Trump Aims For Dictatorial Powers

Donald Trump’s actions make one thing clear: he is hellbent on dictatorial power—one-man rule over the people.

There are really just two kinds of roadblocks that stand in his way, and nearly all of his actions are aimed at removing them.

Almost everything Trump is doing is designed to: 

1. Eliminate the distribution of power in government—usurping Congress, the Judiciary, independent agencies, experts, and civil servants. So he can rule over our government, unchecked and unchallenged 

2. Eliminate the power of private people–violently attacking individual rights, weakening private enterprise, and cowing the press and civil society. So he can rule over us unchecked and unchallenged. 

Some may object that there’s nothing coherent about Trump at all—and they’re right to do so. It’s tiresome to hear people try to attach a governing philosophy to his dizzying parade of immoral and illegal actions. That gives him more credit than he deserves. Like a monkey hurling feces, the through-line is not strategy, but a twisted psyche: animus, envy, and a need to grift.

But even that warped mind—and the minds of his contemptible band of bootlickers—have a goal. Power. After all, how else can he get his grift, vent his envy, and punish the people he hates? Only through dictatorial power. 

And by that I mean the power to trample free speech, bankrupt and jail political enemies, destroy the press, deport dissidents, and imprison anyone he likes, whenever he likes, for as long as he likes—perhaps even for life.

The proof is in the pudding. Nearly everything he does is aimed at removing those two obstacles standing between him and dictatorship.

Government By And For One Person

First, he is working to usurp the powers of the two branches of the government that are meant to check. Just like their January 6th insurrection, MAGA is actively trying to strip power from any government apparatus designed to keep us safe, just so Donald can have his way. 

Congress

In the case of Congress, Trump and “DOGE” have spent months engaged in a criminal enterprise that is trying to eliminate congresses’ constitutional authority over how taxpayer money gets spent. Iaf the people’s representatives do not have the “power of the purse”--and the leverage that comes with it–then Congress and the people are effectively neutered.

He has aided this effort by running something like a protection racket through Elon Musk, threatening Republican members of Congress with primaries unless they fall in line. As one Republican Senator admitted, “We are all afraid.” This completely debases congressional supremacy and independence—core bulwarks of a free society. 

If Congress won’t conduct oversight or block unfit nominees, what’s left? Republicans are so cowed that, come the next “January 6th,” it seems quite clear that they will simply declare Trump the winner—no matter the vote.

Judicial Branch

Then there’s the Trumpian assault on the judiciary—the branch that most effectively thwarted his illegal schemes last time, including his attempt to overturn the 2020 election after Biden soundly beat him. The administration has refused to answer judge’s questions, lied to them, and defied a unanimous order from the Supreme Court order. Trump slanders judges publicly, significantly increasing the likelihood of—dare I say inciting—violence against them. The Judicial branch has done its own abdicating as well–giving Trump broad immunity, even when he commits crimes of any sort. 

Executive Agencies And Law Enforcement

Then comes the consolidation of the executive branch. While some conservatives argue for a freer executive hand over the bureaucracy, Trump’s effort is more than some unitary theory of the executive—it is an illegal purge of independence and expertise.

Trump is firing anyone who shows independent thought. He is purging watchdogs from agencies–the very people who protect us from waste, fraud, corruption and abuse. He treats the Justice Department as subject to his personal whimsy, not the law. His team is screening applicants based on whether they’ll repeat the lie that Trump won in 2020. The State Department appears next in line for a loyalty purge.

Trump is going hardest after independent agencies. His administration is illegally expanding presidential control over such agencies. For the agency that protects consumers from fraud–something Trump has repeatedly engaged in–he is simply gutting them. Many of these independent agencies are the backbone of our financial system, and their credibility rests on their independence. In fact, Trump has openly mused about firing the Chair of the Federal Reserve–an agency whose independence undergirds the entire global monetary system.

Military

It gets scarier. Trump is also trying to personalize military power. He fired at least ten top generals, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and purged the National Security Council. He put a foaming-at-the-mouth loyalist, who is also an incompetent, rapey, drunk–in charge of the Defense Department. The department under him has “descended into fear, loathing, and lie detectors.” You might recall that in his last administration he seriously asked the Secretary of Defense if the military could just shoot protestors. It’s clear he wants them to say yes this time. 

Ruling Over the People, on Behalf of one Person. 

Universities

The Trump administration has also threatened universities-illegally–withholding federal money unless they bend the knee and adopt much more conservative politics. Even when schools capitulate, he moves the goalposts. When Harvard refused to back down, the IRS suddenly started considering revoking its tax-exempt status. 

Law Firms

He is doing the same with big law firms, threatening to cancel their government contracts unless they serve his interests, not the public interest. Far too many have kissed the ring, proving their hunger for profit outweighs their loyalty to the rule of law. Without the rule of law, there is only whim–and where whim rules, freedom dies.

Independent Press

Trump is attacking the independent press too—filing sham lawsuits, illegally cutting off access to outlets that don’t parrot his lies (like calling the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America”), defunding public broadcasting, and suing media companies into silence. It’s working. Some outlets are quietly settling to avoid retaliation.

Business Communities

The business community didn’t even pretend to resist. They showed up at his inauguration like supplicants, bribes in hand. Mark Zuckerberg started playing masculine dress-up, while the remaining tech broligarchs forked over millions to curry favor. Amazon went furthest—with its $40 million “purchase” of the rights to a Melania Trump documentary. They quickly saw what is emerging–mobster style, personalization of government. Pleasing Trump is the path to corporate profit now. 

In other words, Trump is attacking every institution that might oppose him: independent religion, environmental groups, nonprofits, unions. No power center outside his grasp is safe.

Everyday Americans

It’s not just institutions–he is also trying to terrorize the populace. The administration jailed a permanent resident and is attempting to deport him, despite admitting he has broken no law and that their actions are driven only by his political beliefs.

They have tortured permanent residents, detained citizens, including children, nearly killing some, and are aiming to kidnap and disappear citizens to torture prisons abroad so the courts cannot save them. 

This isn’t just about Trump. It’s about whether we let one man bulldoze a free nation, or whether we rise to stop him. 

The guardrails are being ripped out in plain sight—by a man who has told us, again and again, exactly what kind of power he wants. This is not the time for hand-wringing, or for pretending that institutions will somehow save themselves. They won’t. 

It’s on us. Every journalist, judge, legislator, CEO, pastor, citizen—everyone with a voice or a platform or a spine—has a choice to make. We can bend the knee. Or we can fight like hell to make sure America never has a king.

INdependent (agenices, science, military)

Speech

Arrest and Free Movement

Trial

Congress, and in this case the Judiciary as well, to centralize power. They are also trying to eliminate any independent judgment inside the executive branch–fIf they can eliminate the separation of powers and checks and balances that have kept us without a king for 250 years, Trump will finally have his dream of being a dictator. (I’d say his dream of being Julius Caesar, but he neither has Caesar’s skills, nor does he likely even know who he was).