President Trump’s push to expand and consolidate power is ramping up on multiple fronts, even as the government shutdown holds center stage on Capitol Hill. Trump’s actions are sharpening critics’ fears about creeping authoritarianism.

The shutdown and Trump’s expansive use of power are interlinked in some respects. Trump has sought new ways to ratchet up pressure on Democrats, who say they won’t accede to Republican demands to reopen the government in the absence of changes in health care policy.

On Friday, Trump’s budget director, Russell Vought, announced that $2.1 billion in federal funding for infrastructure projects in Chicago would be withheld.

This came soon after $18 billion was paused in similar circumstances for New York City.

The measures were ostensibly related to the use of race-based or other diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. But Chicago and New York are Democratic strongholds and frequent targets of the president’s rhetorical ire, so the moves on spending are plainly perceived as a new front in the shutdown battle.

Trump and Vought have also threatened to carry out mass layoffs of federal workers, a break from shutdowns of the recent past during which workers were furloughed.

Actions pertaining to the shutdown are only one facet of an overall Trump approach that has stirred concern about freedom and civil liberties — even as he and his allies defend them as being in the national interest.

On Friday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump had directed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to “provide all necessary troops to........

© The Hill