Trump's Autocracy comes out of
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Before Trump & Company :
Fabricate millions of dollars of outstanding tax liability. Ignores any court ruling against it. 1st Amendment lawsuits against this will be ignored. They would be immune from prosecution by the Dept of Justice. Turning Democracy into an Autocracy - Project 2025 “We are in the process of
the
why societies collapse—and clues about the future |
The Nazis became a Dictatorship in Germany by:
Eliminated opposition
Passed the Enabling Act
Merged powers of the chancellery and presidency
Centralized power
The Nazis used propaganda to spread their ideas and control public opinion
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Entering the magnificent great hall of the US Department of Justice, Donald Trump stopped for a moment to admire his portrait, then took to a specially constructed stage where two art deco statues, depicting the Spirit of Justice and Majesty of Justice, had been carefully concealed behind a blue velvet curtain.
The president, who since last year is also a convicted
criminal,
proceeded to air grievances, utter a profanity
and accuse the news media of doing “totally illegal” things, without offering
evidence.
“I just hope you can all watch for it,” he told justice department employees,
“but it’s totally illegal.”
Trump’s breach of the justice department’s traditional
independence last week was neither shocking nor surprising.
His speech quickly faded from the fast and furious news cycle.
But future historians may regard it as a milestone on a road leading the world’s
oldest continuous democracy to a once unthinkable
destination.
Eviscerating the federal government and subjugating
Congress; defying court orders and delegitimising judges;
deporting immigrants and arresting protesters without due
process; chilling free speech at
universities and cultural institutions; cowing news outlets with
divide-and-rule.
Add a rightwing media ecosystem manufacturing consent and obeyance in advance,
along with a weak and divided opposition offering feeble resistance.
Join all the dots, critics say, and America is
sleepwalking into authoritarianism.
“These are flashing red lights here,”
Tara
Setmayer, a former Republican communications director turned Trump critic.
“We are approaching Defcon 1 for our democracy and a lot of people in the media
and the opposition leadership don’t seem to be communicating that to the
American people.
That is the biggest danger of the moment we’re in now: the normalisation of it.”
Much was said and written by journalists and Democrats
during last year’s election campaign arguing that Trump, who instigated a coup
against the US government on 6 January 2021, could endanger America’s 240-year
experiment with democracy if he returned to power.
In a TV interview, he had promised to be “dictator” but only on “day one”.
Sixty days in, the only question is whether the warnings went far enough.
The 45th and 47th president has wasted no time in
launching a concerted effort to consolidate executive power, undermine checks
and balances and challenge established legal and institutional norms.
And he is making no secret of his strongman ambitions.
Trump, 78, has declared “We are the federal law” and
posted a social media image of himself wearing a crown with the words “Long live
the king”.
He also channeled Napoleon with the words: “He who
saves his country does not violate any law.”
And JD Vance has stated that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s
legitimate power”.
Trump quickly pardoned those who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, placed loyalists in key positions within the FBI and military and purged the justice department, which also suffered resignations in response to the dismissal of corruption charges against the New York mayor Eric Adams after his cooperation on hardline immigration measures.
The president now has the courts in his sights. Last weekend, the White House defied a judge’s verbal order blocking it from invoking the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law meant only to be used in wartime, to justify the deportation of 250 Venezuelan alleged gang members to El Salvador, where they will be held in a 40,000-person megaprison.
Trump accused James Boasberg, the chief district judge in
Washington who made the ruling, of being “crooked”, said he
should be “impeached” and labelled him a “radical
left lunatic of a judge”.
The outburst prompted John Roberts, the chief justice of the supreme court, to deliver a rare rebuke of
the president, emphasing that “impeachment is not an appropriate response to
disagreement concerning a judicial decision”.
In an interview on the conservative
Fox News network, Trump denied defying a court order and said he would
not do so in future. But he added ominously: “We have very bad judges and these
are judges that shouldn’t be allowed.
I think at a certain point, you have to start looking at what do you do
when you have a rogue judge?”
David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W Bush,
posted on the X social media platform: “Almost
every major Trump action is intentionally illegal.
Trump is gambling that the US democratic system is too broken to stop him.
