Why Deny the Trump Dictatorship?
Avoiding the Reality of Trump's Increasing Power Grab Only Hurts Us (Vol. 5; Issue 35)
In an appearance on Real Time With Bill Maher in April, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon declared:
President Trump is going to be elected again on January 20th of 2029.
Maher then read aloud the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution that bars anyone from serving more than two terms in the Oval Office, and said to Bannon:
Maybe you should have read this.
Bannon neither flinched nor answered the question. Instead, he proclaimed that Trump’s “team” actively sought “workarounds” to the wording of the amendment, insisting again Trump would serve a third term (or more).
Perhaps words of a felon just released from federal prison for contempt of Congress can be dismissed. But consider just a smattering of other evidence confirming our government’s transition into a dictatorship:
Trump is exerting control over previously independent governmental institutions, like the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Pentagon, and the Federal Reserve. He fired a statistician at the BLS because he disliked her (legitimate) jobs report; he fired the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) because he contradicted Trump’s initial claims of “obliterating” Iran’s nuclear program; Trump now plans to sack Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, a maneuver forever altering an institution previously considered apolitical. In these instances, Trump displays typical dictator behavior: Eliminate anyone with information contradicting the ruler.
He has thus far ordered the Pentagon to deploy National Guard troops in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and Chicago to control “potential civil unrest.” Nothing even approaching significant unrest has occurred in these cities; this is just more strongman behavior by Trump.
By instituting tariffs against 90 countries so far, Trump has overridden Congressional authority. Dictators hate oversight. These tariffs create the equivalent of ever-changing levels of taxation on businesses and consumers.
He persecutes persons he perceives as enemies, including national security officials and former FBI administrators. Just last week, he ordered the FBI to raid the home of his own former national security advisor, John Bolton.
Trump coerces universities, major media outlets, and large law firms to bend to his will. These institutions, many of which made “deals” with him, show fear of displeasing the dictator. Their submissions set precedents impacting other institutions, further emboldening Trump.
He illegally applies the Alien Enemies Act to deport undocumented immigrants. While many agree that illegal immigration is problematic, Trump’s Gestapo-like approach only makes matters worse. His elevation of agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has led to a number of wrongful deportations and “accidental” deportations of US citizens.
Blending his unique Mob Boss mentality with dictatorship, Trump requires only loyalty of his cabinet members. Actual qualifications matter naught. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), currently tops the list of incompetents. His actions create serious threats to public health. For example, just last week, Kennedy fired Susan Monarez as CDC director because she failed to rubber stamp his unscientific, reckless directives. Appointed just a few months earlier, Monarez’ departure was followed by the resignations of at least three other top CDC officials.
According to political scientists, a dictatorship is a form of government wherein a leader holds absolute political power. Examples include Russia, Belarus, and Myanmar, run by Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, and Min Aung Hlaing, respectively. The latter came to power through a military coup in 2021.
Dictatorships project their power through a select group of inner-circle elites, typically comprised of advisers, cabinet members, and generals. In earlier essays, I wrote of American’s rising alarm over what appeared to be the transition from American democracy into competitive authoritarianism.* Trump’s recent actions reveal, disturbingly, that we are now witnessing the emergence of Trump-the-Dictator. His assumption of ever-greater power raises this question of relevance to human psychology:
Why aren’t millions taking to the streets to protest?
Four major reasons:
Denial, a defensive mechanism explored extensively in earlier essays, currently operates at pandemic levels—pun intended. It causes whatever frightens people to vanish, disappear, evaporate from their minds. Many feel overwhelmed by Trump’s daily actions. Their ego defense mechanism becomes one of denying the terrifying situation in which we find ourselves.
Closely related to denial, and equally infectious, many simply avoid attending to what’s happening. You’ve heard the stories:
I just can’t read any news anymore, it’s all so sad.
Or:
I feel much better now that I’m not tracking what’s happening.
Avoidance offers temporary relief, for sure, but much like denial, it begs the question:
What will happen when these avoiders feel the pinch of restricted freedom?
Might it then be too late?
The third cause results from those Americans, who feel horrified by our democracy’s demise, numbering too few to make much difference by themselves. Also, the intensity of their emotional discomfort disempowers them. They neither deny nor avoid. Instead, their overwhelming feelings of worry lack an adaptive channel of expression. They sit, mouths agape, feeling powerless.
The fourth reason lies with those lingering MAGA devotees. Many Trump supporters consider his dictatorial stance a plus, a viewpoint more indicative of delusion than denial. Many of them agree with Kennedy-type-vaccine conspiracy theories. Others think the cuts in foreign aid, and in funding studies of clean energy, climate change, air and water quality, chemical safety, minority health disparities, the global carbon cycle, and the like are worth the cost savings. Save the money, they think, to Make America Great Again.
In truth, America will only remain great if power resides with the people, not with a dictator. Many of Trump’s actions already hurt our standing on the world stage, poison the environment, and place the basic health of American citizens at risk. These problems will ultimately become of concern to many MAGA followers.
A UCLA political scientist, Daniel Triesman (2023), co-author of a book titled, Spin Dictators, describes how science threatens dictators because of its social power. This explains the purging of research in our universities and the gutting of the CDC. In an interview with The New York Times last Friday, Treisman said, “It always poses a potential threat,” adding that dictators “don’t want to be controlled by scientists; they want to control them.” On a positive, if naïve, note, Dr. Treisman believes that “the many forces of civil society will continue to constrain him [Trump].”
We can only hope.
The die-hard Trump supporters will probably only change their attitudes too late, like when a bird flu or measles epidemic arrives. These lie just around the corner. The rest of us, whether numbed by denial and avoidance or paralyzed by fear, must divert the power of our distress into whatever political action will prevent Trump from garnering still more power. Power lies with the people. We the people are the only ones who can prevent further descent into an American dictatorship.
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*Way and Levitsky (2010) define “competitive authoritarianism” as a form of government in which an apparent balance of power exists, e.g., a congress and a supreme court, but these are actually controlled by an autocratic leader. Trump’s initial overriding of these institutions qualified as such a government but, again, his recent actions represent an actual dictatorship.
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References
Levitsky, S. and Way, L.A. (2010). Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes After The Cold War. London: Cambridge University Press.
Treisman, D. and Guriev, S. (2023). Spin Dictators The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.