We must never forget the scope of Trump’s authoritarianism. Please share this list.
My apologies for the length and the lack of links — I usually do not write in this format.
#40 Slow Down the Post Office
Authoritarians use the functions of government to rig elections. If more opponents than supporters are going to vote by mail due to a global pandemic, then why not slow down the Post Office? Trump and his cronies reduced hours, ended overtime pay, and removed sorting machines. They planned to close post offices a month before the election until the press exposed it. A federal judge concluded these changes were ‘an intentional effort on the part of the current administration to disrupt and challenge the legitimacy of upcoming local, state, and federal elections.’ A General Accounting Office report concluded that the mail had slowed down the most in swing states.
#39 Undercount the Census
Another government function that could be used to rig elections is the census. To enable future gerrymandering, Trump ordered the Census Bureau to exclude undocumented immigrants from the 2020 census in an effort to undercount Hispanics. When the courts inevitably reversed this unconstitutional decision (the Constitution clearly says that the census should count all people in the country), Trump then ordered the Census Bureau to end its count four weeks early.
#38 Silence on Hong Kong
Authoritarians do not care about democracy, at home or abroad. When Hong Kong citizens demonstrated for over a year as they tried to keep their democracy amid the Chinese takeover, Trump did not say one word supporting the protesters. China was the one authoritarian country Trump would criticize on some issues, but not when it came to democracy. This was easy political rhetoric for any democratically elected leader. But Trump had more in common with the Chinese authoritarians than the Hong Kong protesters.
#37 Hush Money Payments
This illegal effort to win an election went beyond Stormy Daniels. Trump had an arrangement with the National Enquirer to ’catch and kill’ negative stories. It paid $150,000 to Karen McDougal before the 2016 election to silence her allegations of an affair with Trump. Then Trump ordered his attorney Michael Cohen to make illegal ‘hush money’ payments to Daniels and McDougal so that they would not talk about his affairs during the campaign. The Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen using fake invoices. Cohen went to jail for these payments. Trump was also indicted in New York for these payments and is awaiting trial.
#36 Nepotism
Authoritarians often engage in nepotism. The 2016 Trump campaign paid Donald, Jr., Eric, and his wife Lara $15,000 per month. Jared and Ivanka infamously got official government positions. When they were denied security clearances (Jared failed to report $1 billion in loans from foreign banks on his financial disclosure statement), Trump overruled the typical process and granted them the clearances anyway. Straightforward nepotism is bad enough, but Kushner used his proximity to power to further enrich himself. He received loans from two banks after he met with their CEOs in the White House. He received $700 million for the 666 Fifth Avenue property from a Canadian company seeking approval to buy a US nuclear power company. And more recently, he received $2 billion from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.
#35 Poor Relations with Democratic Allies
Authoritarians tend to have poor relations with democracies. Trump had many more spats with democratically elected leaders than with authoritarians. He constantly criticized NATO and the EU. His trade war included tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and the EU. He failed to sign a 2018 G7 statement (and suggested that Russia should rejoin the group). He ended military exercises with South Korea and Japan because they were ‘provocative’ (to the authoritarians in the region). He did not join Western leaders when they walked side-by-side in Paris to mark the 100-year anniversary of the signing of the armistice to end WW I. He left a NATO summit early after a video leaked of other leaders mocking him.
#34 “We Want All Voting to Stop”
One of the many plots to overturn the 2020 election was to declare victory on election night before millions of mail-in ballots were counted and then go to the courts to prevent states from counting those ballots. Everyone knew that Trump supporters were more likely to vote on election day, and Biden supporters were more likely to cast mail-in ballots. Since most states count the mail-in ballots last, Trump would likely be ahead on election night and then the race would tighten with the inclusion of the mail in ballots. As Trump said that night: “We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court, we want all voting to stop.” But he then lost more than 60 legal challenges to the election results, including two unanimous dismissals by the Supreme Court. We counted all the ballots, and Biden won.