He assumes, to borrow a phrase: ‘All we’ve got to do is kick the door in and the
whole edifice will come crumbling down.’ Testing hour is here.”
The White House has yet to release the names of the deported Venezuelans or proof that they were indeed criminal gang members. In another recent incident, it sent 40 undocumented immigrants to the notorious detention facility at the Guantánamo Bay naval base, only for a judge to intervene and force their return to the mainland.
Some commentators suggest that the
Trump
administration is exploiting the power of sadistic spectacle.
They say it is priming the public for future crackdowns and testing its level of
tolerance for a moment when, for example, it might invoke the Insurrection Act
to target anti-Trump protesters.
Steve Schmidt, a political strategist and
former campaign operative for George W Bush and John McCain, said: “Donald Trump
is producing a Washington television show from the Oval Office that’s
authoritarian in nature.
You go on TikTok and see the deportations scored to songs and videos released by
the administration.
It’s a theatre of the absurd. It’s a theatre of malice. All of it is
desensitising people to the use of authority and power.”
Violations of civil liberties are piling up on an almost
daily basis.
They include incidents that, if they had happened anywhere else in the world
before 2025, the US would have been among the first to condemn.
Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian entrepreneur and actor in the
American Pie movie franchise, was detained for almost two weeks in “inhumane”
conditions by US border authorities over an incomplete visa.
She wrote in the Guardian: “I was taken to a
tiny, freezing cement cell with bright fluorescent lights and a toilet.
There were five other women lying on their mats with the aluminum sheets
wrapped over them, looking like dead bodies.
The guard locked the door behind me.”
Fabian Schmidt, a German national who is a
permanent US resident, was detained and, his mother
said, “violently interrogated”, stripped naked and put in
a cold shower by US border officials.
A French scientist was
denied entry to the US after immigration officers at an airport searched
his phone and found messages in which he had expressed
criticism of the
Trump administration, according to the French
government.
Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist who
previously worked and lived in Rhode Island,
was deported despite having a
US visa.
Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University and citizen of
India married to a Palestinian, was detained by immigration agents who told him
his visa had been revoked.
Columbia University student activist
Mahmoud Khalil, a legal
US resident with no criminal record, was detained
over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and is fighting
deportation efforts in federal court.
Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator, reacted on social media: “In dictatorships,
they call this practice ‘being disappeared’.
No charges, no claims of criminal behaviour.
The White House doesn’t claim he did anything criminal. He’s in jail because of
his political speech.”
Another trigger for alarm is Trump’s close relationship
with tech oligarchs, many of whom donated to and attended his inauguration.
Tesla and SpaceX head Elon Musk’s so-called
“department of government efficiency” (Doge) has been
taking a chainsaw to the federal bureaucracy,
firing thousands of workers in indiscriminate ways that have been challenged in
court.
Musk’s X regularly parrots pro-Trump propaganda.
Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and the
Washington Post, recently
ordered that the newspaper narrow the topics covered by its opinion
section to personal liberties and the free market. Several
star reporters and columnists
have quit in recent months.
Trump has escalated attacks on media outlets whose coverage he dislikes, including barring them from workspaces and events. He has filed lawsuits against media outlets and falsely claimed the flagship series 60 Minutes admitted guilt regarding a lawsuit.
His appointee to head the Federal Communications
Commission is investigating PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) and NPR (National
Public Radio).
Last weekend, the Trump administration put almost the entire staff of
Voice of America – which began broadcasting in
1942 to combat Nazi propaganda – on leave and ended
grants to Radio Free Asia and other media
with similar news programming.
Trump’s moves in the foreign policy arena hold up a mirror
to his domestic vision.
He has rattled longtime allies in Europe over whether the US remains committed
to Nato and has sided with Russia in talks to end the war in Ukraine.
He even called the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a “dictator” and
berated him in the Oval Office.
Trump has long shown an affinity for autocrats such as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping of China and Kim Jong-un of North Korea and his actions have been compared with those of Viktor Orbán in consolidating power in Hungary, including remaking the judiciary, gaming elections and cracking down on media and civic organisations.
