Trump's systemic attack on whistleblowers, explained by an expert
"The cost to democracy is a loss of accountability and oversight."
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The Trump regime’s new proposed rule that would force federal workers to sign nondisclosure agreements doesn’t just expose the absurdity of their “most transparent administration ever” talking point, it also strikes another blow on our teetering democracy.
So argues Don Moynihan, professor of public policy at the University of Michigan and a longtime friend of the newsletter who we’ve chatted with numerous times over the years about MAGA’s assault against the institutions of government.
“Trump is, on the one hand, placing a curtain over the inner workings of the administration,” Moynihan told us. “At the same time, he’s making one of the few sources of that information, which is civil servants, more and more vulnerable to punishment. What that means is we’ll see less and less about abuses of power being publicly reported.”
Moynihan recently explained the new rule, which is currently in its public comment period (you can leave one here), on his highly recommended Substack. We connected with him to go deeper on why the Trump regime wants to silence whistleblowers and the potential impact of the new rule.
“The other parallel is Trump’s private businesses, where, since the early ‘90s, he’s had everyone around him sign NDAs,” he said. “That included ex-wives, people who work for him, people who appeared on The Apprentice, and porn stars he wanted to hush up.”
“Now he’s applying that model to the public sector.”
A transcript of Moynihan’s chat with Public Notice contributor Thor Benson, lightly edited for clarity, follows. If you’d like to read it and aren’t already a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one. This newsletter (and my work in general) is entirely funded by readers, and paid subscribers are the only reason I’m able to keep everything we publish Monday through Friday free for everyone.
Thor Benson
