How Trump Is Using the Law the Way Peru's and South Korea's Strongmen Did. They Both Received Life Sentences.

Part 5 of The Strongman's Playbook: The system does not need to convict everyone. It needs only to make clear that the law applies differently depending on where you stand in relation to power.

Last week I covered the civil service. The technique was replacement: remove the professionals, install the loyalists, and the state implements whatever you want. This week we move to the fifth technique in the strongman’s playbook. It is related, but it cuts deeper. It uses the law itself as a weapon. Not to enforce justice. To inflict it selectively —…