At the Center for American Progress thinktank in
Washington this week, JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois,
told the Guardian: “If you haven’t already
read about Orbán in Hungary, go read about what he
did steadily, not that slowly, to put the noose around that country.
Donald Trump admires Orbán and I believe he and his team have learned from that
and are replicating that.”
What some find most frightening of all is the relative
lack of resistance so far.
Trump’s approval rating equals his best-ever mark as president at 47%,
according to a
recent NBC News poll, although a majority –
51% - disapproves of his performance.
Some 55% of voters approve of his handling of border security and immigration,
while 43% disapprove.
Setmayer, who now heads the Seneca Project, a women-led super political action committee, commented: “The fact that Donald Trump’s approval rating is still in the mid-40s should scare the hell out of every American who understands the value of our constitutional republic, the freedoms that we enjoy and the rule of law, because what he is doing is categorically against everything this country was founded on.”
This is reflected in Congress, where the Republican party
is more loyal to and unquestioning of Trump than ever.
Few members have dared to speak out against
the president’s support for Putin, haphazard tariff policy or bullying of
neighbour Canada.
They know that dissent would likely result in public humiliation on social media
and a primary election challenge funded by Musk.
Democrats, for their part, are still struggling to meet the moment as swelling protests across the country hunger for leadership. Last week, Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, reversed his position by voting to pass a Republican budget plan that will make cuts to housing, transportation and education while also empowering Trump and Musk to slash more programmes.
Faced with the prospect of a government shutdown, Schumer
argued that he was choosing the lesser of two evils but ignited a furious
backlash from Democrats in the House of Representatives and grassroots
activists.
NBC’s poll found that just 27% of voters say they have positive views of the
party, its lowest rating since the question was first asked in 1990.
Meagan Hatcher-Mays, a senior adviser for United for Democracy, a coalition of 140 organisations aimed at reforming the courts, said Democrats were wrongfooted by Trump’s narrow victory in the national popular vote last year.
“They took the wrong lesson from the outcome of that
election and they think Donald Trump is a lot more popular than he actually is,”
she said. “Their baseline is already to be scared but that made them more scared
to push back or resist against some of Donald Trump’s worst impulses.
What you have now is they’re more comfortable caving and that’s what they have
been doing.
“They have not been able to mount a durable opposition to
Donald Trump or to congressional Republicans.
You can’t just be not Donald Trump. You have to be for something and you
have to paint a vision for what you want for the American people.
Instead what they’ve decided to do is just say nothing and hope for the best and
that is not going to win them any seats in 2026.”
The courts are potentially the last line of defence.
Federal judges have blocked dozens of Trump’s initiatives, including attempts to
eliminate agencies, end birthright citizenship and freeze federal funding.
This week, a judge found that Doge likely violated the
constitution “in multiple ways” with its dismantling of the development
agency USAID.
Jamie Raskin, a Democratic representative from Maryland, noted that Democrats and their allies have filed more than 125 cases against various attacks on the rule of law and obtained more than 40 temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions.
“We’re in the fight of our lives,” he told the Guardian.
“This is not a two-week, two-month or even two-year fight that we’re in.
This is going to take us many years to defeat the forces of authoritarian
reaction, and the Democrats are rising to the occasion.
“If you look at the way democratic societies responded to
fascism a century ago, it just takes time for people to realign and refocus and
mobilise a concerted and unified response. Are we there yet? No.
But are we going to be in a place where we can stand together and defeat
authoritarianism in our country?
Yes, we are going to get there.”
Norm Eisen, a lawyer and founder of State
Democracy Defenders Action, has brought successful cases that stopped Trump
targeting thousands of FBI employees and blocked Musk’s access to sensitive data
at the treasury department.
He said: “Donald Trump is definitely pushing towards authoritarianism.
He promised to be a dictator on day one and he hasn’t stopped. That’s the
bad news.
“The good news is that he has met vigorous pushback from litigants like myself and many others and from courts at every level. So far, his most outrageous illegal conduct has been countered.”
If the Trump administration ignores such orders, the US
could face a full-blown constitutional crisis.
But Eisen retains measured optimism, saying: “It’s a mistake to count us out.