#33 Firing Truth Tellers
Authoritarians want others to peddle their lies, and Trump routinely fired dedicated public servants and whistleblowers who told the truth. Those who were fired told the truth about Russia meddling in US elections, the extortion phone call to Ukraine, corruption within the $500 billion pandemic rescue fund, the lack of COVID testing, critical medical shortages at hospitals, the quackery of advocating hydroxychloroquine, and confirming that there was no fraud during the 2020 election, just to name a few. This tactic would be central to a second Trump term – he has plans to fire large swaths of civil servants and replace them with sycophants.
#32 Defying Congressional subpoenas
Authoritarians ignore checks on their power. Legislative oversight of the executive is a fundamental democratic norm. This process usually works without Congress resorting to subpoenas. But Trump would not agree to the normal process, and when Congress issued subpoenas, he simply ignored them as well. This list is long: the Russia investigation, the Ukraine impeachment, Jared and Ivanka sending White House emails from private accounts (sound familiar?), the Kavanagh confirmation, his tax returns, his reversal of security clearance decisions, his meetings with foreign leaders, the changes to the census, his immigration policies at the border, military expenditures at Trump properties, etc. Authoritarians like Trump cannot be bothered with pesky things like Congressional subpoenas.
#31 Intimidate the judiciary
Authoritarians coerce judges to rule in their favor. Trump routinely attacked judges who ruled against him. He blamed judges who blocked the Muslim ban for any future terrorist attacks. He threatened to break up district courts that ruled against him. He threatened judges who authorized FISA warrants in the Russia investigation. After attacking a judge who blocked an asylum rule, Chief Justice Roberts made a rare public rebuke of Trump, who then of course attacked the Chief Justice. In February 2020 the Federal Judges Association called an emergency meeting to discuss the growing concern of political intervention into sensitive cases. As with the Congressional subpoenas above, authoritarians want no checks on executive power.
#30 North Korea
Authoritarians tend to have good foreign relations with other authoritarians. Trump consistently fit this pattern. By many measures of human rights and democracy, North Korea is the worst country on the planet. But Trump bragged about how he and Kim Jong Un ‘fell in love.’ He made an unscheduled visit to the Korean demilitarized zone for a photo op with Kim. He refused to criticize North Korea after it illegally tested nuclear missile over 20 times. He blocked UN Security Council meetings on human rights abuses in North Korea. This tendency to fawn over and serve the interests of authoritarians around the world not only undermined US democratic norms but also harmed US national security interests.
#29 Turkey
Turkey and its authoritarian leader Erdogan also fit this pattern. Trump congratulated Erdogan after a referendum in Turkey replaced the country’s parliamentary system with broad executive powers. He interfered in DOJ criminal investigations to help Erdogan. He criticized a resolution recognizing the Turkish genocide of Armenians that passed 405-11 in the House and 100-0 in the Senate. He refused to sanction Turkey, as mandated by law, after it bought Russian missile defense systems. And he removed US soldiers from Syria so that Turkey could attack the Kurds, our one steadfast ally against ISIS in the region – a move that was so egregious that it caused Secretary of Defense Mattis to resign.
#28 Saudi Arabia
Trump bent over backwards – sometimes illegally – to cater to Saudi interests. His first foreign trip as president was to Saudi Arabia (standard practice was to go first to NATO allies). He illegally sold export-controlled nuclear technology to the Saudis. He bypassed Congress and declared a ‘national emergency’ to sell $8 billion of weapons to Saudi Arabia for its war in Yemen. When Congress invoked the War Powers Act to end US support for Saudi efforts in Yemen, Trump vetoed it. He then blocked the inclusion of Saudi Arabia from a list of countries that recruit child soldiers despite the widespread practice in Yemen. Most famously, he tried to help the Saudis cover up their role in the brutal murder of a journalist working for an American newspaper. He prevented the CIA director from testifying to Congress about the murder and refused to send Congress the conclusions of the intelligence community about the murder.
