Miles Taylor, who previously served as a top official in the Department of Homeland Security under Trump, has sharply criticized a new initiative from the White House aimed at tracking businesses for their loyalty to the current administration. He sees this ‘loyalty scorecard’ as a potential step towards authoritarianism.
In a recent post on his Treason Substack, Taylor, who gained notoriety for an anonymous New York Times op-ed in 2018 laying bare the internal resistance within the Trump administration, claimed that this development is another example of the type of actions we’d expect from a quasi-authoritarian regime.
The criticisms from Taylor came on the heels of a report by Axios, which revealed a detailed framework the White House is using to monitor private companies’ allegiance to the Republican agenda, specifically regarding a significant spending and tax proposal they have d the Big Beautiful Bill.
According to the findings, this system doesn’t just exist as an idea; it actively ranks 553 companies and trade associations based on their public support—celebrities associated with the bill, like DoorDash and Uber, who highlighted the proposal’s benefits for business, get higher scores than those who haven’t spoken out.
This scoring approach could lead to administration officials deciding which businesses get responses from White House officials based on their perceived loyalty.
Taylor framed this action as a new low in Trump’s expectations of American businesses, suggesting that these leaders are being forced to exhibit allegiance to the President as a requirement to interact with the government.
While Taylor described this as an institutional trend, he also cast it in sharp relief against democratic values. His initial op-ed caused waves as it pointed out Trump’s troubling preference for autocratic-like behavior—favoring dictators over traditional allied relationships.
He stressed that systems like these aren’t merely theoretical and are eerily reminiscent of practices seen in authoritarian regimes, highlighting parallels with Russia and China, where compliance is the norm and silence leads to punishment.
Taylor isn’t the only figure weighing in against such practices; criticisms also sprang from conservative arenas. The Lincoln Project, comprised of ex-Republican strategists, blasted this loyalty scorecard as an overt act of political blackmail.
In a thought-provoking piece, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal recently commented that such encroachments into private enterprises suggest that capitalism in the U.S. is undergoing a fundamental transformation, one echoing authoritarian economic models.
Additionally, law firms and major corporations reportedly face persuasion to offer free services to government initiatives, while executives have showered the administration with opulent gifts and contributions.
Taylor issued a call to action for everyday consumers, urging them to reflect on what these developments mean for the free enterprise system. His thoughts resonated with an alarming trend—are we becoming comfortable in an environment where business success hinges more on loyalty to a President rather than adherence to the Constitution?
The White House has not yet commented on these serious concerns.
