he is instead testing the limits of what his country can do for him.
He has poured his energy and creativity into the exploitation of the presidency — into finding out just how much money people, corporations and other nations are willing to put into his pockets in hopes of bending the power of the government to the service of their interests.
A review by the editorial board relying on analyses from news organizations shows that Mr. Trump has used the office of the presidency to make at least $1.4 billion. We know this number to be an underestimate because some of his profits remain hidden from public view. And they continue to grow.

America’s Drift Toward Constitutional Authoritarianism  (Alejandro Reyes, Foreign Policy)
Trump has shown how democracy can be neutralized without being destroyed.

Trump 2.0: A Year of Unconstrained Power  (Michael Barbaro, New York Times)
In the 365 days since Donald J. Trump was sworn into his second term as president, he has fired, pardoned, prosecuted, tariffed, deployed, deposed, dismantled and deported his way to a new kind of American government, one designed almost entirely in his image.
In the process, he has not only transformed the federal government, he has also changed, possibly forever, the very nature of the American presidency.

Falsehoods Fueled Trump’s First Year Back in Office  (Linda Qiu, New York Times)
In the first year of his second term, President Trump has cited an arsenal of falsehoods, baseless claims and distortions to justify significant policy changes on the economy, immigration and deployments of the military.
His case for ushering in a turnaround rests on inaccurate superlatives (the “worst inflation” ever under his predecessor and the “best numbers” now under his presidency), mathematically impossible figures (a “600 percent” decline in drug prices) and evidence-free assertions (the decimation of maritime drug smuggling).