#27 Russia
Trump’s fascination with authoritarians culminates, of course, with Vladimir Putin. He furthered Russian interests in many ways. He constantly criticized NATO (the House once voted 357-22 to prevent Trump from pulling out of NATO). He cast the only vote against imposing sanctions on Russia and said that Crimea rightly belonged to Russia at a G7 meeting. He ended sanctions and multiple criminal proceedings against Russian companies implicated in the 2016 election scandal. He gave Russian officials information about an Israeli spy in Syria. He said nothing when Russia violated a treaty and deployed weapons targeting Europe, when Russia convicted a US Marine for spying, when Russia poisoned an opposition leader, and when Russia used excessive force against pro-democracy protesters. His authoritarian instincts prevented him from standing up for US interests and values in nearly every interaction he had with Russia.
#26 Threatened martial law during the 2020 protests
Authoritarians do not want citizens in the streets protesting against the government. Equating their own interests with the national interest, they characterize even peaceful protests as threats to the country. Trump used this authoritarian tactic during the 2020 protests against police brutality. He accused the protesters of ‘sedition.’ He said the protests could ‘lead to the rise of citizen militias.’ He threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to send the US military into the cities of American streets to end the protests. He used the segregationist line ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts.’ He consistently criticized the protesters, but never the police or even vigilantes who killed protesters.
#25 The Upside-Down Bible Photo Op
Authoritarians use violence against their political rivals. The most infamous episode of the 2020 protests was when Trump ordered military troops to disperse peaceful protesters in DC with tear gas and rubber bullets. He then went to the dispersed area for a photo op – and held a Bible upside down in front of a church. His entourage included the head of the Joint Chiefs in battle fatigues. It was a scene that only authoritarians would love. He later defended his use of the military to disperse crowd in DC for the photo op by saying “it was like a knife cutting butter.”
#24 Restrict voting rights
A common way to rig elections is to prevent those who oppose you from voting. The GOP has been doing this for decades, and Trump aided these efforts with his characteristic authoritarian gusto. His DOJ consistently filed legal briefs in support of state efforts to increase voter ID requirements, purge voter rolls, and redraw boundaries to dilute minority voting. It also revoked DOJ ‘guidance documents’ about voting rights and removed gerrymandering from its prosecutor manual. During the 2020 campaign, he threatened to deploy local law enforcement officers to monitor the elections, a standard Jim Crow voter suppression tactic that is blatantly illegal. His 2020 campaign filed over 300 lawsuits to restrict voting rights during a pandemic-plagued election.
#23 Corruption
Corruption is nearly universal in authoritarian countries. Trump was easily the most corrupt president in modern history. He did not divest himself from his businesses to avoid conflicts of interest. He used his public position to promote and generate revenue for his private businesses. He visited one of his properties on 31% of his days in office. His golf trips cost taxpayers over $300 million. He also received millions in taxpayer dollars because family members living in Trump properties got Secret Service protection. Even Air Force crews spent time at a Scotland property over 40 times, sending taxpayer dollars to Trump. He issued 37 ethics waivers in 2017 alone enabling officials to work in areas in which they had a financial interest (Obama issued 5 in eight years). He raised hundreds of millions by telling supporters that the money will pay for his legal fees, but they go to an entity that enables him to use it for his own purposes. The grift never ends.
#22 “Lock Her Up!”
Authoritarians use the criminal justice system to prosecute political rivals. Trump hammered away at DOJ independence and urged it to prosecute political rivals. He routinely tweeted about the need to investigate the FBI, Clinton, Mueller, Biden, and Obama. He directly urged AG Sessions to prosecute Clinton three times. He accused reporters, whistleblowers, and members of Congress of treason; he accused protesters of sedition. The DOJ bent to his wrath and formally investigated Comey, Clinton’s emails, the FBI investigators on the Russia case, and Black Lives Matter leaders. This item is not higher on the list because the DOJ concluded that no prosecutions were warranted. In one striking exception, the DOJ sent criminal charges against FBI agent McCabe to a grand jury – who then refused to indict, a very rare occurrence. And of course, the House January 6 committee unearthed Trump’s attempts to use the DOJ to overturn the election results. While the DOJ maintained its integrity, a second Trump term may be very different.
