Understanding Trump Fatigue as Denial
Breaking Through Denial of American Autocracy Progressing (Vol. 5; Issue 24)
We humans dislike discomfort. Therefore, the fatigue about the Trump presidency is to be expected. Many avoid reading or watching the news because it brings fear. Many roll their eyes at the mere mention of Trump or his family. The listless attitude represents, instead of lethargy, a dangerous form of denial. Rather than assess and resist, people have become stupefied. And, their apathy prevents them taking steps to prevent Trump’s converting American democracy into competitive autocracy.*
The signs of America’s descent into authoritarianism include:
Last Saturday’s military parade—a favorite rite-of-passage for wannabe dictators—included paid sponsorships. Attendees imbibed free cans of a new energy drink sponsored by Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White. Palantir, a data analysis and technology firm with massive federal contracts and Coinbase, a cryptocurrency firm Trump endorses, also backed the event. The co-founder of Oracle, a close Trump friend, also promoted the parade. The footage of tanks, rockets, and armored personnel carriers on the DC streets looked like countries under martial law. And let’s not forget, it was Trump’s birthday.
Just days ago, US senator Alex Padilla (D-California) asked questions of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a press conference. Noem claimed, without evidence, that Padilla “lunged” at her. The senator was forcibly handcuffed by Noem’s security personnel. The event was videotaped; nowhere can viewers see the Senator lunging at her.
Early in his presidency, Trump said at news conferences that reporters writing anything negative about him were acting “totally illegally.” Suppression of free speech is a sure symptom of authoritarianism.
Trump also chills free speech at universities and cultural institutions while installing a rightwing media ecosystem to manufacture obedience. This is another sure sign of autocracy wherein only state media provides filtered information.
Trump subjugates Congress by threatening any of his opponents with turning his MAGA machine against them.
Trump defies court orders, delegitimizing the judicial branch.
Noem, doing Trump’s bidding, actively deports immigrants—many of them here legally—without the due process required by law.
Many of the individuals protesting against Trump’s policies are being arrested. In reaction, Trump ordered the National Guards and the Marines in Los Angeles in recent weeks, without the cooperation of the governor.
US Senator, Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) chronicles what he calls Trump’s “efforts to steal from the American people to enrich himself and his friends.” He told the Guardian that Trump’s was a
Pay-for-play administration. That’s the underlying theme. You pay Trump money and he does favors for you. That’s old-fashioned corruption.
Guardian journalist David Smith (2025) describes Americans as “sleepwalking into authoritarianism.” It is difficult to see it any other way. Trump’s behavior brings to mind Hannah Arendt’s phrase, “the banality of evil.” Behaving with virtue requires work; behaving impulsively requires little.
As I noted in an earlier essay, the Yale scholars of European history, Marci Shore and Timothy Snyder, moved from to the University of Toronto in Canada because of the new American autocracy. In a recent interview, Shore said:
People talk about ‘guardrails’ and ‘norms’ and ‘conflict of interest’, which is all very relevant. But this is theft and destruction. This is the looting of America.
Validating her own emigration, Shore invoked a painful warning from history:
The lesson of 1933 is: you get out sooner rather than later.
Many Americans, like me, do not want to leave. But if we stay, we must break through the shells of denial encasing us. Psychoanalysts understand how, when persons are frightened, their defenses harden. An analog to how the body’s immune system protects from dangerous invasion, the ego shelters itself from pain. Freud (1894) first used the phrase “defense mechanisms” in his paper, The Neuro-psychoses of Defense. Anna Freud (1936), expanding upon the idea, delineated how defenses serve to protect consciousness from unresolved trauma, disturbing cognitions, and emotional overload.
Denial is characterized by its hermetic-like seal. It effectively blinds persons to any number of phenomena. If paralyzed by denial while Trump assumes more power, and weakens the fragile counterbalance Congress and the justice system provides, then we are enabling the end of American democracy.
The more than 2000 “No Kings” demonstrations last week represent rays of sunshine breaking through dark clouds of authoritarianism. Not only were the protests massive in Los Angeles and New York, but they also erupted in tiny hamlets of Alaska, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and even in the conservative Florida retirement community of the Villages. Some 4 to 6 million Americans demonstrated against the Trump administration.
As anticipated, Trump reacted in a perfectly autocratic way. While withdrawing ICE raids in some agricultural areas, he increased the number of agents in large American cities which he claims are the:
core of the Democratic Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State.
These kinds of divisive lies, combined with the ever increasing evidence of a Trumpian autocracy, should tear down our walls of denial. Again, what we experience as lethargy and fatigue is a manifestation of denial. Action is now urgently required. These protests are growing, the midterms are coming, and some even talk of an impeachment.
Every forward movement counts!
Calling Congresspeople, writing letters, attending protests, organizing demonstrations, blocking freeways and railways, or taking any nonviolent force for change will help. If nearly 6 million showed up last Saturday, then maybe 20 million will show up next. Leaving America represents literal avoidance; we can stop denying and act while here. Hannah Arendt (1951) carefully delineates how a plunge into totalitarianism occurs. Our duty to act increases in proportion to the clear signs of its unfolding here.
_________________________________
*Competitive authoritarianism, a hybrid political system where formal democratic institutions exist, is characterized by rulers who abuse state power. They undermine opponents, create an uneven playing field for elections, and rig systems to remain in their offices. Countries with competitive authoritarian systems include Russia under Putin, Venezuela under Chavez, and Serbia under Milosevic. These governments have “balances of power,” like parliaments and supreme courts, but the executive dominates political operations.
Enjoying this newsletter?
And check out my book, Lover, Exorcist, Critic: Understanding Depth Psychotherapy, available on Amazon.
References
Arendt, H. (1951). The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Mariner.
Arendt, H. (1963/2006) Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York: Penguin.
Freud, A. (1936). The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense. London: Routledge.
Freud, S. (1894). The neuro-psychoses of defense. Standard Edition, 3:43-61.
Smith, D. (2025). America is sleepwalking into authoritarianism. The Guardian, March 22, 2025.