James E. Risch: “If you cut the State Department, I am going to need you to buy me more bullets.”

I find this preposterous.

The tool of choice for authoritarians these days is anti-nongovernmental organization laws, also referred to as foreign agent laws.

When I did REPO, which you referred to, my biggest enemy was not Democrats. My biggest enemy was the Administration.

Autocrats fear the loss of control, and this ensures opposing ideas are neither seen nor heard.