We have so surprised ourselves and the world over and over again in our history
and there is cause for hope here when you see the furious legal pushback by
lawyers.
“There is reason for hope but nobody knows. Will we go the
way of Brazil, Poland, Czech Republic, where I was ambassador, all of which
pushed out autocratic regimes in recent years?
Or will we go the way of Hungary and Turkey, which failed to oust
autocrats? It remains to be seen .”
SOURCE
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/mar/22/trump-administration-authoritarianism
v
We are on the road for democracy and justice!
Trumpism will not be defeated by politicians inside the DC beltway.
It will only be defeated by millions of Americans, in every state in this
country, coming together in a strong, grassroots movement which says:
 | no to oligarchy, |
| no to authoritarianism, |
| no to kleptocracy, |
| no to massive cuts in programs that working people desperately need, |
| no to huge tax breaks for the richest people in our country. |
And that’s what these events are about.
Further, there are a number of congressional districts where Republicans won
by only a small number of votes.
With the Republican party in the House having only a three-vote majority we can
defeat draconian, anti-working-class legislation if just two Republican members
of Congress vote no.
And they will vote no if we rally their constituents to demand that they vote
no.
Can Trumpism be defeated? Absolutely! But, if we’re going to make that
happen, we need to know exactly what we’re up against and how we can best go
forward.
Here’s just some of what we need to know:
| Trumpism has an unlimited amount of money to throw into its efforts.
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| Trumpism has significant control over large parts of the media from
which millions of Americans get their information.
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| Trumpism is utilizing the concept of the “big lie” in a way that
has never, in this country, been seen.
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| Trumpism does not believe in democracy or the rule of law.
|
But, while Trump consolidates power into his own hands, there is another
reality going on.
Today:
| 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck; |
| millions are earning starvation wages; |
| 85 million are uninsured or under-insured; |
| young people are unable to afford the cost of college; |
| 25% of seniors live on $15,000 a year or less; |
| we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth, and we have a major shortage in low-income and affordable housing. |
Oh, and by the way, we’re losing the struggle against the climate crisis – an existential threat to the future of the planet.
And here’s the kicker.
While Trump moves us away from democracy, while the middle class continues to
decline, the wealthiest people in the country have never ever had it so good.
Today, the three major oligarchs, Musk, Jeff Bezos
and Mark Zuckerberg, are worth $905bn – that
is more wealth than the bottom half of American society
– 170 million people.
And, incredibly, since Trump’s election their wealth has grown by $217bn.
Our struggle, the American people’s struggle, is to protect democracy and the
rule of law.
Equally important, we must end oligarchy and create
an economy that works for all, not just the few.
We are the wealthiest country on earth and AI, robotics and other new
technologies will only make our country wealthier.
It is absurd, unjust and inhumane that virtually all of that new wealth being
created goes to the people who need it the least.
While Trump now “floods the zone” and occupies most of the political oxygen, it is imperative that we never lose sight of the progressive vision – a nation and world based on human cooperation and compassion, not greed and a “survival of the fittest” mentality.
What we are fighting for is not “utopian”, or unachievable.
Much of it already exists in other countries, and
poll after poll shows that it is exactly what the American people want.
In the richest country in the history of the world we must establish that:
| Healthcare is a human right and must be available to all regardless of income. |
| Every worker in America is entitled to earn a decent income. |
| We must raise the minimum wage to a living wage and make it easier for workers to join unions. |
| We must have the best public educational system in the world, from childcare to vocational training, to graduate school – available to all. |
| We must address the housing crisis and build the millions of units of low-income and affordable housing that we desperately need. |
| We must create millions of good paying jobs as we |
| lead the world in combating the existential threat of climate change. |
| We must abolish all forms of bigotry. |
Not only must we continue to fight for a nation based on the principles of
economic, social, racial and environmental justice, we must also lead the effort
against Trump‘s reactionary legislative agenda.
In the coming weeks the Republicans in Congress will be bringing forward a major
piece of legislation, a “reconciliation” bill, that
encapsulates the value system of greed and their obedience to oligarchy.
It is the economic essence of Trumpism.
