The Guardian · US news · Original story
The language of the American presidency doesn’t apply to Trump | Robert Reich
Trump and his allies have so undermined the US government that we need a new vocabulary to describe them
Words matter. When describing a government, they inevitably carry moral weight.
Over the past 16 months, Trump and his appointees have so profoundly undermined the United States government that different words should be used to describe them than have been used to describe all previous administrations.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and in the UK
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Robert Reich · Mon, May 25, 2026, 4:00 AM
US news | The Guardian
Trump and his allies have so undermined the US government that we need a new vocabulary to describe them
Words matter. When describing a government, they inevitably carry moral weight.
Over the past 16 months, Trump and his appointees have so profoundly undermined the United States government that different words should be used to describe them than have been used to describe all previous administrations.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and in the UK
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