Like the end of the beach holidays in August, all good things must come to an end. So too my short-term optimism with Donald Trump’s policies working towards achieving some sort of breakthrough in the Russia-Ukrainian war.

With the optimism gone, the full effects of my Trump derangement syndrome have returned. Given the news about the US president’s dismissal of Federal Reserve (or Fed, the US central bank) board member Lisa Cook, I revisited old articles that I had written with respect to the Fed expressing my fears about what was going to happen.

I know that referencing one’s own articles is not proper etiquette. The motivation behind it is though – I hope – not so much to say I told you so, but rather the need to justify the views that I expressed as not being the outcome of my derangement syndrome.

Last April, in an article about the newly announced “Liberation day” tariffs, I was wondering whether in an effort to address the economic effects of his policies, Trump would dare go after the Fed’s independence, arguably the most important financial institution in the world, not just the US.

In June, as I was writing about the declining creditworthiness of US credit, I mentioned my fear about the increasing pressure Trump was exerting on the Fed chairman Jay Powell to lower interest rates. By July, I had thrown in the towel and commented that Trump would eventually bring the Fed under his control. In the article, which some friends described as too morbid, I said that a Trump Fed would make the geoeconomics policies pursued through tariffs seem like foreplay.

It was therefore no surprise to me to see the president issue a letter on his social media site dismissing Lisa Cook allegedly “for cause”. Nobody of course has any illusions that the firing has anything to do with the alleged actions of the Fed governor and everything to do with bringing control of the Fed under the administration, something that Trump himself admitted to, informing his cabinet that we “will soon have majority at the Federal Reserve”. The fact that Trump himself has been convicted of falsifying business records while citing false statements on a mortgage application as grounds for Cook’s removal would be laughable if it weren’t so alarming.

Cook has vowed to contest the dismissal, and the case will be fought in the courts. The impact however will be felt even if Cook manages to salvage her position. I may analyse in a bit more detail the machinations behind the control of the Fed next week. For now, I will only refer to a little commented on news item, the resignation of another Fed board member, Adriana Kugler, who left on her own accord on August 8, a few months before her normal retirement date. My derangement syndrome is shouting that this was no coincidence, and I fully admit that I have zero evidence to back this up.

Yet, the way Trump has weaponised the government to go after everybody who does not fall into line with his policies is plain for all to see, and I would not be surprised if some sort of pressure was exerted on Kugler.

Only last week the home of John Bolton, one of Trump’s National Security advisors in his first term in office and a fierce Trump critic since, was raided by the FBI allegedly for mishandling classified information. On Wednesday the US’ top public health agency was plunged into chaos after the Trump administration moved to oust its leader Susan Monarez, sworn in less than a month ago. No official reason was given for the dismissal of the director of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Her lawyers are also challenging the decision claiming she was being “targeted” for her pro-science stance. No independent thinkers have a place in the Trump administration.

Looking at this incessant intimidation campaign against everybody that expresses a dissenting viewpoint is a live demonstration of how a country can be coerced to follow a leader, blindly into policies that in retrospect will appear alien to them. I was always baffled how the German people were taken over under the spell of Hitler in the 1930s into accepting the concentration camps and the killing of the Jewish people. Watching these days Fox News, one is amazed at the worship that is being promoted towards Trump and the vitriol towards anybody espousing a different opinion.

This is how authoritarianism takes root: not in one dramatic coup, but through relentless intimidation, one firing at a time. I can only hope that the rest of the world can see clearly what is taking place and can forge a path that will avoid us going down that road. Otherwise, the peaceful era that we have been experiencing since 1945 will be another good thing that will come to an end.

Loukis Skaliotis is an economist