Last September, The New York Times published a stunning unsigned op-ed written by an anonymous senior official in President Donald Trump’s administration. The author claimed to be one of “many” such senior officials “working diligently from within to frustrate parts of [Trump’s] agenda and his worst inclinations.” Highlighting Trump’s “amorality,” ignorance, and “instability,” the official wrote that this effort was crucial in order to “preserve our democratic institutions.”

The so-called “resistance inside the Trump administration” appears to have failed. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that administration officials, fearing reprisals or fading influence, have all but given up trying to temper his authoritarian impulses. The result is “a presidency of one” in which Trump's personal grievances, political desires, and conspiracy-minded obsessions “have become priorities of departments that traditionally have operated with some degree of political independence from the White House.”

In practice, a country governed by Trump’s whims is one that is ruled by Fox News. Trump spends hours each day watching the network’s propaganda, and he privately seeks advice and feedback from its hosts. Fox stokes his ire, and he responds by demanding that members of his administration assuage his grievances, regardless of the validity of his concerns or the legality of his proposed response.

In the spheres of law enforcement and domestic and foreign affairs, federal policy is quickly aligning with presidential desires that have been driven by Fox’s obsessions. At the same time, Trump is responding to an impeachment inquiry into his conduct by taking cues from the network’s most inflammatory programming, with potentially dangerous consequences.

The Justice Department is investigating Sean Hannity’s conspiracy theories

Fox News personalities -- led by star host Sean Hannity, a personal Trump friend and adviser -- have spent the last few years laying out a sprawling conspiracy theory intended to discredit the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, while claiming that Democrats were the “real” foreign colluders. The theory posits that the initial FBI probe of contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russians was part of a “deep state” plot to prevent Trump’s election.

This makes no sense -- the FBI’s Trump probe was largely kept under wraps through the election, even as public disclosures about its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state damaged her campaign. Moreover, the twisted hypothesis requires that U.S. and foreign right-wingers were secretly working to ensure Clinton’s ascension. But Trump is enamored of the theory, which clears him and his associates of any wrongdoing related to Russia while putting his political enemies on the hook for supposedly framing him.

Jeff Sessions, Trump’s first attorney general, largely refused to use the power of the Justice Department to pursue Trump’s perceived political foes. That drew the ire of Trump’s avid Fox supporters and of Trump himself. Following their recommendation, Trump forced Sessions to resign after the 2018 midterms. Sessions’ replacement, William Barr, had experience using the DOJ to protect the personal interests of previous Republican presidents, and he quickly proved he was willing to do the same on Trump’s behalf.

Within months, Barr had assigned John H. Durham, the U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut, to investigate the origins of the Russia probe. Hannity and his guests were ecstatic, cheering Barr for trying to get to the bottom of the conspiracy theory the show had been promoting for years. “There’s a new sheriff in town, and his name is Bill Barr,” Hannity exulted.

Notably, Trump’s reelection campaign explicitly credited Hannity with launching the investigation. “The work that you do every night, Sean, is going to go a long way,” Trump campaign press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told him in August. “It already has. We now have the Justice Department looking into the misdeeds of the Obama administration.”