#21 Secrecy!
Authoritarians do not want their fellow citizens to know the truth. Trump kept no visitor logs for the White House. He ended the practices of publishing a daily schedule and issuing readouts summarizing calls with world leaders. He famously took no notes and did not use email. His doctors had to sign non-disclosure agreements. He routinely (and illegally) destroyed papers. There are no notes (not even classified documents) for seven face-to-face meetings and over 20 phone calls with Putin. He removed climate data, crime data, and other scientific studies from government websites. He failed to release basic economic projections or the names of businesses that received funds from pandemic relief funds. During the 2020 campaign, the White House did not say when Trump last tested negative for COVID. It is likely that he was positive during a debate with Biden.
#20 Criminality
Authoritarians are crooks. Trump of course has many criminal indictments, and more are likely on the way. Here is a list of criminally convicted Trump associates.
- Allan Weisselberg (Trump Org. CFO) – tax fraud and other financial crimes
- Paul Manafort (2016 campaign manager) – tax fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, witness tampering, and representing foreign agents.
- Rick Gates (Manafort’s deputy) – lying to the FBI about contacts with Russians
- Michael Cohen (attorney) – campaign finance violations, tax fraud and bank fraud
- George Papadopoulos (campaign adviser) – lying to the FBI about contacts with Russians
- Roger Stone (adviser) – lying to Congress, witness tampering, obstruction of an official proceeding
- Michael Flynn (NSC advisor) – lying to the FBI regarding his Russian contacts
- George Nader (policy adviser) – child pornography and transporting a minor for sex
- Elliott Broidy (fundraiser) – paid millions for a secret lobbying campaign
- Steve Bannon (adviser) – contempt of Congress
- Lev Parnas (Giuliani crony) – funneling Russian money into US elections
- Igor Fruman (Giuliani crony) – funneling Russian money into US elections.
#19 Pardons
Trump blatantly used pardons to protect political supporters. He pardoned many on the above list, including those who were convicted of lying to protect him. None went through the typical DOJ clemency process. The pardon for Flynn was for ‘all crimes,’ the broadest since Ford pardoned Nixon. He pardoned seven former GOP members of Congress. He pardoned Jared Kushner’s father. He is the first president to ever pardon anyone for murder, and he did it four times – two for military officers convicted of war crimes, and two for Border Patrol agents who shot migrants crossing the border, and four Blackwater guards who killed 17 Iraqi civilians. He explicitly encouraged criminal behavior by promising pardons; one example was urging DHS officials to break the law if necessary to close the US-Mexico border, and he would pardon them if they were convicted.
#18 “Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be.”
Authoritarians want sycophants who tell them what they want to hear. This often puts them in conflict with intelligence officials, whose job is to provide accurate information. The intelligence community consistently refuted Trump’s lies, and so he publicly attacked them. The most scandalous example was siding with Putin over every US intelligence agency regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election during a press conference at a summit in Helsinki. He fired intelligence officials (#36) and sided with the Saudis over US intelligence agencies over the killing of Khashoggi (#21). His antagonism with the intelligence community spiked after he gave information about an Israeli spy to Russian officials in the Oval Office. It was so bad that the CIA extracted a spy inside the Russian government due to concerns that Trump would expose him. In an extremely unusual and dangerous trend in the final months of his presidency, Trump had no formal daily intelligence briefing.
#17 Alternate Electors Scheme
Another attempt to overturn the 2020 election was a plan to create false slates of electors pledged to Trump in states that Biden had won. Trump persuaded over 30 Republican officials in swing states to put their names on documents that declared him the winner. This would create the pretext for Pence to say that the election was in doubt on January 6. When there is no majority in the Electoral College, state delegations in the House of Representatives select the president – and the GOP had a majority in 26 state delegations. If every Republican had gone along with the coup, it could have worked. Prosecutors in both Georgia and the federal government are looking into criminal charges for this scheme.
