Those who are authorized direct the wives and children because it works. Trump is no different

Trump's Justice Department going after people who make the president mad or sad is nothing new, in this dangerous time where the presidency is increasingly subject to the wishes of the old man in the Oval Office.

Leticia James, James Comey, Adam Schiff. Recently, E. Jean Carroll, who sued President Trump personally and won a large settlement for her claim that he sexually harassed her. Now, the Department of Justice is investigating him for possible perjury.

It would be easy to think of the announcement of Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday that the US Department of Justice has targeted his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, as just one more on that list.

But this attack on Siebel Newsom (alleged attack, anyway – the Justice Department has not yet confirmed that it was targeted) is the darkest thing in our foray into censorship. Although the details of this investigation are sealed and the president has not yet entered, it has all the appearance of the Trump administration seeking to stop a political rival who has a real shot at removing MAGA from the top position.

“It's not random or accidental that the wife of a presidential candidate is being investigated,” Steven Levitsky, a professor of politics at Harvard University, told me Monday. “That is the nature of special persecution and that is the backbone of a dictatorship.”

Levitsky is an expert on authoritarian regimes, and how they take and keep power. His point about Newsom's active challenge may seem obvious — Newsom himself is already raising money for it. But this alleged investigation will be temporarily suspended because it is not the usual decline of justice that we have seen so far.

“This is different,” he said. “This is a forward-looking persecution.”

So far, Levistky points out, Trump has screamed and yelled about the persecution of those who wronged him in the past, sometimes even in the past. Yes, he humiliated the Department of Justice by demanding that it serve as his hammer of revenge, even putting his personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, in charge when Pam Bondi was careless or ineffective in rounding up perceived enemies and destroying the Epstein files.

But those cases have been based on complaints, not on retention.

Going after Siebel Newsom looks like a frontal, preemptive strike aimed at Newsom ahead of the 2028 election with the honorable man's Achilles heel, his family.

In fact, the right-wing media — which is very close to the White House — has been targeting Siebel Newsom for months.

In particular, Siebel Newsom has been attacked for her work as a filmmaker focused on women's empowerment and clarifying why we have the gender norms we do when it comes to masculinity and femininity. I'll let you find out how popular that is in the world of MAGA, where real women make sandwiches.

Conservative commentator Sean Hannity followed Siebel Newsom by saying that she sometimes changes the gender of a book character from “she” to “she” when reading to her children. Fox News attacked her for daring to give her boys dolls to play with, leading some MAGA activists to call her a “genius” or “bullying.” Right-wing icon Megyn Kelly called her a “nutcase” for sharing the heartbreaking story of her sister's death when Siebel Newsom was 6 years old.

And some media outlets focused on the fact that some of the films he was involved with were approved for use in California schools, which led to reports that Newsom used his influence to force his wife's “awakened” program on the children, when we are apparently talking about liberal problems of good behavior and inclusion.

Newsom's office said that in recent weeks, relatives, friends and associates of the family business have been contacted by FBI and IRS investigators. Siebel Newsom is also working on children's online safety, but it seems that any attention will be focused on these films, and related non-profit organizations, and the famous MAGA boogeyman of schools that forces ideas on children. Throw in Siebel Newsom's company making even a dollar, and how the IRS can find problems with any tax return, and you have about 10,000 hours of right wing propaganda.

So whether the pressure to target Siebel Newsom comes from the White House or not, Newsom's announcement raises the troubling notion that this administration is getting too serious about staying in control by knee-jerk potential candidates before they get too strong.

In his Monday video, Newsom implored Trump with mano a mano bravado to go after him the way he wants, but leave his wife and family behind. But I won't underestimate Siebel Newsom, who showed her strength when she testified against disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, making public a secret, painful tale.

Siebel Newsom's office told me it's good to be part of any fight against Trump.

“It is clear that there are no limits to what Donald Trump will do to get his way or to challenge those who get in his way,” Siebel Newsom said in a statement.

“The governor and I will continue to speak truth to power because the American people deserve so much more.”

By coming out ahead of any official announcement of the Justice Department's investigation, Siebel Newsom and her husband could control the narrative, something Trump hates.

That giving back, says Levitsky, is important, not only to them, but very important to all of us. After last year, when many institutions and individuals collapsed due to the power of Trump, the power of our democracy depends more and more on those who have political economy against him.

Going out to bat first does that.