Donald Trump has complained bitterly about Lisa Monaco for years, but late last week, the president went quite a bit further than he has before. NBC News reported:
Trump said on Truth Social … that Microsoft should ‘immediately terminate’ its president of global affairs, Lisa Monaco. Monaco previously held a number of top government national security roles, including serving as deputy attorney general for the duration of the Biden administration. Monaco began working for Microsoft in July, according to a LinkedIn post.
As part of a long and rambling online tantrum, the president condemned Monaco as “corrupt” and “deranged,” before complaining that she will have “access to Highly Sensitive Information” in her current role.
Trump added, “Monaco’s having that kind of access is unacceptable, and cannot be allowed to stand. She is a menace to U.S. National Security, especially given the major contracts that Microsoft has with the United States Government. Because of Monaco’s many wrongful acts, the U.S. Government recently stripped her of all Security Clearances, took away all of her access to National Security Intelligence, and banned her from all Federal Properties. It is my opinion that Microsoft should immediately terminate the employment of Lisa Monaco.”
There are a handful of elements to this that are worth keeping in mind, starting with the fact that that there’s simply no reason to take any of Trump’s hysterics related to Monaco seriously.
What’s more, this an important reflection of the president’s authoritarian vision: He’s not just the president of the United States, he also sees himself as America’s CEO, which he apparently believes affords him great influence over the nation’s private sector.
NBC News’ report noted, “It is highly unusual for a president to call for a company to fire a private citizen from their job.” That’s true — or at least, it used to be true. The president recently called for the ouster of Intel’s CEO, for example, because of something Trump saw on Fox Business. And around the same time, he suggested Goldman Sachs should replace the bank’s top economist because Jan Hatzius disagreed with the White House on tariffs. Now, Monaco joins a growing club. (Three instances in three months might not sound like a lot, but remember that the number for every other modern president combined was zero.) One sentence in the Republican’s online rant particularly stood out for me: “She is a menace to U.S. National Security, especially given the major contracts that Microsoft has with the United States Government.” Putting aside that Trump tried to smear Monaco without cause, his reference to Microsoft’s government contracts opens a radical and dangerous door: Would the president use his office to steer contracts away from the tech giant unless and until it agreed to fire someone he doesn’t like for political reasons? Given his track record, is such a possibility that hard to believe?
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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