#16 Boxes in the Bathroom
What an odd story: Trump takes classified materials home and refuses to return them to the government. Why? Why would anyone do this? Well, this episode illustrates an array of authoritarian instincts: ignoring subpoenas, assuming unchecked behavior, attacking judges and prosecutors, putting personal interests above national interests, and lies. We are waiting for one final authoritarian shoe to drop – corruption. If prosecutors have evidence that he sold or gave top secret documents to foreign governments, then perhaps (perhaps!) even MAGA support might wane for this authoritarian threat to the country.
#15 Misogyny
Authoritarians nearly always rely on misogyny, and patriarchy. The twice-divorced ‘grab ‘em by the pussy’ guy also has this authoritarian tendency. Over 20 women have accused him of sexual assault, and he was found liable in a court of law for his assault against E. Jean Carroll. His sexism had personnel and policy implications during his presidency. He signed an executive order removing equal pay protections for federal employees. The gender pay gap in the White House tripled. He hired men for over 80% of top administration positions, the highest percentage in a half-century. The State Department removed gender discrimination from its annual human rights report. The Justice Department reduced the scope of the definition of domestic violence. The Education Department changed campus assault rules to protect accused males. When Trump was negotiating with the Taliban to withdraw from Afghanistan, he removed women’s rights from those talks.
#14 Racism
Authoritarians use racism to divide the citizenry and justify harsh treatment of minorities. Trump jumpstarted his political career with the ‘birther’ nonsense about Obama. He began his presidential campaign with the Mexican ‘rapists and thugs’ speech. The amount of racist rhetoric reached unprecedented levels for the modern presidency. He used dehumanizing terms for migrants (‘animals,’ ‘infestation’). He referred to ‘shithole countries.’ He said that once immigrants from Nigeria see the US, they would never “go back to their huts.” He attacked Congresswomen of color and said they should ‘go back’ to their countries. He ended WH briefings on white supremacist domestic terrorism. He called COVID-19 the ‘China virus’ and “Kung Flu.” He retweeted a video showing supporters clashing with protestors, and one yelling “White power! White power!” He referred to himself and his supporters as having ‘good genes.’ He made no public remarks on the MLK holidays.
#14 “Good people on both sides”
The most shocking examples of Trump’s racism was flirting with and courting the support of white supremacist and neo-Nazi domestic terror groups. This warrants its own item on the list. He repeatedly refused when given the chance to denounce such groups. After neo-Nazi marches in Charlottesville, he said there were ‘good people on both sides.’ When asked to condemn white nationalist groups during a presidential debate, he instead told them to ‘stand back and stand by.’ Those groups listened (Roger Stone used one for private security). They were the vanguard of the January 6 insurrection, already at the Capitol preparing for the siege while Trump incited the crowd.
#13 COVID
Trump’s authoritarian tendencies had deadly consequences when the pandemic arrived. He spread conspiracy theories and lies about the severity of the virus threat, the availability of tests, and ‘miracle cures.’ He fired truth tellers, including an agency director who raised concerns about the lack of testing and Trump pushing hydroxychloroquine. He demanded that public servants toe the party line to help his political prospects. He pushed the CDC to change its methods to reduce the death count and alter guidelines for who needs testing. He ordered hospitals to bypass the CDC and send all coronavirus patient information to a central database in Washington. HHS officials altered CDC reports so they would not undermine administration rhetoric about the virus.
#12 The Emoluments Clause
The Constitution states that presidents cannot accept money from foreign governments while in office. Trump violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution every day he was in office. Foreign governments spent at least $73 million at his businesses while in office – and his best customers were Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China. These three countries also invested in the construction of additional properties in Toronto (Russia), Dubai (China), and Indonesia (Saudi Arabia). In any normal political universe, this would be a slam dunk reason for impeachment and removal from office. Imagine if this set of facts applied to Biden or Obama. But with so many horrendous things happening during the Trump years, this one simply fell through the cracks.
