ABC News gave Donald Trump millions in the hopes he’d leave them alone. Needless to say, it didn’t work. But hey — at least it paved the way for others to try to soothe Trump with cash.

It’s not clear if this is pay-to-play, a protection racket, or some combination of both. In any case, it’s not exactly the hallmark of a functional democracy, and Trump’s first presidency, with its self-dealing and Emoluments Clause violations, is now positively quaint by comparison.

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The millions ABC gave Trump were supposed to insulate it from this sort of attack. But the nature of a protection racket is that it doesn’t actually keep one safe. The cost to comply can always go up. The nature of what constitutes compliance can always be changed. And once you agree to pay, you can’t ever really stop, or the nominal protection entirely disappears, and you become an active target.

That’s part of why watching giant law firms give in to Trump is so distressing. It’s not just that it’s morally problematic for them to bend the knee to an aspiring authoritarian, though it is. It’s that doing so both emboldens Trump to go after more firms and because there’s no reason to believe Trump will hold to any deals.

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