Many have been outraged, justifiably so in my view, by Trump’s authoritarian statement, repeated again on 24 September, that he will not necessarily honor the outcome of the 2020 election. Moreover, Trump refuses to guarantee a peaceful transfer of power if and when he loses.
But most of us here on this site have long recognized that Trump is that most dangerous of political figures—a wannabe dictator who thinks he has the right to do whatever he wants as president. And this is not exaggeration. Take a look at this:
"Then I have an Article 2, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president."
Did you hear him? Shocking. Appalling. Horrifying.
But we have known for a long time that Trump and his enablers are right-wing authoritarians.
In July The Sacramento Bee published a warning about Trump’s authoritarian tendencies, and it’s eye-opening. Titled, “Here are 15 signs of authoritarianism that we’ve seen under the Trump administration”, it highlights, among other items, the following:
*Refusing to abide by the election results
*Using personnel in unmarked uniforms to make arrests
*Denying the right to vote until voters who owe money pay up (see Florida)
*Hiding data about the pandemic
*Separation of children from parents
*Using his office to punish enemies and reward friends.
The signs are ominous. I’ve argued this for a long time:
The Radical Right wants a right-wing dictatorship in the United States.
And in Donald Trump, they see their best chance of accomplishing this.
Unsurprisingly, Trump has been the best friend to dictators and authoritarians all over the world, while stiff-arming and insulting our allies. Let’s take a look at the rogues gallery of bad actors Trump has supported:
VLADIMIR PUTIN:
“In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t seen that. I don’t know that he has. Have you been able to prove that? Do you know the names of the reporters that he’s killed? Because I’ve been – you know, you’ve been hearing this, but I haven’t seen the names."--Donald Trump, December 2015
[In response to a statement that Putin is a killer]:
“There are a lot of killers. Do you think our country is so innocent? Do you think our country is so innocent?”-Donald Trump, February 2017
He praised Mr Putin for his criticising the long-standing notion of “American exceptionalism” on CNN on 13 September 2013: “You think of the term as being fine, but all of sudden you say, what if you’re in Germany or Japan or any one of 100 different countries? You’re not going to like that term. It’s very insulting and Putin really put it to him [President Barack Obama] about that.”
[In 2016] Donald Trump again appeared on Ms Bartiromo’s Fox Business show and this time answered questions about state involvement in the 2006 murder of ex-secret service agent Alexander Litvinenko in London.
“Have they found [Vladimir Putin] guilty? I don’t think they’ve found him guilty. If he did it, fine. But I don’t know that he did it. You know, people are saying they think it was him, it might have been him, it could have been him. But Maria, in all fairness to Putin—I don’t know. You know, and I’m not saying this because he says, ‘Trump is brilliant and leading everybody’ —the fact is that, you know, he hasn’t been convicted of anything.”
From CNN:
The many nice things Trump has said about Putin (video)
As you can imagine, there is much more.
KIM JONG UN
After Trump and Kim had directed many harsh words with each other, a relationship blossomed.
From The Hill:
"I was really being tough and so was he," Trump said. "And we would go back and forth. And then we fell in love. No really. He wrote me beautiful letters."
"They were great letters. And then we fell in love," he continued.
From Aljazeera, February 2019:
Just after their historic first meeting in Singapore last year, Trump described Kim as “very talented”.
“Great personality and very smart. Good combination. He’s a worthy negotiator. He’s negotiating on behalf of his people, a very worthy, very smart negotiator, absolutely. And we had a terrific day, and we learned a lot about each other and about our countries.”
“I like him. I get along with him great,” the president said. “We have a fantastic chemistry.”
RODRIGO DUTERTE
From The Atlantic:
What Trump said about him: “I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem.”
When: April 2017
Context: The Philippines president has boasted about killing suspected drug dealers when he was a local mayor. Extrajudicial killings of drugs suspects have risen since Duterte became president in June 2016. Trump reportedly favors the death penalty for drug dealers—presumably ones who have been convicted. The U.S. State Department noted last year that “police and unknown vigilantes have killed more than 6,000 suspected drug dealers and users as the government pursued a policy aimed at eliminating illegal drug activity in the country by the end of the year.” Human Rights Watch said “Duterte has plunged the Philippines into its worst human rights crisis since the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s and 1980s.” It added that Duterte’s most prominent critic was detained on “politically motivated drug charges.”
