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On Jan. 6, 2021, Donald Trump sent his thugs to the U.S. Capitol where they proceeded to smash up “the people’s house.” Trump refused to admit that he had lost the 2020 election. He called the assorted vandals “patriots” and surrounded himself with men and women of low character. That should have been enough to disqualify him for another term as president or frankly any other elective office.

Never mind his bloodthirsty vows of vengeance on his perceived enemies or smearing of our war dead or other evidence of a very twisted mind. Monied interests were willing to overlook those transgressions for expected financial gain. Thousands of Americans died defending the democracy, but for many billionaires, dismantling democratic institutions was a price worth paying for more billions.

Multi-billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has stepped out front as a former Trump-supporting financier. Mincing no words, he warned that continuing the trade war lunacy would lead to an “economic nuclear winter.” For this he gets modest applause. The problem with Ackman and company is that he let his anger at Hamas supporters taking over college greens — I shared his annoyance — let him get conned by an obvious conman.

Now we see Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick playing the Coney Island barker as he draws the suckers into the tent. There’s not going to be a recession, he hollers, face frozen in a creepy grin.

On March 19, Lutnick urged Fox News viewers to buy Tesla stock. “It’ll never be this cheap again.” Late last week, Tesla shares got cheaper.

“I just figured out why @howardlutnick is indifferent to the stock market and the economy crashing,” Ackman wrote. “He and Cantor (Lutnick’s financial company) are long bonds. He profits when our economy implodes.”

Ackman later eased up on Lutnick, but we heard him.

Scott Bessent is Treasury Secretary, perhaps because he looks like an old-line banker and taught economics at Yale. It appears that Bessent also lacks the convictions that would make a self-respecting economist quit his high-profile job. He obviously knows what’s up. In a recent interview, he resembled one of those stone heads on Easter Island.

Reporter: “Are you preparing to negotiate with some of these trading partners before that tariff rate comes into effect on April 9?”

Bessent: “Well, I think there have been a lot of discussions, but I think we’re just going to have to wait and see.”

Reporter: “Do you plan on having negotiations before that date?”

Bessent: “Again, I’m not part of the negotiations, so we’ll see.”

Reporter: “Canada and Mexico notably missing on that chart. Why is that?”

Bessent: “I’m not sure.”

Since his first days back in office, Trump has been tearing up our democratic institutions. He started off pardoning about 1,500 hoodlums who tore up the Capitol to stop the legal transfer of power to Joe Biden. His man at DOGE unilaterally froze funding for USAID, subverting democracy by overriding the authority of Congress. He attacked the judicial constraints on the executive branch by defying a federal judge’s order to temporarily stop the deportation of migrants to El Salvador. And there’s so much more.

Trump’s cultists are vowing to primary Republicans who oppose their leader’s assault on our institutions. The goons, meanwhile, are out physically threatening both lawmakers and judges.

Should anyone who witnessed the outrage of Jan. 6 be surprised by the sociopathic direction Trump and his band of conspiracy theorists have taken the country? Some of Biden’s social policies may have been irritating, but he left an American economy that was the envy of the world. And his successor peacefully conceded her loss.

Now look at us.

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Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop.