Moscow on the Potomac
Donald Trump is systematically laying the foundation for creating a dictatorship when he returns to the White House.
Trump is following the playbook used by Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban of Hungary and Recep Erdogan of Turkey to establish one-man rule. Trump is moving to seize unprecedented control over key agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice and the Pentagon.
Gutting Congress’ power to restrain a President is a key component of his plan. Trump wants to destroy any remaining checks and balances mandated by the Constitution.
Those strategic goals, not just “retribution”, are the main rationale behind some of Trump’s astonishing nominees for his Cabinet.
Most of the guardrails that constrained Trump in his first term have already been destroyed or drastically weakened. The Senate is the last governmental barrier to Trump’s gaining absolute power. But Republican Senators seem resigned to accepting Trump’s demand that they surrender the Senate’s historical role as a check on the President’s behavior.
What Guardrails Are Left?
When we talk about the “guardrails” that preserved our democracy in Trump’s first term, we should remember that it was mostly individuals—not institutions—who thwarted Trump.
Two-thirds of House Republicans voted to overturn the 2020 election results. The Senate failed twice to convict Trump in his impeachment trials, despite ample evidence of his misconduct in office.
But brave public servants such as Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper prevented Trump from deploying U.S. troops to crush protests or to seize ballot boxes. FBI Director Christopher Wray refused Trump’s demands that FBI agents investigate his political opponents.
For his next term, Trump has picked Cabinet nominees who will not defy his orders or raise pesky questions about the Constitution. Trump seeks “retribution” —or to put it more simply, revenge—against those who wronged him, in his opinion, such as the FBI, Liz Cheney and other officials who were simply doing their duty.
But Trump’s motives are more sinister and long-term. He wants to use Federal agencies to suppress any opposition, inside the government and in civil society, so there are no constraints on his power.
Following the Autocrats’ Playbook
Trump has long expressed his admiration for strongmen like Putin, Orban and Erdogan and their authoritarian regimes. Trump--or his advisors--have studied the techniques that these tyrants have used to concentrate power in their hands:
1. Create an existential outside threat—immigrants or other “external forces”—and present the leader as the defender of traditional, Christian values. (Mission accomplished!)
2. Muzzle the free press, either by applying financial pressure or jailing journalists.
3. Replace apolitical civil servants with loyal apparatchiks. (Trump’s plan to fire 50,000 bureaucrats via executive order)
4. Seize control of the military and the intelligence apparatus.
5. Cultivate oligarchs by bestowing favors upon them such as lucrative contracts, tax breaks, etc. Use corruption and crony capitalism to ensure their support for the regime. (See: Elon Musk and numerous other tech CEOs)
6. Tilt the electoral rules in the ruling party’s favor to make if difficult, if not impossible, for the opposition to win. (Two unique aspects of the U.S. system, the Electoral College and gerrymandering, already help Republicans to stack the deck.)
Trump and Putin/Getty Images
Dangerous, Incompetent Nominees
Trump has checked off several items on this to-do list. But he has not yet neutralized the press or taken over the military and intelligence agencies. Trump is using the nomination process as part of his drive to accomplish these goals.
Trump has proposed several Cabinet nominees who are horrendously unqualified, such as Peter Hegseth for Secretary of Defense. Some other nominees are incompetent and dangerous.
Tulsi Gabbard, a Russian sympathizer, and RF Kennedy, Jr., an anti-vaccine crank, are not only out of their depth. They represent grave threats to our national security and to public health.
Kash Patel, the nominee to head the FBI, has boasted about his plans to use the Bureau to go after Trump’s political opponents and throw them in jail. That KGB-like attitude alone should doom his nomination. However, Patel has received a warm welcome from many Senate Republicans.
None of these nominees is fit to hold high positions in the government.
That is precisely the point.
Trump has proposed candidates who would be rejected out of hand in any normally functioning democracy. Trump has basically dared the Senate to defy him.
Subverting the Senate
Under the Constitution, one of the Senate’s critical functions is to “advise and consent” on the President’s nominees for his Cabinet and other high government offices. The Founders saw this provision as a crucial check on the President’s power. The Senate could, and should, reject nominees who are not qualified or otherwise objectionable.
But Trump has demanded that the Senate abandon its historic role in vetting nominees. Trump has claimed the right to make so-called “recess appointments” if the Senate refuses to approve one of his nominees.
In the pre-Trump era, Sen. John Thune (R- SD), the new Senate Majority Leader, would have summarily rejected this outrageous demand. But Trump has instilled such fear in Republican Senators that so far, Thune has remained silent.
Going Nuclear on Ernst
When Sen. Jodi Ernst (R-IA) dared to raise questions about Hegseth’s checkered past (allegations of sexual abuse, heavy drinking and financial mismanagement), Steve Bannon and other MAGA operatives organized an extraordinarily vicious pressure campaign against Ernst. They even threatened to mount a challenge to her in the next Republican primary. Ernst, by the way, is a loyal Trump supporter on most issues.
An all-out attack on a Republican Senator…simply because she might oppose a nominee…is unprecedented. Mobilizing the MAGA base to intimidate Senators on this issue is another maneuver to destroy the balance of power in government.
The Most Dangerous Nominee
Pete Hegseth is not likely to resist any orders from Trump to round up immigrants or arrest protestors. Hegseth is no Mark Esper.
But despite the stiff competition, Kash Patel wins the title of Most Dangerous Nominee. Patel represents the most likely immediate threat to our civil liberties.
The FBI has been an apolitical institution for many decades. But if Patel becomes the FBI director, that will change rapidly. Patel would weaponize the government against Trump’s opponents.
Targeting Trump’s Enemies
In his 2023 book, Government Gangsters, Patel listed 60 targets for prosecution, which included many senior figures from the first Trump administration, such as Milley and Esper, as well as numerous Biden officials.
Patel has also talked about prosecuting journalists, in sweeping terms:
“We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government, but in the media. Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.”
In Patel’s eyes, apparently, any journalist who thinks that Joe Biden won the 2020 election is a traitor who should be jailed. Patel could also harass media companies by filing civil lawsuits against them or their employees, which could cost them millions of dollars in legal fees or settlements.
Patel might not win any cases, since they would be flimsy, so he might not unleash a wave of terror. But Patel could certainly have a chilling effect on the press and former public officials.
We have already seen cowardly behavior from the owners of The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, who pulled editorials that were critical of Trump. They censored themselves even before Trump has assumed office.
Vladimir Putin would be impressed.
The Wall Street Democrat