At a time of unprecedented income and wealth inequality,
this legislation will provide trillions of dollars in
tax breaks to the richest people in our country.
It will make the rich even richer.
At a time when the working class of this country is struggling to put food on
the table and pay for housing,
this legislation will make savage cuts to Medicaid,
housing, nutrition, education and other basic needs.
It will make the poor even poorer.
We cannot allow this to happen.
This legislation is enormously unpopular.
It is exactly what the American people do not want.
It must not be passed by Congress.
It must be defeated and we can defeat it.
This is a perilous moment in American history.
Let us go forward together. ~ Bernie Sanders,
US senator VT, chair of the health education labor and pensions committee, the
longest-serving independent in the history of Congress
Liz Cheney / Adam Kinzinger It truly brings me no joy to be sharing this today.
My heart is heavy, and when I think about how serious this all
is,
I’m torn between wanting to warn everybody, or wanting them to savour their
peace.
Ultimately- it’s your choice whether or not you want to read, but I’ll warn you
that this is likely going to trigger you.
Historically, empires tend to last about 250 years before they collapse.
The United States, founded in 1776, is now sitting at 248 years
old.
They are right on schedule.
Every major Republic has followed a pattern—a rise, a peak, and then
a slow, inevitable decline into corruption, authoritarianism, and collapse.
The warning signs are always there, but people inside the empire never want to
believe it’s happening to them.
They cling to the illusion of invincibility,
convinced that their system is too strong, their institutions too resilient,
their democracy too stable.
But history doesn’t care about American exceptionalism.
Every empire believes it will last forever—until it doesn’t.
And now, we are watching the final act play out in real time.
| -Unchecked authoritarianism consolidating power. |
| -A ruling class hoarding wealth while the public suffers. |
| -The rise of fascism as a desperate grasp for control. |
| -Technology being weaponized to surveil and suppress. |
| -The erosion of democracy under the illusion of national security. |
| -A population too exhausted and distracted to fight back. |
This is the cycle. This is how it happens. And it’s not some slow decline over generations—it’s fast.
The Roman Republic fell in a
single lifetime.
Under Hitler, Germany’s democracy collapsed in 53
days.
The USA is on day 28….
Last night, I was lying in bed, and this heaviness
settled into my chest.
That kind of heavy feeling you can’t shake, the kind that crawls under your
skin, presses down on your chest, and
makes your breath feel too shallow, your thoughts too loud.
Maybe it was the exhaustion of watching this unfold in real time, knowing
exactly where it’s leading….
While simultaneously recognizing that there are plenty of people in denial, who
want to call me crazy right now.
But Trump and Elon are playing in your faces.
“He who saves his Country does not violate
any Law.” is Trumps latest, most troubling tweet.
That’s a dictator’s manifesto.
That’s an open declaration that he believes himself above the law.
That whatever he does, no matter how illegal, no matter how corrupt, no matter
how violent—
if it’s done under the justification of “saving the country,” it isn’t a crime.
I saw it. I absorbed it. And then I went about my day, because what else can you do?
But then came the flags.
Elon shared Trump‘s tweet and commented Fourteen
flags. Posted at 11:14 a.m.
A time and a number that mean nothing if you’re not paying attention.
And then I saw a tiktok that laid it out in front of me: the 14 words.
The most infamous white
supremacist slogan in history.
The one that says, “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for
white children.”
And suddenly, it just didn’t feel abstract anymore.
Was the TikTok a reach?
Or is this really a reich?
Suddenly, it feels like this is no longer
creeping authoritarianism, or concerning trends, or historical echoes that we
could debate over coffee.
 Posting 14 flags at 11:14 AM is very likely what we call a “dog whistle”-
because essentially only the people who know what it means can understand.
It’s direct, and yet laced with plausible deniability.
But for me, when you pair these things with his very obvious Nazi salute, we
can’t deny this anymore.
It’s here. It’s real.
This is a white supremacist coup taking over the
United States….
Trump is not just some lone rogue politician. This is not just about him.
He is the figurehead of a hostile government takeover.
The people behind him—
| the billionaires, |
| the Christian nationalists, |
| the white supremacist networks, |
| the ones in power who have been laying the groundwork for this moment |
—they are moving, and they are moving fast.
