Author: Mitchell A. Sobieski

In the debate over the direction of the United States under Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, familiar political labels have returned with renewed force. Accusations of socialism and communism have been leveled across ideological lines, most often as rhetorical attacks against progressive Democrats. But a closer examination of recent federal economic activity raises a provocative question: are the mechanisms of government under Trump aligning more closely with the textbook definition of a communist state? At the core of communist economic theory is state ownership or control of the means of production. While the term has historically...

The U.S. Department of Justice is no longer capable of investigating the president who oversees it. That is no longer a matter of debate. It is a structural fact, confirmed by a reinterpretation from the Office of Legal Counsel this past April that rewrote the legal limits of executive power. Under the new doctrine, any action taken by the sitting president is presumed lawful unless a specific federal statute explicitly forbids it. Not in general terms, but by directly naming the president and restricting that conduct alone. This reinterpretation did not arrive in a vacuum. It followed months of...

In May 2015, a military helicopter in western Mexico was brought down in a blaze of bullets and rocket-propelled grenades. The weapon that disabled the aircraft was a Browning .50-caliber machine gun. It was not stolen from a government armory or purchased on an international black market. It was legally bought in Oregon. This was not an isolated incident. In fact, thousands of firearms legally purchased from U.S. gun dealers, both independent and chain-operated, have ended up in the hands of Mexico’s most violent cartels. These weapons have been traced back to U.S. stores through confidential government data, leaks,...