XI JIN PING
From Politico, January 2020:
"Our relationship with China has now probably never, ever been better," Trump said, adding that he gets on well with President Xi Jinping. "He's for China, I'm for the U.S., but other than that, we love each other."
I’ll let you read this one for yourself, also from Politico:
And most ominously, from Reuters, March 2018:
U.S. President Donald Trump praised Chinese President Xi Jinping Saturday after the ruling Communist party announced it was eliminating the two-term limit for the presidency, paving the way for Xi to serve indefinitely, according to audio aired by CNN.
“He’s now president for life, president for life. And he’s great,” Trump said, according to audio of excerpts of Trump’s remarks at a closed-door fundraiser in Florida aired by CNN. “And look, he was able to do that. I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday,” Trump said to cheers and applause from supporters.
It is not clear if Trump, 71, was making the comment about extending presidential service in jest. The White House did not respond to a request for comment late Saturday.
RECEP ERDOGAN
From CBS:
"Trump was very frustrated; he wasn't getting commitments from other leaders to spend more [On NATO]. Many of them said, 'Well, we have to ask our parliaments. We have a process; we can't just tell you we're going to spend more, we have a legal process.' Trump turns around to the Turkish president, Recep Erdogan, and says, 'Except for Erdogan over here. He does things the right way,' and then actually fist-bumps the Turkish president."
It was a startling gesture of support for the increasingly authoritarian Turkish leader, who recently won another term and is widely expected to continue consolidating his power.
From CNBC, November 2019, AFTER Erdogan had launched his barbaric attacks on the Kurds:
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he believes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has “a great relationship with the Kurds,” less than a month after Turkey agreed to halt its attacks against Kurdish forces in northern Syria.
“I think the president has a great relationship with the Kurds,” Trump said, gesturing to Erdogan during a joint press conference at the White House.
“Many Kurds live currently in Turkey, and they’re happy and taken care of,” Trump added, “including health care and education and other things.”
JAIR BOLSONARO
The viciously homophobic, racist, ultranationalist president of Brazil is a big Trump favorite. From The New York Times, March 2019:
Like other authoritarian leaders Mr. Trump has embraced since taking office, Mr. Bolsonaro is an echo of the American president: a brash nationalist whose populist appeal comes partly from his use of Twitter and his history of making crude statements about women, gay people and indigenous groups.
“They say he’s the Donald Trump of South America,” Mr. Trump marveled during a speech to the Farm Bureau in January, noting that Mr. Bolsonaro had been called the “Trump of the tropics” since taking office this year. “Do you believe that? And he’s happy with that. If he wasn’t, I wouldn’t like the country so much. But I like him.”
VIKTOR ORBAN
The Hungarian strongman has strangled Hungary’s civil liberties and has been harshly xenophobic in his policies. Naturally, Trump is very fond of him. From The Guardian, May 2019:
Donald Trump showered praise on Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán for a “tremendous job” and shrugged off complaints that his White House visit represents a reward for the erosion of democracy in Hungary and Orbán’s close ties to the Kremlin.
Sitting alongside Orbán in the Oval Office, Trump declared it a “great honour” to host Orbán, who he claimed was “highly respected all over Europe”, particularly for his anti-immigration policies.
“You’re respected all over Europe. Probably, like me, a little bit controversial, but that’s OK,” Trump said. “You’ve done a good job and you’ve kept your country safe.”
Orbán said his government and the Trump administration were aligned on some global issues.
He said: “I would like to express that we are proud to stand together with United States on fighting against illegal migration, on terrorism, and to protect and help Christian communities all around the world.”
I think you get the idea. Trump likes and admires “tough guys” who don’t let others stand in their way. He admires them so much that he wants to be one of them.
They are his role models.
The warning signs for our country couldn’t be any clearer.