If you have kids or if you’ve been a kid yourself recently, you’ve probably heard of the famous children’s book “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” It’s the cautionary tale about how ceding a trifle of something — such as a cookie — to a mouse will only lead to more demands and expectations, each harder to satisfy than the last.
Perhaps when Donald Trump read this book to a group of children for a photo-op as a private citizen back in 2003, he inverted its original lesson. Rather than heeding the caution the book imposes on the reader about the slippery slope of capitulation, he may have interpreted the mouse’s journey as aspirational — a blueprint for expanding his power that he is now applying to our entire system of governance.
These days, Trump is getting offered much bigger rewards than cookies, and the demands are growing broader and more unfeasible.
We’ve seen this unfold recently as Trump bent Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to his will.
You would think a poor return on investment would be grounds for getting out of a deal with Trump.
Maybe Bezos didn’t see much potential for harm when he allegedly prevented The Washington Post’s editorial board from endorsing then-Vice President Kamala Harris for president, or donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund and then attended the actual event with a prime spot.
That was roughly 100 days ago, a period of time in which Business Insider estimates Bezos has lost $36 billion. You would think a poor return on investment would be grounds for getting out of a deal with Trump, but think again.
Just this week, the White House fumed at the mere idea that Amazon might be considering listing import charges, even just on one of its imprint stores, Amazon Haul. Worried this would highlight the effects of Trump’s tariffs, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the idea, “a hostile and political act by Amazon.”
Within hours, and after a phone call between Trump and Bezos, a spokesperson for Amazon not only said the idea would never happen, but insisted it was never going to be implemented in the first place. Trump later praised the “very nice” Bezos after he “solved the problem very quickly.” Bezos managed to mollify the president for now, but potentially at the cost of his investors’ good graces and the trust of his customers.
Bezos isn’t the only one being rolled by the White House.
Trump has managed to strong-arm the nation’s top law firms for representing people and groups he sees as his political enemies. After threats of suffocating executive orders, law firms such as Paul Weiss agreed to pony up hundreds of millions of dollars in pro bono work to his pet causes and allies.
So we shouldn’t be surprised that Trump is now demanding more of them, according to The New York Times.
Even the very people elected, in part, for their opposition to Trump’s power grabs are showing signs of capitulation. Fresh off a humiliating impromptu photo-op with Trump in the Oval Office, Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer found herself this week onstage with Trump, who apparently surprised her by calling on her to speak. Make no mistake, Whitmer’s work with the administration did lead to funding for an air base in her state, but the capitulation may negatively impact her political future and threatens to delegitimize the very real threat Trump poses to democracy. Whitmer’s work with the administration did lead to funding for an air base in her state, but the capitulation may negatively impact her political future. “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” ends with our mouse friend — having been granted everything from nail scissors, to crayons, to bedtime stories and more — looking at a refrigerator, which reminds him that he’s thirsty, and he requests a glass of milk. “He’s going to want a cookie to go with it,” the book warns, acknowledging that the never-ending cycle of demands will start all over again. Now, to be fair, not everyone is bending the knee to Trump, however. Some, such as Harvard University, the Perkins Coie and WilmerHale law firms and everyday Americans, are standing up to him. But if we want to stop that hamster wheel of capitulation, it will take much more than patches of scattered opposition to slow Trump’s authoritarian tendencies. It will take a resounding, united “No” to every Trump demand for more cookies … and maybe a kindergarten level of reading comprehension. For more thought-provoking insights from Michael Steele, Alicia Menendez and Symone Sanders-Townsend, watch “The Weeknight” every Monday-Friday at 7 p.m. ET starting May 5th on MSNBC.
Michael Steele
Michael Steele is a co-host of "The Weeknight," which airs Monday through Friday at 7 p.m. ET on MSNBC. He is a former lieutenant governor of Maryland and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Evan Brechtel
Evan Brechtel is a segment producer on MSNBC's "The Weekend." 