They’ve been planning this for a very long time, decades, and while we
are scrambling to process it… they are already halfway done. 53 days.
That’s how long it took Hitler to dismantle
Germany’s democracy.
The USA is on day 28.
They are potentially halfway there. This is what fascism looks like in real
time.
It doesn’t come with a flashing red warning sign. It doesn’t arrive
with a singular, clear moment where everyone collectively realizes, this is it….
No… it inches forward, day by day, executive order by executive order, while
people tell themselves it can’t be happening.
Well, it is! Now!
And then there’s Elon Musk.
Musk, who has positioned himself as the great “free speech warrior” while
turning X into a fascist propaganda machine.
Musk, who is now seeking access to the IRS’s
entire system—which means access to every taxpayer’s private information.
Why? Because data is power. And he is trying to build the ultimate AI-driven
surveillance state.
He is consolidating control over the digital infrastructure of American lives
while selling people on the illusion that he’s some kind of savior.
But he’s not. He’s the false prophet.
In biblical terms, the Antichrist is the figure who seizes power, claiming to be
the savior while leading people into destruction.
The false prophet is the one who enables it, who controls the narrative, who
deceives the masses into following blindly.
I personally believe the book of Revelation
speaks to the end of an era, not necessarily the end of the world….
But regardless of how literally you take that book, it’s pretty undeniable at
this point….
Trump is likened to the Antichrist.
Musk the false prophet.
And together, they are building the surveillance state of a
white supremacist dictatorship.
Canadians need to wake up.
Not tomorrow. Not in a week.
Not when it’s already infected our country, and we’re looking back, wondering
where we went wrong like the USA… Now.
Because this is not just about politics anymore. Canada is a clear target for
these people.
They want our minerals. They want our water….
And while I don’t want to fear-monger, and
I don’t want anybody thinking that a boots-on-the-ground war will actually
happen just yet, or at all-
Canadians also need to realize that this is not about a policy disagreement, a
trade war or another “bad president.”
This is about the end of democracy in the United
States.
And I need you to understand that this is NOT a drill.
They are telling us exactly what they are doing. They are not hiding it.
The flags, the numbers, the '47 on the caps Gretzky gave to the winning team,
the words, the actions—
they are signaling it right in front of us.
source: Liz Cheney / Adam Kinzinger Against Trump
can u create a game given the
following as near term strategy and make up long term strategy to outcome a
dictatorship or a democracy ?
VARIABLES:
Opinions of voters LEFT or RIGHT leaning - till the OPINION'S SCORE is over a
certain threshold that creates a Dictatorship or a Democracy..
A. Republicans in Congress make a majority for passing a Tax Bill that benefits
the poor or not ( benefits the rich)
B. TV and Newspaper Media FOR or AGAINST dictatorship
C. Social Media FOR or AGAINST dictatorship
D. IRS attacks Media Leader with fabricated Taxes Due or not
E. Social Media Leaders threatened success or failure ( moderates C.)
F. Jusdice Dept sues Network TV Owner success or failure ( moderates B.)
G. Trump passes a law that makes it illegal to criticise him. ( moderates B. C.)
H. Trump is sued and he ignores it or not
I. Rioting Protests for or against Dictatorship
J. the Military is used to quell riots or not ( moderates I. )
K. A Militia is raised to attack protestors against Dictatorship or not
All of the ABOVE is moderated by Propaganda success or failure.
How would you score this?
What would be that relative score values for each ?
------------------------
Adjust this scoring with the result depending on Voter's Opinions , which would
be calculated on how successful Propaganda is.
Propaganda would be a multiplication factor ( not just an addition) . Opinion's
score would be a multiplication of scores in A. thru K. times the amount of
Propaganda success or failure for each A. thru K.
Could there be more variables ? And more dependancies that moderate others?
|
GEMINI Let's create a game based on your scenario, incorporating scoring,
propaganda, and additional variables. A strong economy might favor the
current regime (whether leaning towards dictatorship or democracy), while a
weak economy might increase discontent and volatility. |
COPILOT Adjusted Scoring System: |
|