#11 “Witch Hunt”
Trump constantly used the ‘witch hunt’ mantra to condemn law enforcement agencies when they investigated him and his supporters. He expected the AG to act as his personal attorney. And he was willing to interfere in DOJ prosecutions for his closest associates. He fired the prosecutor investigating Giuliani for acting as a foreign agent. The DOJ dropped its case against Flynn, who had already pled guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with Russians. When the DOJ reduced the sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone, four prosecutors resigned in protest. This rhetoric has created the groundwork for his supporters to disregard all the criminal charges against him. There can be no doubt that Trump’s primary goal of winning the presidency again is to shield himself from criminal prosecution.
#10 Obstructing the Russia Investigation
Mueller concluded that Trump ‘was not exonerated’ regarding obstruction of justice in the Russia investigation and all but said that the only reason he did not indict Trump was the DOJ rule about sitting presidents. Trump demanded loyalty from FBI Director Comey and asked him to end the Flynn investigation. He fired five people, including Comey, directly investigating him. He ordered subordinates multiple times to fire Mueller. He ordered subordinates to write false memos about his actions. He dangled pardons to encourage silence from his campaign associates. He lied about the July 2016 Trump Tower meeting. He lied in writing to Mueller about Stone’s role with Wikileaks. He pressured the Chief Justice to investigate the FISA courts. His AG ultimately saved him by redacting the Mueller report, pushing a misleading version of it, and refusing to release short summaries written specifically for the public.
#9 The “Perfect Phone Call”
The first impeachment was also about rigging the 2020 election. Trump withheld military aid authorized by Congress to extort Ukraine into announcing an investigation into Biden. He made the crucial ask during a July 25, 2019, phone call. When an official who heard the call filed a whistleblower complaint, the White House did not turn it over to Congress, as required by law. The scheme almost worked. Zelensky scheduled a CNN interview on September 13 to announce Biden investigations in order to get the military aid (the threat of a Russian invasion was of course very real). But two days before the scheduled interview, the media broke the story about the whistleblower report. Trump released the military aid, Zelensky canceled his CNN interview, and the House began the investigations that led to the first impeachment.
#8 “I just want to find 11,780 votes”
And then there is the other infamous phone call. One of the many plots to overturn the 2020 election was to pressure state officials to overturn the results. Trump called Georgia’s Secretary of State to pressure him to “find” enough votes so that Trump would win. Trump threatened him with “a criminal offense” if he failed to do his bidding. In an audio recording of the phone call, Trump says “there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.” This is a blatant abuse of power, and we are awaiting the results of Georgia’s criminal investigation about whether to charge Trump with extortion and soliciting voter fraud.
#7“Russia, if you’re listening…”
Reading the Mueller report is necessary to understand the Trump era. Russia interfered in the 2020 election to help Trump win. The Trump campaign accepted and encouraged that help. The Trump campaign then lied about their contacts with Russian agents. A Senate committee report (with a Republican majority) corroborated the findings. Manafort, who had been paid nearly $100 million by Putin loyalists to promote Russian interests, gave a Russian intelligence officer 2016 campaign survey data. Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort met with four Russians at Trump Tower to get dirt on Clinton. Stone was a liaison to Wikileaks, who leaked documents at crucial times. And Trump publicly asked Russia to hack into his opponent’s emails and praised Wikileaks for publishing the stolen materials. Russia supported Trump because he followed the standard playbook of other Western populists supported by Russia: inflame ethnic divisions, criticize elite corruption, attack Western allies, call for cooperation with Russia, and sow distrust in the fairness of the vote count.
#6 Separating Families
Family separation is a common authoritarian tactic; in times of armed conflict, it is a war crime. It is not a policy that democracies do. But the US did so under Trump, separating at least 4,300 families at the border, even those requesting asylum. There was no plan to reunite the families or database keeping track of those separated. The parents were told that they could see their children if they withdrew their asylum request. Many families could not be reunited because the parents were deported while their children were in custody. There were many reports of deplorable conditions, inhumane treatment, and even sexual abuse at the detention centers. Over 25 migrants, including ten children, died in custody, and the administration illegally did not notify Congress of those deaths. The US had gone over a decade without any migrant deaths.
