The Atlantic: Trump fired top lawyers to gain total control

Paul Rosenzweig labelled President Donald Trump’s firing of top military lawyers as “firing the military’s conscience.” Rosenzweig implied that Trump et al. may have read one of Shakespeare’s stories. In this story, the plan to kill all the lawyers was part of a bigger plan. This plan was to turn the population into one that’s ignorant and unable to judge whether they’re losing their rights or not. Rosenzweig hinted that Trump may want to issue illegal orders in the future while expecting to be obeyed.

From The Atlantic:

In Shakespeare’s Henry VI: Part 2, Dick the Butcher says to his compatriots, “The first thing we do is, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Over time, the jape has become commonplace, reflecting how much people have come to dislike lawyers. And so, some have welcomed Trump’s recent decision to fire the military’s top three lawyers, known as judge advocates general, as a justified comeuppance.

One can understand the general instinct. Lawyers can seem like nothing but a cost, enforcing rules and telling people no when they want to hear yes. Anyone who has been in a court dispute can understand the viewpoint.

But the sentiment is the wrong message to take from Shakespeare. The context in which Dick speaks makes clear that Shakespeare, at least, thought that lawyers were a bulwark against evil and that the rule of law was essential to a just and fair society. Dick and his co-conspirator Jack Cade–anti-intellectuals who wanted to burn all the books and kill anyone who could read–were leading a rebellion. They wanted to create an ignorant population, unaware of its rights and easily led.

And so, in the context of the play, Dick’s admonition to kill the lawyers is a plan to eliminate the protectiveness of the law, by removing those who guard it and enforce its protections. Or, as Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said in a 1985 decision: “As a careful reading of that text will reveal, Shakespeare insightfully realized that disposing of lawyers is a step in the direction of a totalitarian form of government.”

It is clear that Trump’s team has the same reading of Shakespeare, minus the pejorative view of totalitarianism. With well-planned steps, the administration has moved to take full control of the federal bureaucracy and eliminate opposition. Consider Trump’s efforts to assert control over the leadership of the military apparatus. Although his decision to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the chief of naval operations (the only Black man and the only woman at that level) garnered many of the headlines, the most insidious step he took was his decision to fire the top judge advocates general of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Each had hundreds of lawyers working in his command.

Additional Reading:

Rosenzweig, P. (2025, March 3). Firing the ‘conscience’ of the military. The Atlantic. Link.

Category: Donald Trump, Editorial, Op-Ed