#5 “Enemies of the People”
The GOP has long attacked the media, but Trump ratcheted this up exponentially. The routine use of “enemies of the people” is particularly insidious – this was a slogan used by Stalin to justify destroying an independent media. Trump consistently attacked journalists by name, tweeted images of violence against the press, and accused the media of treason. There are many, many examples. He helped Saudi Arabia try to cover up its murder of a journalist. He used the ‘enemy of the people’ rhetoric over 100 times as police attacked or harassed journalists covering the Floyd protests. His administration seized the records of a NYT reporter to support an arrest of a Congressional staffer for leaking classified information. His DHS used laws intended to compile information on terrorists to instead garner information on reporters. He praised a member of Congress who pled guilty to assaulting a reporter.
#4 “Hang Mike Pence!”
Using violence to achieve political ends is a chilling threat to democracy. It is a defining characteristic of dictatorships – and terrorist groups. One of the five separate plots to undermine the 2020 election was to bully the Vice-President so that he would illegally prevent the certification of the Electoral College vote on January 6. Pence resisted those demands. During his speech inciting the insurrection, Trump called on Pence again to ‘stop the steal.’ The insurrectionists stormed the Capitol, with many chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” They built a gallows. Trump, knowing that the life of his Vice-President was in danger, again criticized Pence in a 2:24 pm tweet. We know from the House hearings that Pence was spirited away to safety only seconds before the mob arrived. This was a stunning act of authoritarianism.
#3 Lies!
The ability to lie is Trump’s authoritarian superpower. He told nearly 30,000 lies during his presidency; in 2020, he told an average of 23 lies every day. Many were driven by narcissism (remember altering the photographs about the crowd size at his inauguration?) But many were conspiracy theories about political rivals, or Russian propaganda talking points, or the QAnon insanity, or constant assertions of ‘fake news.’ A truly harmful Trump legacy is the ‘authoritarian lie.’ It goes like this. The authoritarian tells a lie. Everyone knows it is a lie. But supporters of the authoritarian repeat the lie to show that they are loyal. They know that if they do not repeat the lie, then they will be punished. Usually this applies in rigid dictatorships (for example, Kim Jong Un saying that he invented hamburgers.) Now it applies to things like Trump’s magical ability to declassify documents with his thoughts. The willingness of the GOP to repeat lies that they know are lies to placate an authoritarian is a huge red flag for our democracy.
#2 The Big Lie!
The most significant lie is that voter fraud undermined the legitimacy of the 2020 election. There were many more court challenges and state recounts regarding the 2020 election than any other election. We can be supremely confident about the results. This lie created the context for many other violations of democratic norms, including a refusal to agree to a peaceful transfer of power, a refusal to concede the results of the election, a refusal to cooperate with the incoming Biden administration, and even a refusal to attend the inauguration. For decades, the GOP has used versions of this lie to justify restrictions on voting rights. In the future, it has the disturbing potential to justify political violence. We only have two options: ballots or bullets.
#1 The January 6 Insurrection
Fascists use violence to undermine democratic institutions. When all the other attempts to overturn the election failed, Trump incited an insurrection to prevent Congress from certifying the Electoral College results. In the worst dereliction of presidential duty in US history, he did nothing to end the violence at the Capitol. Aides said that Trump was enthusiastic about the insurrection and could not figure out why everyone else was so aghast. That night, 147 Republicans voted with the violent insurrectionists to overturn the election results. Over 1,000 people have been arrested for their actions on that day. Fourteen members of white nationalist domestic terrorist groups have been convicted of sedition, a rare and significant criminal charge. We await the conclusion of the special prosecutor regarding criminal charges against Trump for his most egregious assault on our democratic system.
